DALLAS (105.3 The Fan) - With the preseason football slate now over, and the 53-man roster cut deadline quickly approaching, Cowboys Executive Vice President and Director of Player Personnel joined G-Bag Nation live on 105.3 The Fan on Friday afternoon, to discuss a myriad of topics, including the Ezekiel Elliott Situation, Randy Gregory, rookie safety Donovan Wilson, and the team's overall health heading into the regular season.
From an overall team perspective, Jones says that the team is as healthy as can possibly be expected and that they are very confident in terms of the availability of players like Zack Martin, Amari Cooper, and Byron Jones. He insinuated that he is expecting all three players to be ready to go by the season opener after the trio missed the majority of training camp and the preseason with various injuries.
Jones, who is in what he referred to as the "midnight hour" in negotiations with Elliott, held firm on his stance with the running back, telling G-Bag that he has no further comments on the situation, and that he doesn't think it is relevant to discuss how those talks are progressing on an hour by hour basis.
"He's obviously someone we're excited about and it looks like he found his way to this roster," Jones said of the rookie safety. "Unfortunately he had a little setback that could keep him out of games for a couple of weeks, and we'll continue to monitor that, but we are very happy with the progress that he has made. I mean that's what you look for back there are players who make plays on the ball, and he's around it."
Finally, Jones gave updates on statuses of both Randy Gregory and Rolando McClain, the latter of which was reinstated by the League on Thursday afternoon.
“We just got that as well, so it’s a little early for me to comment on anything like that,” Jones said of McClain. “I had no idea that that was a work in progress, but we’ll certainly look at that as we would anything. We’ll do our diligence and make a decision.”
As for Gregory, Jones did confirm that the troubled defensive end has indeed filed for reinstatement, but that it is up to the NFL in terms of when he and the rest of the organization will hear one way or the other on his status.
“It is my understanding that he may have filed for reinstatement,” Jones said. “And then it’s just time that we don’t control in terms of when they ultimately make a decision.”
The Cowboys will open the season against the Giants on September 8th at AT&T Stadium.
