Despite the rumor mills churning, the Cowboys aren’t interested in Daniel Jones.
During a radio hit on San Antonio’s Sports Star on Friday, Dallas executive vice president Stephen Jones said he doesn’t anticipate the team bringing in the former Giants signal-caller, who was released by Big Blue on Friday.
“No, I think we’re in good shape at our quarterback spot,” said Jones. “We think Cooper [Rush] gives us the best chance to win right now. And certainly, we still want to see some. We’ll kind of see how the season goes here. We still really want to see (Trey) Lance and like what he brings to the table. And then, of course, long term, we all know we made our commitment to Dak [Prescott] for the long term.”
According to The Athletic, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy doubled down on Jones’ comments, stating that he’s “focused on” the team’s current QB room.
“I’ve never really been in the business of looking at players based off the team they are released from, especially with the timing of the next game,” McCarthy said. “He was a prospect I really liked coming out, but we kind of have our head down right now and really focused on working with the guys we have here.”
Jones, who was in the second season of a four-year, $160 million contract with about $80 million fully guaranteed, asked for and was granted his release on Friday after six seasons with the Giants.
The Giants and Cowboys will face off on Thanksgiving next week, leading NFL fans to urge the latter to sign Jones for comedic purposes.
For a moment on Friday, it appeared there may be something to the Jones-Cowboys connection when he appeared as a member of the team’s roster on the franchise’s official website, although that web page no longer shows Jones as a Cowboy.
Jones, the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, and the Giants went 2-8 this year before parting ways on Friday.
“Daniel came to see me this morning and asked if we would release him,” Giants owner John Mara said in a statement.
“We mutually agreed that would be best for him and for the team. Daniel has been a great representative of our organization, first class in every way. His handling of this situation yesterday exemplifies just that. We are all disappointed in how things have worked out. We hold Daniel in high regard and have a great appreciation for him. We wish him nothing but the best in the future.”