Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones chose not to speak after his team was defeated Sunday by the golf course-bound Buffalo Bills, but after the pain of yet another loss in a season full of them, Jones decided to remove the gag and do a little chatting on Tuesday instead. Speaking with 105.3 The Fan in Dallas, Jones reiterated something that has been said in and around the Cowboys facility, likely since franchise quarterback Tony Romo went down in week two with a broken clavicle - upgrading the signal-caller position is a "high priority" for the franchise this offseason.
"We're going to try to all the ways - all ways - to come up with a way to get Tony a backup, while at the same time looking toward the future," Jones said, per ESPN. "Some people would say that's dreaming. Everybody wants that, but we have a high draft pick, obviously. We're earned it, and we've got it. If we evaluate and get an opportunity to get a couple of players there, we got to look at it hard."
If that sounds to you something like a man trying to keep from shouting that he wants a young quarterback of the future, you may not be far off. The Cowboys will have one of the top draft picks this offseason. They'll have plenty of options, and while Jones will likely do everything in his power to avoid saying that he's looking for Romo's eventual replacement, that's exactly what he's doing.
Romo, for all his success and everything he's done for the Cowboys organization, has proved increasingly fragile in recent seasons. He didn't miss much in the way of game time last year as the Cowboys rolled through the latter portion of the season and into the playoffs, but back injuries dogged him throughout the year and the clavicle cost him most of 2015.
At age 35, it's not going to get better for Romo, only worse.
He's been "the guy" in Dallas for so long that the last quarterback the Cowboys drafted was Stephen McGee in the fourth round in 2009.
It's a pretty safe bet at this point, despite Jones' maniacal assertion that Romo still has a 3-5 year window to play, that come late April, the Cowboys will be selecting Romo's heir apparent much earlier than the fourth round.
"It's obviously going to be a high priority for us, the backup situation, as it relates to not only being able to come in and do better than we did this year, but whatever way, whatever we do, do better, but we're looking to our future," Jones said. "That's as big a thing for me."
