INDIANAPOLIS – As the Cowboys get ready for the 2025 NFL combine, COO/co-owner Stephen Jones has been busy juggling contract talks, player evaluation and duties on the league's competition committee.
It's also been an eventful past few weeks for the Cowboys, from the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer as the franchise's 10th head coach, filling out his staff and the retirement of All-Pro offensive lineman Zack Martin.
On Monday, Jones spoke on many of those topics and more with the media ahead of a bustling week. Here's some of the notable things he had to say:
On the status of Micah Parsons' extension talks:
"There's always extenuating circumstances to these things. "Every contract negotiation's different. With CeeDee, there were still other receivers that were trying to get their deal done and some of them still hadn't got those deals done. As we all know, Dak's deal, we were working on that and Dak was in and it didn't really affect anything in terms of what we were doing. He was practicing every day and working hard and as you know, he's not distracted by things like that. I don't necessarily know that there's a lot of extenuating situations out there that would precede us from being able to get her hands around something with Micah, but we'll see."
On the team's conversations with DeMarcus Lawrence surrounding his future:
"We will have more discussions this week. I don't want to get out in front or assume anything one way or the other with D Law, I'm sure he can speak to that, that's the way we like to leave it just as Zack [Martin] spoke for himself on when he was going to retire. "We'll have the same respect for DeMarcus Lawrence and I'm not aware of anything right now other than that he's playing."
On if being "selectively aggressive" in free agency gives the team more options:
"Certainly, looking at our own guys as well as free agents, potential free agents. Obviously one year I thought we had really improved our football team through a couple of trades, and so there's a lot of ways to do your player acquisition and we'll continue to look at all avenues."
On the Cowboys' backup quarterback position(s):
"We will evaluate the whole situation. You're always wanting to have a young guy coming, that's always a preference, and certainly that's something we'll look at in the draft is to see if there's a young guy to start bringing along. Obviously we were focused on Trey [Lance] there when we traded for him and he was our young guy if you will, that we were bringing along. But all of those are things that we will start to evaluate with this draft, coach Schottenheimer, coach [Steve] Shimko, and Clayton [Adams] and that group, what's available out there, what's going to be in the draft and make the best decision in terms of what we're going to have behind Dak."
On Zack Martin's retirement:
"He's special man. At the end of the day it's not a total surprise. We communicate with our guys and so that wasn't something that we looked up and said, 'boy, that's a shocker.' We kind of saw it coming, but Zack's had an amazing career and you just don't replace, he's certainly a great player on the field, but his leadership and the man he was off the field was a huge part of what he was in that offensive line room and for our team in terms of being a special individual."
On what the first month of the Brian Schottenheimer era has been like:
"It's been outstanding. Brian's done a great job. I think he did a great job with the staff. He was very diligent in how we went about it. He led that process and Jerry and I were able to sit in, especially the coordinator interviews, but I think he was very detailed, very extensive. I don't think he had preconceived ideas. He let the best guys get the jobs and other than the guys we kept internally that we held onto, he was wide open when he started the process and we picked the best guy."
On aligning the staff's vision for players at the combine with that of the front office:
"I think it's really good. At the end of the day, one of the things we love about coach Schottenheimer and of course Mike McCarthy was too, is he is a great communicator. The most important thing from a personnel standpoint for Jerry and I and Will is to understand what type of players they're looking for that can make them successful in their particular systems. So that's the utmost importance and a big reason why all of them are here, we want to understand what type of players fit best theoretically in their scheme and what we're looking for when we get ready to draft this spring. So that's the most important thing, but at the end of the day, long as we can have that communication and understand what we're looking for, I think we could continue to have successful drafts and I have no doubt that'll happen."
On Will McClay's importance to the Cowboys' staff:
"I'd like to think one of the better things we've done around here is player acquisition. I think we've had good rosters, I think we've drafted well. I think Jerry and I's relationship with Will when it comes to that has been fantastic. I think our relationship and how we've designed our evaluation system, communication with the coaches has been outstanding, and I don't expect any of that to change. Obviously Will's a huge part of that."
On what conversations with the competition committee have involved in the early goings:
"I think one of the things that has been a big plus on the committee is that replay assist has really gone well over the years, and so we're going to probably increase that laundry list of things that could be assisted on in terms of picking up a flag if it's not the right call. So that's probably the biggest thing that we're looking at. And of course, then we're tweaking the kickoff."
