Wednesday, December 22 No plan to can Chan By Chris Mortensen Special to ESPN.com

Jerry Jones, as always, was on the go Wednesday. The same could not be necessarily said of his Dallas Cowboys team that is hanging by a thread in the NFC playoff race.

	Chan Gailey's passing attack has been one of the least effective in the NFL.

Jones always has plenty to say, but he did clarify one issue: He says he's not going to fire head coach Chan Gailey.

"I'm not going to do that," he said.

Then the Cowboys owner showed his tremendous sense of humor.

"The time to worry about Chan is if he wins a Super Bowl," he said, almost in deadpan tone.

Jones, remember, has disposed of Jimmy Johnson and Barry Switzer. Both men had won Super Bowls.

On the other hand, Jones agreed that he has been very upset with Gailey's offense and the Cowboys' 7-7 performance.

"I've been upset, actually pretty mad about it," Jones admitted. "I was upset after this last game against the Jets (a 22-21 loss). Just in general, I feel that it's a shame that we're in the position we're in. At the same time, we still have two games left that could allow us to win our seventh division title and fourth Super Bowl (in Jones' tenure), so I want us focused on that."

What gives Jones any sense that his team is capable of another Super Bowl run will no doubt ignite a debate.

"My feeling is that every team in the NFL is equal enough talent-wise to go 8-8," the owner said. "But if you have a good quarterback -- and our guy (Troy Aikman) has been there -- then you should be winning 10, 11, 12 games, without question."

Sorry, but there is some question, and there is even question about Aikman. Take the Jets game. Ray Lucas, the young Jets QB, performed with greater efficiency and confidence than Aikman. After the Jets took a 22-21 lead, the Cowboys needed to move half a football field, had three timeouts left, only to have Aikman throw almost aimlessly when it counted most.

One NFL pro scout said, "Looked like Troy was more interested in protecting himself than in winning the game."

Aikman looks like he has lost confidence in himself or the scheme. I have heard from enough credible sources -- although Aikman is not one of them -- that the quarterback has, in fact, lost faith in Gailey's offense. Jones seemed to lend credence to what I've heard, that Aikman is yearning for his old timing-and-rhythm offense he ran under Norv Turner and Ernie Zampese.

"Being human, I think Troy has memories of how it was in '95 when we last won a Super Bowl," Jones said. "Everyone reflects on different times, but human tendency is to make those times better than they really were. I mean, there were periods of time last season (in Gailey's first year) when we had that thing going, Troy was smiling and saying, 'Wait till next year.' "

Well, next year is here, and Aikman is hardly tearing it up. Nevertheless, Jones shoots down another matter of speculation -- that he might look for an offensive coordinator to help Gailey next season.

"Do you know anybody I can hire who can assure me of a more productive offense?" Jones said. "I don't know one. I mean even Bill Walsh in his heyday had a down year. I am impressed philosophically with the way we run the ball, and I really like what we do with our tight ends. I'd like to see more improvement, obviously, in our passing game."

That brings us to the next point: It would seem that injuries and poor personnel decisions by Jones have compounded the problems in the passing game.

"I really don't blame it on injuries," Jones said. "I mean, maybe injuries can affect a game or two, but we've got enough here to be more productive."

I guess that answers the second question of personnel moves. However, one of Jones' greatest gaffaws as the team's general manager was his decision to release wide receiver Jimmy Smith, who has become the league's most productive receiver over the past four years with the Jacksonville Jaguars.

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Smith was the Cowboys' second-round choice in the '92 draft out of Jackson State. He had size (6-foot-2, 208 pounds) and sub-4.4 speed in the 40. He was inconsistent as a young player when he played in the shadows of Michael Irvin and Alvin Harper. But in the '93 preseason, he was the team's leading receiver with 13 catches for 197 yards before undergoing an emergency appendectomy that might have been inflamed when he hit the turf in the final preseason game.

Smith had a serious infection. He was placed on the non-football injury list, and Jones elected not to pay him his $350,000 base salary. It was a bad move. Two more bad moves followed that '93 Super Bowl season: Jones allowed Jimmy Johnson to leave, and he released Smith.

It should be noted that Smith was then released by the Philadelphia Eagles, and did not play the '94 season before he signed with the expansion Jaguars. Since 1996, he has caught 341 passes for 5,117 yards. He's a Pro Bowl receiver, and the Cowboys should be enjoying the fruits of his seventh NFL season. Irvin's absence wouldn't mean as much.

"Yes, I do regret letting him go," Jones conceded. "He hadn't progressed like we thought he would, but I think we're learning that some guys develop a little later. It happened with Jay Novacek. It's happened with Jimmy Smith."

Jones did not have any regrets about letting Patrick Jeffers leave when he refused to match an offer sheet the Carolina Panthers gave the third-year receiver this past offseason. Jeffers has 51 catches for 757 yards and eight touchdowns, and the Panthers thought he had shown this kind of promise in a Dallas uniform last season.

"Look, that was like a swap -- Rocket (Ismail) for Jeffers, and I like what we got," said Jones, noting he signed the free-agent Ismail off the Carolina roster. "We have other young guys who to me are more capable, kids like Chris Brazzell, and we have to find a way to make it work with our guys."

Jones didn't exactly say how this might come about. You get the sense that he will direct Gailey to make some adjustments in the passing game after the season. In the meantime, it's clear that Jones still expects something positive out of this season.

"Again, we have a healthy, proven quarterback," Jones said. "I expect improvement. I still believe we can win this thing."

Mort Shorts