IRVING, Texas – It's not much of a secret, so Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones didn't bother being shy about his concerns at the quarterback position.
Asked Tuesday about his biggest problem spots on the Cowboys' roster, Jones said the situation behind Tony Romo at quarterback is something the front office has its eye on as the 2016 NFL Draft approaches next week.
"Of course we continue to think about our backup quarterback position behind Tony based on the obvious -- which is what happened to us last year when, for whatever the reason, he's not able to stay healthy," Jones said.
The Cowboys slumped to a 4-12 record largely thanks to Romo's absence from the lineup while coping with collarbone injuries – as no one should need reminding. Romo is six weeks removed from surgery on his collarbone and has said he's fully healthy, but his injury history – not to mention the lack of depth behind him – has given rise to plenty of speculation that the Cowboys will use a premium draft pick on a young signal-caller.
No one in the Cowboys' front office has done anything to dispel that notion. The Cowboys hosted all three of the major quarterback prospects – Jared Goff, Carson Wentz and Paxton Lynch – at their facility earlier this month. Team officials went to a private workout with Lynch back in March, and they traveled to Northern California last weekend to meet with Goff.
On top of that, they've been linked to several mid-round prospects over the draft process, giving a clear indication that they're interested in drafting a new quarterback.[embeddedad0]
"We're obviously doing a lot of diligence in terms of quarterbacks in the draft," Jones said. "But other than first round, we do some quarterbacks that we do like and think that could develop into something that ultimately could be better than how we played last year."
That's not the only angle Jones is willing to consider, however. The Cowboys notably didn't address the position in free agency – leaving Kellen Moore and Jameill Showers as the only quarterbacks on the roster behind Romo.
To hear it from Jones, though, that could change well before the start of training camp in July – and not just as a product of the draft.
"That doesn't mean that we won't end up with another veteran quarterback in camp before all of this is said and done," he said. "We'll continue to make this a work in progress here."
