Jerry Jones sums up Dallas Cowboys’ preseason with thoughts on Zeke, Amari, Donovan Wilson
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones summed up the team’s preseason after Thursday’s 17-15 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at AT&T Stadium.
Jones was asked about the future of preseason in the NFL, Ezekiel Elliott’s holdout, Amari Cooper’s absence, Donovan Wilson’s interceptions and the progress of defensive tackle Trysten Hill.
On how much of an example was tonight that you need a preseason game, but not four
“We all are looking very critically at the preseason. There is a lot of things that we are not doing in preseason that we used to do to if you will if you make it more competitive. You kind of as a league say look if change is coming so let’s not worry about right now, let’s just be right heard. We all know that we are going to have preseason games, and there is preseason games where plays can be very productive and will be on how we do. What we do as to what make every team competitive with every team playing with the same exposure and a chance for our fans and our game. We all want a chance in the NFL. We all want our games to be we represented and that is the challenge with the preseason right now. We can do better, we have done better. We’ve been a lot better in preseason.”
On can he speak to the Zeke Elliott situation and the prism of Marshall Fox’s involvement
“No. I think we pretty much got aired that out real good. We need to and we’ll use him when we get him. It will be that much better for the Cowboys, but if we don’t have him we will have to play football.”
On how ready is this team for the start of the season
“I think we’ve gotten a lot of work in. I feel good about where we are with our injuries, with the team we’re going to have on the field against the Giants. I feel good across the board there. In that sense I feel real positive. I think Moore has put a really good offense in to have a wide repartee with the talent we have on offense the strength, one of our major strengths being the offensive line. We’ve got a chance to have a really good football team. We’ve had frankly several of these younger players playing at a higher level than expected to help this offensive team.”
On how bad is the McGovern situation is
“Well I think he didn’t get a lot of work in. It’s obvious he’s going to be out for quite a bit more. What’s really good is, it could have been an even bigger setback. We’ve had some really good work done by our backups that really played a lot for us last year. I think, it’s again, a strong in depth offensive line as I’ve ever seen since I’ve been with the Cowboys.”
On if the fourth preseason game being somewhat of a deadline to real in the Zeke situation
“No deadlines here. With any of our complexity of our players, there’s certainly no deadline here. We’ll be meeting with Zeke anytime to get him out there. So, we don’t have deadlines.”
On if there is a day next week he has set for Zeke’s deal
“You all need to really look at these dates as to how they address a hold out situation as you look to the rest of the season. From the standpoint that any time during this week, no there’s no deadline.”
On any injury update on Donovan Wilson
“It checked out good and he will be fine. He’ll be ready to practice this week.”
On how sixth round pick Donovan Wilson [from Texas A&M] has played with three INTs this preseason
“He’s made play which is something didn’t give a chance in his collegiate career to really say we can put a real stamp on it as a guy who plays the ball. We and probably most people didn’t see how those kind of opportunities on how we see it now. He can play the ball and does play the ball at centerfield, so with what we know he does well which is step down, play down, it gives us excitement about his future.”
On how he would asses second round pick Trysten Hill this preseason
“When I was looking for a splash play he did it right when the game was over and he stepped in and made a play. When he does make splash plays it really accentuates his gifts which are his quickness as well as his size and strength. These guys really have really started being impactful as case in point, Armstrong this year and how he’s playing as opposed to when he started early last year. Lawrence the same way. Initially when he came in he had some work to do. Trysten, I don’t know if I’ve seen one just step right in and make one of the big splashes and we’ve got a high bar for Trysten. He’s our top draft pick, but he’s going to get a chance to make some plays when they count the most. We’ll line him up against the Giants and other team early.”
On how much of an impact has Amari Cooper’s absence the past 3 ½ weeks has been as we head into the season
“I don’t see with the two weeks we have here, I don’t see it impact us at all. I’m just glad that he’s got his health in place as it is with his foot and I feel comfortable that he is going to be able to go out. I think he’s real ahead to where he was when he stepped on the field for us last year offensively. I think he’ll fit right in and we will able to get full benefit from him offensively when we face the Giants.”
On the El Paso team playing at The Star, his thoughts on them coming to play at the facility
“We are so proud of Cowboy fans in El Paso. It really manifests itself when we go to Phoenix and the numbers that come from El Paso and the numbers that come from New Mexico when we play the Cardinals. It’s an honor particularly where our minds are and our hearts are with the people in El Paso. It’s wonderful for them to play at the home of the Dallas Cowboys.”
