“Closer than ever — ever being since they left, which has been a long time much to my surprise and anticipation,” said Jones on Saturday, when asked if the NFL was close to returning to Los Angeles. “There are some viable ways for a team or teams to be in Los Angeles. We’ve got some very talented and very qualified people that want to be a part of it that are not a part of the league right now. We, obviously, have people within the league that want this very much.”

Jones spoke before his Cowboys opened up training camp in Oxnard, Calif., a coastal city 60 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Since 2001, the Cowboys have held at least a portion of their training camp in Oxnard eight times. From 1963-1989, they held their training camp in Thousand Oaks, Calif., which is 45 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.

Last year, Jones’ son, Stephen, who sits on the NFL’s stadium committee, said getting a team in Los Angeles was a top priority for the NFL and Jones said that has not changed.

“I think we’re closer,” Jones said. “I say that not just wishing. I say that, technically, because I’m aware of some things that make sense.”

Jones was hesitant to put a timeframe on the NFL’s return to Los Angeles but did think progress was being made for it to happen in the near future.

“How long does it take to build a stadium?” Jones said. “I know how long it took to build one. The other thing is that there’s certainly ways to do it without having a stadium ready. Those are some moving parts but you have to have the commitment [from the team], which for the people that make those kinds of commitments it starts that day for them in a serious way. I wouldn’t want to give you a timeframe on it but I do think that the commitment and the substance with that commitment is right around the corner.”

The Los Angeles Raiders and Los Angeles Rams played their last games in Southern California on Christmas Eve 1994 before moving to Oakland and St. Louis, respectively. Almost 20 years later, the Raiders and Rams, along with the San Diego Chargers, are the most viable teams to move to Los Angeles if they can’t get their current stadium issues resolved. The Raiders and Chargers can get out of their current leases after the 2013 season while the Rams can get out of their lease after the 2014 season.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has said the NFL is not considering expanding from 32 teams and if Los Angeles were to get a team, it would come via relocation.

Last year Goodell sent a memo to all 32 organizations that said no single team has any “presumptive right” to play in Los Angeles and that only the league can make a decision on relocation. Any franchise interested in relocating to Los Angeles must apply between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15 of that year, and prove it has exhausted all attempts to remain in its current location.

There are currently two proposed stadium sites for a future NFL team in Los Angeles.

Farmers Field, a proposed stadium in downtown Los Angeles by Anschutz Entertainment Group, and a competing stadium proposed by real estate magnate Ed Roski in the City of Industry. Both are “shovel ready” but need a long-term commitment from a team before construction can begin. If construction does begin, it could take up to four years to complete.

In the meantime, the NFL team that relocates to Los Angeles would play in either the L.A. Coliseum or the Rose Bowl.

There had been some speculation that AEG’s Farmers Field was doomed after the company was taken off the sales block earlier this year and former president and CEO Tim Leiweke, who was the driving force behind the project, left the company. AEG owner Philip Anschutz, however, said he is still committed to the project and returning the NFL to L.A. and Jones said he likes the project and Anschutz.

“There are no misgivings at all about it,” Jones said of Farmers Field. “It has outstanding people involved. Phil Anschutz is an outstanding individual and would be an asset in any way for any group to be involved with and he has quite a sports background and quite a background in venues so that project. I’m actually involved in a company that just hired the lead guy that was involved in putting that Farmers Field project together so all those people have a lot of talent. It’s not a negative. It’s a plus.”

Jones, born in El Segundo, Calif., a city in Los Angeles County located on the Santa Monica Bay, spoke about his affinity for Southern California after opening his first training camp in nearby Thousand Oaks nearly 25 years ago and winning his first Super Bowl in Pasadena. He understands many in Los Angeles may be skeptical of the NFL returning to Los Angeles after being away for so long. There is a constant feeling that Los Angeles is simply being used as a threat for current teams to get new stadiums. In fact, since the Raiders and Rams left Los Angeles in 1994, 24 new stadiums have been built for 25 teams. Jones, however, reiterated the league’s commitment to making it happen soon.

“I’ve never, ever been a part of any meeting or committee ever that didn’t want, as quickly as we could, to get a team in L.A.,” Jones said. “I’ve heard that that could be a threat to people moving their teams out but that’s not right. We’ve always preferred to get a team here.”

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The New Orleans Saints said Saturday they had hired the former Dallas Cowboys assistant coach as their new defensive coordinator, hoping he can help overhaul a unit that was historically bad last season.

“We have experience in preparing and playing against his defenses and they’ve always been challenging in terms of the different looks and pressures that they feature,” Saints coach Sean Payton said when Ryan’s hiring was announced Saturday, one day after he interviewed for the job. “We’ve had the chance to visit with each other and talk about our visions for our team and I’m excited about moving forward as we prepare for the 2013 season.”

Veteran NFL coach and former Buffalo Bills assistant Stan Kwan was also added as the Saints’ special teams coach. Kwan has been an NFL assistant 23 years, the past three in Buffalo.

“Stan is a veteran coach that understands all nuances of the special teams game,” Payton said. “He has a wealth of knowledge and I believe he will be a good fit.”

Ryan was fired from the same position with the Cowboys on Jan. 8, soon after owner Jerry Jones said he would make major changes to a team that finished 8-8 and missed the playoffs.

Ryan, after his ouster in Dallas, said,”I’ll be out of work for like five minutes.”

In 2010, Ryan was Cleveland’s defensive coordinator when the Browns beat the Saints in the Superdome 30-17, intercepting passes by Drew Brees four times. One of those interceptions was made by linebacker Scott Fujita, who had been a captain of New Orleans’ defense a season earlier and had helped Ryan prepare and execute the game plan against the Saints.

Just days after returning from his season-long suspension in connection with the NFL’s investigation of the Saints’ cash-for-hits bounty program, Payton fired defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo and said he would switch New Orleans’ defensive scheme from a 4-3 alignment (four down linemen, three linebackers) to a 3-4. The Saints yielded 7,042 yards last season, the worst single-season total in NFL history.

Ryan has run 3-4 schemes for years. He worked as a linebacker coach in such defenses in New England, where he was part of two Super Bowl-winning teams. He then spent five seasons as defensive coordinator in Oakland (2004-2008), followed by two seasons in Cleveland before moving to Dallas in 2011.

Now the 50-year-old Ryan takes his fourth defensive coordinator job since 2004 while becoming Payton’s fourth defensive coordinator since 2006.

“I have had the opportunity to get to know Sean Payton and his staff a bit better recently and I am excited about joining the team,” Ryan said in a statement provided by the Saints. “I’m ready to get to work on all facets of the game. This is a great opportunity and we’re getting started right away.”

When Payton took over as head coach in 2006, New Orleans had a 4-3 scheme overseen by Gary Gibbs, who was fired after the 2008 season. In 2009, Payton brought in Gregg Williams, whose hybrid scheme used a 4-3 base alignment but switched to a 3-4 in certain situations, usually on passing downs in order to help disguise which player might be blitzing.

Williams left after the 2011 season, and months later was suspended along with Payton, general manager Mickey Loomis and Saints assistant head coach Joe Vitt by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell in connection with the league’s bounty probe.

The NFL said Williams ran the bounty pool and gave him an indefinite suspension. He was reinstated this past week and hired as a top defensive coach by Tennessee.

Williams has long proclaimed himself a disciple of Buddy Ryan, who was the defensive coordinator of the Super Bowl champion Chicago Bears in 1985 and later served as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals.

Williams often spoke of wanting his defenses to be “nasty” and used mottos like “defenses are respected when they’re feared.”

Now, a little more than a year after letting go of Williams, Payton has brought in the son of Williams’ mentor.

Rob Ryan got his start in the NFL on his father’s Arizona staff in 1994. He later spent three seasons as defensive coordinator at Oklahoma State before returning to the NFL with New England, under Bill Belichick, in 2000.

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Jones alluded to two losses — at Seattle in Week 2 and to Chicago at Cowboys Stadium in Week 4, when Dallas’ defense was almost completely healthy — as part of the reasons why he let Ryan go.

The Cowboys lost to the Seahawks, 27-7, but two special-teams turnovers put Dallas into a 10-0 hole in the first quarter. As a defense, the Cowboys were missing only one starter, nose tackle Jay Ratliff, to injury.

In the 34-18 loss to the Bears, quarterback Tony Romo threw five interceptions, with two of those returned for touchdowns. The Cowboys were missing two defensive starters to injury in that game, Anthony Spencer and Ratliff.

“I didn’t like the way we were playing in a lot of cases,” Jones said in the taped interview that will air in its entirety Saturday night on KTVT-TV in Dallas. “I thought we could play better before the injuries, and so I factored that in. It wasn’t like we had a lot of injuries out here when we played Chicago. It wasn’t like we had a lot of injuries when we played Seattle. I didn’t like the way we played there.

“It’s not hard for me to go to those games and say what can we do to improve when we played Seattle and when we played Chicago, and I liked the way we played in subsequent games and I know we didn’t have the talent level on the field that we had when we played Seattle and Chicago.”

The Cowboys played a bulk of the season without five starters and two major contributors to their defense. In the last two games of the regular season, Pro Bowl outside linebacker DeMarcus Ware, who led the team with 11.5 sacks, played with one arm. He was dealing with injuries to his elbow and shoulder and he will undergo surgery to repair a right shoulder injury Thursday.

During the season, the Cowboys never used the injuries to the defense as an excuse, but Ryan noted he had to mix and match personnel because of it.

“When we weren’t short-handed, we were kicking ass,” Ryan said Tuesday night after being released. “We weren’t at full strength ever, but we were pretty damn close and pretty damn good. We were a long way from 31st. If I’m fired on the last six games, that’s OK.”

As a defense, the Cowboys finished 19th overall, 22nd against the run and 19th against the pass.

But Jones was hoping for a much better effort from the defense.

“It’s not hard for me to go back there and say, ‘OK, we had all of our players out there we had our talent level there,’ ” Jones said. “That’s what we’ve been saying we didn’t have. Now let’s evaluate that. When we had all of our talent level, we’ve got to be able to beat Chicago at home and we’ve got to be able to go to Seattle and win that game there.

“We know they’re formidable. We know Seattle had a good football team and I don’t think we underestimated Seattle at all when we played them. But you’re going to have to get to where we want to go and you have to go into Seattle and win games in Seattle.”

Jones also acknowledged that the Cowboys’ poor recent performance against their divisional rivals factored into his decision.

“We certainly do need to not change for change sake,” he said. “But basically we need to look at what we’re doing. I’ve heard it even criticized that maybe we shouldn’t look at the matchups. We play six games in a 16-game schedule against our division, and we need to be successful in that division. We let Washington beat us twice this year, Philadelphia beat us twice last year — so all of those things are under our consideration.”

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