The news flash dropped jaws all over the NFL… but what happened next practically gave Cowboys fans everywhere a heart attack.
The New York Giants made their case for being a far worse “train wreck” than the Cowboys on Friday morning with the announcement that quarterback Daniel Jones had been released, just 20 months after earning a four-year, $160 million contract. That contract drew widespread astonishment at the time, given Jones’s 21-31-1 regular-season record to that point.
He didn’t get any better after the ink dried.
Once the sixth-overall draft pick, Jones was finally benched just four days ago, with a career record of 24-44-1. The team cited poor performance as the sole reason, but whispers quickly surfaced that the true purpose of the move was to protect the Giants from an expensive injury clause in Jones’s contract by making sure he didn’t see the field again in 2024.
Jones was quickly named Big Blue’s fourth-string QB, made headlines by stepping in at safety for the scout team during practice this week, and addressed the New York media and fans with a heartfelt statement about his demotion. By Friday morning, word leaked that Jones had asked for his release, and the team had acquiesced.
Despite league-low numbers over his six years as the Giants’ starter, observers immediately began wondering where Jones would end up next. For the Win wasted no time in declaring the Cowboys the destination that perhaps made the most sense, in a chaotic kind of way.
The logic is that, as bad as he’s been, Jones would probably still be an instant upgrade over both Cooper Rush and Trey Lance (and Will Grier… and even Bryan Anger) in terms of the Dallas passing attack sans Dak Prescott. And getting Jones into The Star, to download his familiarity with the Giants just days before the two teams meet on Thanksgiving- or even suit up against them- would sure add some spice to the Turkey Day tilt.
In a Cowboys season where no plot twist (or decision from Jerry Jones) is too ludicrous, it almost seems plausible.
And for a stunning few minutes, it looked to some like it had already happened.
Several social media users noticed that Daniel Jones already appeared on the Cowboys official website and had an actual “player card” there listing him as “QB, #8.”
It appeared to some that Jones had not only been added to the Cowboys roster, but he’d also been given Troy Aikman’s iconic jersey number.
Obviously, neither of the above is true. But much of Cowboys Nation had already gone off the deep end over it.
Firstly, Jones has to go through waivers to be added to anybody’s roster. Any team that claims him also takes on what’s left of his exorbitant contract, and there’s no way Jerry and Stephen Jones are spending that kind of cash on yet another QB developmental project.
Second, say what you want about the way the organization is being run, but the Cowboys brass isn’t reissuing No. 8 to anyone. Ever.
Third, two insiders have already revealed that the webpage was standard operating procedure for internal usage.
Per the webmaster: it’s a player card that was added in 2023 for a lone article written at the time, an update on his injury status vs. #Cowboys.
Nothing else to this.
Enjoy your lunch, folks. https://t.co/hSH7lUKVli
— Patrik [No C] Walker (@VoiceOfTheStar) November 22, 2024
As dallascowboys.com’s Patrik Walker explained in an X reply, “It’s a player card that was added in 2023 for a lone article written at the time, an update on his injury status vs. Cowboys. Nothing else to this.”
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The “QB, #8” simply referred to Jones’s position and jersey number as a Giant.
Nick Harris, formerly a Cowboys staff writer and now with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, confirmed in a reply of his own that the card was created last November for an update that appeared on the team website regarding the ACL tear Jones had just suffered.
“Him along with numerous other opponents have player cards because cowboys dot com does a thorough and in-depth job,” Harris wrote.
After the initial panic over Jones’s perfectly-explainable card, it was apparently deleted from the archives by the team’s web staffers because of the conspiratorial- and ultimately nonsensical- uproar.
But it won’t keep some from looking for something nefarious that isn’t there.
All par for the course this absurd season in Cowboys Nation.
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