Stephen Jones Comments Make it Sound Like Byron Jones' Days as a Cowboy Are Behind Him
By Mark Powell
In NFL circles, the past tense is very telling.
Stephen Jones spoke to reporters on Monday, addressing the looming contract situations of Dak Prescott and Amari Cooper. Buried in said conversation was what Jones had to say about Cowboys free agent CB Byron Jones.
To put it simply, the odds of Jones returning to Dallas don't look great.
We’ve been speculating from the outside for a long time that it looks like Byron Jones’ days in Dallas are numbered.
— David Helman (@HelmanDC) February 24, 2020
Stephen Jones didn’t outright say that today. But reading between the lines of this quote ... pic.twitter.com/S3ADWEaSJm
He gone.
Jones is one of the top defensive backs in all of football, meaning it'll cost a pretty penny to keep him in Jerryworld. With large sums of cash likely to be committed to keeping Prescott, Cooper and others around, Jones could be the odd man out. That's not an insult to the 27 year old, it just speaks to the positional importance of QBs and WRs.
I think the #Cowboys are about to make a massive mistake letting Byron Jones leave via free agency.
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) February 24, 2020
But they clearly think they can draft better than most of the league. We shall see if their arrogance pays off.
A backup plan for Dallas could be letting Jones walk and trading for Lions CB Darius Slay, who clearly wants out of Detroit. That, however, would add another item to the Cowboys' to-do list in an already-busy offseason.
Letting Jones walk is a mistake, but leave it to Jerry Jones to search for the alternative.