In explaining his team’s decision to send a fourth-round pick to the 49ers for quarterback Trey Lance, Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones twice suggested that he was ready to select another quarterback in a prior draft.
“If he had hung around long enough we might’ve done this on the Philadelphia quarterback about two years ago,” Jones told reporters on Saturday, referring to Jalen Hurts.
“I just told you, two years ago we were looking at the Philadelphia quarterback, I don’t want to call any names, but we were looking at him, had he fallen to us there we would have drafted him,” Jones added.
He didn’t need to “call any names” at that point. By referring to “the Philadelphia quarterback,” Jones was referring to Hurts.
It wasn’t two years ago that Hurts was drafted. It was three. At the time, the Cowboys had applied the franchise tag to quarterback Dak Prescott, and his contractual future with the team had not been secured. It therefore would have been sense to consider drafting and developing a potential Plan B.
Of course, the Cowboys could have had him. They selected cornerback Trevon Diggs two spots before the Eagles took Hurts in round two. For the Cowboys to get a shot at him in round three (absent a trade up), Hurts would have had to slide another 29 spots.
At a time when Jones is trying to throw dirt on the idea that the Lance trade has anything to do with Dak’s contract, referring to the possibility of drafting Hurts at a time when Dak’s situation was equally tenuous might not be the best strategy for doing so.