"Cowboys owner Jerry Jones -- ever the optimist -- actually shed some realism about the state of his team Monday.

On the first day of Senior Bowl practices, the unofficial start date of a very important off-season for the Cowboys, Jones said he had a hard time watching the NFC and AFC Championship games Sunday because his team wasn't involved.

Jones laid out an off-season plan Monday that he said will involve several changes for the Cowboys. It was a refreshing gust of reality from Jones, who in previous seasons had talked about just how close the Cowboys were to a Super Bowl contender and just needed to make minor tweaks here and there."