There’s never a dull moment when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys, and the owner of the franchise is front and center as reason No. 1. In talking to 105.3 The Fan ahead of Tuesday night’s tilt with the Baltimore Ravens, Jones was in a jovial mood. He spoke about many things, including how gameday excites him and can give him a rush of adrenaline.
“Well, I do. It never stops. It’s like you picture the Dracula laying in his casket, and the lid flies open and he rears straight up. That’s me. So, I’m excited. I’m excited about going to Baltimore.”
So, there’s that. Jones would continue on to glorify Art Modell as the NFL’s first “television owner,” for the vision the founder of the Ravens (moved from Cleveland) had in molding the NFL for the viewing audience outside of the in-person experience.
Conversation with Shan Shariff and Mike Fisher continued, and soon turned to quarterback talk. With the Cowboys ready to face off against the league MVP in Lamar Jackson, their own quarterback Dak Prescott on the shelf and his draft classmate Carson Wentz getting benched, there was plenty to discuss.
On matters of running quarterbacks, Jones offered insight into what he fears for Prescott.
“I always handicapped to some degree Dak because of the fact that he’s so effective and has been in his career running, in the running game, and his ability to take it down and get the big play and get the yards. I’ve always known that he couldn’t do that like that for long in the NFL. You can’t do that.”
Jones then looked to compare Prescott with Seattle’s Russell Wilson, and his ability to still run the rock but avoid taking the kinds of hits that Prescott does and that resulted in his being lost for the 2020 season.
The quarterback in Seattle is the best I’ve ever seen at sustaining success with his mobility. But he sure is good at it, and he sure has gotten, if you notice him, boy, he just does not get hit with a lot of impact. And, so, Dak can do that. Dak will do that, and he can evolve to where he just will take less and less hits. And he has to or else we won’t have him to play.”
The hosts turned the conversation up I-95 from where the Cowboys play Tuesday night, to Philadelphia where Wentz has struggled mightily this season.
“They came out the same time — the comparison. Let’s just compare them. Both played in the Senior Bowl. We coached the Senior Bowl and coached Wentz. And then the basic Senior Bowl staffs all agreed they thought the best quarterback prospect down there was Dak. So, and because of just the direct comparison between the two. So, they’ve always had, and then the fact he was the first player picked in the draft that’s always been there. It’s a fair comparison all the way through. On the other hand, you see a guy that is having problems getting the most out of what he does good, his mobility, has really impacted his game because of injury. I think that if you look at it, it’d be hard to look at his years, his early years in the NFL — Wentz I’m talking about — and not see what injury has done with him. Most of the time it was trying to tuck it up and get some extra yards.”
[listicle id=657402][listicle id=659627][lawrence-newsletter]