During Sunday night’s Cowboys win over the Redskins, Michelle Tafoya of NBC reported on a conversation she had with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones regarding injured defensive tackle Jay Ratliff.
“My interpretation based on Jerry Jones’ body language and his tone is that Jay Ratliff will not be playing for the Cowboys anymore,” Tafoya said.
Jones said after the game that he wasn’t familiar with the report, but said that the team planned to meet with both Ratliff and doctors to determine what the future holds for a player that was expected to be a key defensive piece in Dallas. Ratliff is on the PUP list after missing all of camp with sports hernia and hamstring injuries and is eligible to start practicing with the team this week.
Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones intimated that a quick return is unlikely, but concurred with his father about the lack of an ultimate decision.
“I think that’s inaccurate,” Stephen Jones said, via Carlos Mendez of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I think there are a lot of things we’re going to be looking at over the next couple of weeks. Obviously, we’re concerned, I said that last week, that it’s not coming along better. But we won’t know anything like that for another… We’ll get a good going over this week for sure and it should give us a lot more feel.”
Moving on from Ratliff wouldn’t be cheap as cutting him would put $7 million in dead money against the cap, but he’s rarely been on the field since the start of last season and has been critical of the team’s handling of those injuries. That may make it easier to swallow the money, even if the team isn’t ready to make that call now.