There's literally never been a season like the one the NFL is up against in 2020, after opting to proceed during the COVID-19 pandemic, but owner Jerry Jones feels like there's a least some bit of deja vu occurring with the . It's no secret what newly-installed head coaches like Mike McCarthy are up against -- forced to scrap an April 6 start to offseason conditioning, and then rookie and veteran minicamp, and then the entire preseason. The only non-virtual offseason preparation McCarthy and those like him were afforded was a truncated training camp, and the rust (plus disconnects between coaches and players) was evident right out of the gate for the Cowboys.They lost three of their first four games and that's when the freight train began to truly Christian Wood Jersey fly off the rails, going on to lose two-time Pro Bowl quarterback to a season-ending injury, forcing him onto an injured reserve list that includes a slew of key players -- some returning while others ( , , , ?, etc.) will not. All told, it's easily been one of the most disappointing seasons in Cowboys history, especially given the expectations in the first year following the divorce from Jason Garrett, but Jones isn't as wide-eyed as most about it -- feeling he's been here before, more or le s.Jones harkens back to 1989, a time he feels is similar in comparison to the vast number of challenges facing McCarthy in 2020."Yeah, I sure can remember a time when a coach was as handicapped as McCarthy -- Jimmy Johnson," he told 105.3FM the Fan on Tuesday as the team waits to finally face the . "I sure can. Jimmy had a lot of handicaps when we first came in here. By the way, we won the one football game, too. And he was accused by one other coach for sure of making it look like we were a high school program." Before Johnson's version of the Cowboys went on a tear and dominated the NFL en route to two Super Bowl wins -- three, realistically speaking, Steven Adams Jersey seeing as Barry Switzer simply held the road with Johnson's construct in 1995 -- there were a couple of very lean seasons in Dallas. Jones hired Johnson following the 1989 purchase of the team and immediately suffered through a 1-15 season in Year 1, followed by an improvement to a still-losing record of 7-9 in Year 2.Needle s to say, this simply fueled the venom being hurled toward he and Johnson after the controversial firing of NFL legend Tom Landry, who himself battled through a 17-30 record in his final three seasons with the club."Yeah, I can remember those kinds of challenges," Jones said. "Coach Landry was challenged the year before when he only won three games. So, sure, I can recollect real challenges that we've experienced and by the way, to those guys' credit, they took that adversity, they made adjustments, they didn't give up on the team -- the spirit, the heart of the team. They were able to take parts of those times in Jimmy's case and take those times." Of course, it helped that Johnson wasn't entering in the midst of a pandemic, and the fact Jones was wheeling and dealing via trades to get him buckets of talent, many of which went Elfrid Payton Jersey on to Ring of Honor and/or Hall of Fame careers."Jimmy was an outstanding coach," reminisced Jones. "We had a lot of -- we got here -- I got here trading. That's how I bought the team was trade into it and get with it. And, so, we had some interesting times. Those bad years caused us to sit there, caused us to scratch our head and sit down and Jarrod Uthoff Jersey say, 'What do we got here that we might could move the needle on?'"And there stood Herschel Walker. And, so, that bad year had a big emphasis in us turning around, and being open-minded to things like that. Hello, let's use this to look at how not only to be interesting, entertaining, but also productive." The famed Herschel Walker trade is, to this day, regarded as the single biggest fleecing of another NFL club, and gave the Cowboys the collateral needed to stock their pantry for Johnson, who then led the team to the aforementioned dynasty years. The problem is there's no such move made in 2020 and presumably won't be in 2021 either, in a climate where the new-age Cowboys that see VP of Player Personnel now having a heavy hand in such things, so McCarthy will simply look forward to a reboot in the offseason that sees him get all of his top weapons back from injury -- also predicated heavily in securing Prescott for both now and later.As for reaching back in hindsight to contemplate if it would've been easier -- continuity-wise -- to retain Garrett for one more season amid the pandemic to hope Jaxson Hayes Jersey for better luck in 2020? Jones isn't interested in mulling that whatsoever, and for good reason.The move was made in early January, three months before the world was brought to its knees by COVID-19. "That's a question, but it's fool-hearted to dwell on that because you didn't know," he said. "And, consequently, you made the best decision at the time that you could make, and I wouldn't second-gue s that decision. I know this. I like the fact that offensively we stayed in a lot of the fundamental thing."Mike McCarthy wanted to do that from the get-go, he wanted to keep Kellen Moore there. And one of the reasons he wanted to do it was because of the continuity and keep it going that way. We didn't make the same call defensively, and no question changing our scheme, changing our techniques, changing a lot of that area over on defense has been quite an adjustment in these times under any circumstances."