The Jacksonville Jaguars aren't usually brought up in the same sentence as the Dallas Cowboys unless a trade or free agent move takes place that involves both of them. Otherwise, these two organizations couldn't be more different.
The Cowboys are an organization that thrive on being the center of attention. All of the morning sports talk shows gab about the Cowboys no matter what's going on in their orbit. Meanwhile, the Jaguars have to be either really, really good or really, really bad to get any sort of consistent attention on those same shows.
Why are we talking about the differences between the Jaguars and the Cowboys in August, you ask? Well, because former NFL offensive lineman Mark Schlereth compared the two to one another in a strange analogy.
While appearing on The Dan Patrick Show, Schlereth was asked about the Micah Parsons contract situation. He slammed the Cowboys for consistently dragging their feet when it comes to this stuff and then threw the Jags into the conversation for whatever reason.
"This is so standard for Jerry Jones... Bottom line is this is the way they operate as a business but this is also the reason that things have gone awry, why you haven't won a divisional playoff round game since 1995 because if you do it to these guys it creates a locker room full of, in my opinion, independent contractors," Schlereth said. "It's just the Dallas Cowboy way. I said it on my podcast... They are the Jacksonville Jaguars with better marketing."
Mark Schlereth drags Jaguars into Cowboys criticism
Okay, let's dive into these remarks a little bit, shall we? Schlereth criticized how the Cowboys do business. He pointed out that the reason the Cowboys haven't been able to advance to the NFC Championship Game in nearly 30 years is because of the way they handle their business. He also pretty much said that the Cowboys have had the same amount of success as the Jaguars but have been more front and center during that time.
Well, you know who HAS been to their conference's title game in not just the last 30 years but the last 10 years? The very same Jacksonville Jaguars that Schlereth tried to drag into this whole mess. His comments about the Cowboys being "the Jaguars with better marketing" really come off as an insult to Jacksonville more than it does for the Cowboys.
Truthfully, it feels as though the Cowboys would love to be where the Jags have been in recent years. Sure, Jacksonville hasn't made the playoffs as much as Dallas has but when the Jags get there, they make it interesting, reaching the AFC Championship Game in 2018 and then coming from behind to beat the Chargers in the 2022 Wild Card round.
Meanwhile, the Cowboys have crashed and burn in their last 13 playoff appearances, finding new ways to embarrass themselves each time. If the Cowboys are "the Jaguars with better marketing", then they're not doing a very good impression of them.