Earlier this week, Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy made it clear that his team wouldn’t be making a run at quarterback Cam Newton. On Friday, Cowboys owner and G.M. Jerry Jones provided a less unequivocal assessment.
Appearing on 105.3 The Fan, Jones addressed the question of whether the Cowboys would take a look at Cam Newton, given the lack of depth behind Dak Prescott. Specifically, Jones was asked whether he called Patriots coach Bill Belichick for an assessment of Cam Newton.
“You know, most people in the NFL that are even in the personnel area I think have Cam Newton evaluated, and his pluses and his minus. You know, Norv Turner did a great job . . . when he was coordinator there with Cam Newton. So, I think he’s no secret as to what he does and does well. And of course he was basically able to be evaluated if you want to look at it playing games and results and all of that as an evaluation. And so what you’re seeing with him, he’s available, as best I can tell he’s available. . . . If you can get it to make the right kind of deal, he’s available. But the point is that in this particular case -- now, it’s another thing with Will Grier or it’s another thing with some of the guys that don’t have the play time or haven’t has been as readily, haven’t had as much experience. But Cam Newton is not playing because everybody has evaluated it and they’re making a decision. . . . We were very, very easy to evaluate Cam.”
Although Jones never gave a specific answer to the question, it sounds as if the Cowboys didn’t contact Belichick. It sounds as if they’ve done their own evaluation, and that they’ve decided not to try to bring Newton to Dallas as the backup to Dak Prescott.