Undeterred by Week 15 flex, Jerry Jones says Cowboys “are the premier draw . . . in television, period”

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The Cowboys recently lost a prime-time showdown with the Browns, with a Week 15 Sunday night game against the 49ers flexed out of the evening slot for Browns-Giants. Cowboys owner/G.M. Jerry Jones remains steadfast in the belief that his team is a major attraction on TV.

“[M]ake no mistake about it,” Jones said Friday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, “I can tell you firsthand the Cowboys are the premier draw there is out here in television, period.”

Jones also justified the move by suggesting that it’s good for the overall ratings if a big draw like the Cowboys clears out of prime time, taking a larger audience to earlier windows.

“[T]his is to the Cowboys’ advantage and will be because over the years we’ve had such huge television audience that the ability to flex us and move us around can make a lot of difference,” Jones said. “I’ll be very candid with you. Some of the biggest ratings we’ve ever had have been on Sunday afternoon. And, so, that’s not a bad strategy to put the Cowboys in a potentially lesser slot, i.e. prime time, and have more eyeballs watch the NFL.”

Jones also suggested that the flex may have happened “if we had been sitting here with three more wins.” Said Jones, “We just have the ability to put excellent games into prime time or add to slots that we might want to juice up a little bit. All of that is the future of managing our programming in the NFL. I like all of this.”

He also hinted at what could be coming. After a year of unexpected Monday night doubleheaders and Tuesday night games and a Wednesday afternoon game, the league could indeed by looking to expand the total TV windows.

“[T]he unique season is going to show us how to do some things that we had never seen otherwise,” Jones said. “We’ll learn and there will be some things we do as a league. There will be some things we do presenting our games. There will be some things that as a result or experience of what we’ve done that will become to some degree parts of the future. All of that is good stuff.”

It’s all happening as the NFL moves toward a new wave of TV deals. Will there be more windows, more days, more stand-alone games come 2023 or sooner? We’ll see, maybe sooner than later.