Cris Collinsworth has come to Jerry Jones' defense as the Dallas Cowboys continue to struggle, pushing back against criticism of the billionaire owner and his role in the team's failures.

Jones is facing growing criticism as the Cowboys struggle through another disappointing season, but the former NFL star turned analyst believes the team's owner is receiving more blame than he deserves.

The Cowboys are 3-5 in the 2026 season, with questions mounting over Jones' role as both owner and general manager. Despite winning three Super Bowls during his tenure, Jones has not led the franchise to a championship since the 1995 season.

“As a football team, you’ve got your head coach. You’ve got your captains. You’ve got your team over here. And everybody is waiting on Jerry Jones to do something, which takes the pressure off of the football team. Like, I want the pressure on my team. I don’t want you waiting for Santa Claus to come along and give you a present that’s going to fix this thing. Jerry Jones is not Santa Claus,” Collinsworth said on The PFF NFL Show on Wednesday.

“If I were Jerry, I’d probably do exactly what he’s done, which is, ‘No, I paid all you guys. You said you needed this. You need a new defensive coordinator. You needed Joey Porter. You needed all these different things. I got them. You guys go fix it.’ This isn’t on Jerry Jones.”

Collinsworth believes Jones has taken steps to address the Cowboys' shortcomings, particularly following their disappointing 2025 campaign. Head coach Brian Schottenheimer oversaw a productive offense in his first season, with Dallas averaging 391.9 total yards and 27.7 points per game.

However, the defense ranked last in the NFL after allowing 30.1 points per game, prompting Jones to make significant changes during the offseason.

Dallas appointed Christian Parker as defensive coordinator and brought in high-profile additions including Rashan Gary and Joey Porter Jr. But the changes have yet to deliver the desired results, with the Cowboys allowing an NFL-worst 385.4 yards per game through the first eight weeks of the 2026 season.

Jones acknowledged that the Cowboys face a difficult challenge as they look to respond to their latest defeat against the Arizona Cardinals, insisting that the team must regroup, assess their performance and move forward. He admitted the loss would be difficult for everyone involved, from the players and coaching staff to himself.

The Cowboys owner was particularly critical of how his team surrendered a significant lead despite having opportunities to secure the victory late in the game.

"It just really is glaring in a negative way how we could be where we were and end up losing that ball game, and we had a great chance right at the end to win the game, and had all of the had everybody out there that can win games for us, and of course didn’t get it done," Jones said.

However, Jones has no intention of making changes to the Cowboys' coaching staff, instead defending Schottenheimer and insisting that others had let him down. “Well, I will say that a lot of people let Brian down today. So for whatever criticism we want to have with Brian, we can all get in line,” Jones told reporters.

“And that was a total team loss, to use a cliche. That was a total team effort out there for us. And we have to be better for our fans. We have to be better than that when we got our hands on the win and then dropped the ball.”