The Cowboys have a long list of players who the front office has said they’d like to bring back. But as Monday’s tag deadline passed and the legal tampering period got underway, Jerry and Stephen Jones didn’t make many moves to actually do it.
Yes, they used the franchise tag on Dak Prescott, but that’s universally seen as just a stall tactic to buy them more negotiating time. The other players who Dallas let hit the open market could practically field an All-Star team. And one of last season’s most potent additions is reportedly already generating some buzz from shoppers.
DE Robert Quinn garnering a lot of interest now that the legal tampering window has opened. Dallas is not among then yet but are expected to make a run at him at some point per source informed. #Cowboys
— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) March 16, 2020
Jerry Jones has been open about wanting to keep Quinn on the roster, raving about him last month in Indianapolis at the NFL Scouting Combine.
Jerry Jones called Cowboys DE Robert Quinn “one of the top people — people, players and people — that I’ve ever been associated with. He’s the real deal. … He really helped us last year. So I’m hopeful that we can do something to keep him.” Contract set to expire on March 18.
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) February 27, 2020
Quinn has expressed a desire to stay with the Cowboys, too.
“At first I joined a locker room full of strangers, and then they became friends and some of them became brothers,” he told Mike Fisher of 105.3 The Fan in January. “You love when things happen like that.”
Quinn was acquired by Dallas almost exactly one year ago in exchange for a sixth-round pick in this year’s draft. Quinn went on to log 11.5 sacks, his best total since 2013. That he did so on a new team in just 14 games, after a highly questionable two-game suspension, shows that, at 29, the former first-round pick is still a force to be reckoned with along the defensive line.
“Overall, I guess I proved to people I’ve still got it,” Quinn said after the season ended. “Personally, my standards are a little bit higher than what I achieved this year. I expect more out of myself. But I guess you can look at the pluses. In some way, it was a pretty good season. But I’m hard on myself. I always want more.”
Now an unrestricted free agent, Quinn may, in fact, get more. And it may come from a new team’s checkbook.
“It’s a business,” Quinn admitted. “You know how it goes. I’ve never been a free agent before, so it’s an interesting process I’m about to go through. We’ll just sit back and see what happens.”
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