Archer: Jerry Jones - Cowboys will be 'business as usual' down the stretch

Cotton

One-armed Knife Sharpener
Staff member
Joined
Apr 7, 2013
Messages
119,712
Jerry Jones: Cowboys will be 'business as usual' down the stretch
9:45 AM CT
Todd Archer
ESPN Staff Writer

FRISCO, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys are the first team to clinch a playoff spot in the NFL, which has led to speculation as to what they might do later in the season if they keep winning to clinch the division, first-round bye or homefield advantage.

Do they rest some regulars?

“I see us more as business as usual,” owner and general manager Jerry Jones said on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas on Tuesday. “What it does allow you to do is, when you’ve got guys on the fence with injury, not push them, and that it just would be smart … You just use good sense. Just use common judgment. But the other part of that is the obvious: You don’t want to take the edge off. A football game is part of a personality of the team, and you want that team to stay very physical as you enter these playoffs.”

In 2014, the Cowboys’ starters played the entire finale against the Washington Redskins, but they still had the possibility of gaining a first-round bye or homefield advantage heading into Week 17. Backup quarterback Brandon Weeden saw one snap. The starting offensive line and Jason Witten played all 64 snaps. DeMarco Murray, playing with a broken hand, so 40 snaps of action. The defensive rotations remained the same.

Jones was asked if Tony Romo could play in a game down the stretch. Romo has been active as Dak Prescott’s backup for the past three games but has not taken a snap in a regular-season game since Nov. 26, 2015 when he suffered a re-break of his left collarbone against the Carolina Panthers.

Romo, who suffered a compression fracture in his back on Aug. 25, has been a full participant in practice for the last month and has not been on the injury report the past two weeks.

“Here’s the thing: I want to do what gives us the best chance to have Tony contribute to a championship, and we’re speaking about Tony right now,” Jones said on The Fan. “But I do want Tony to be ready to go in case that Dak should have an issue health-wise. That gives us strength going into the playoffs. Not from the standpoint of necessarily protecting Dak or protecting your quarterback when you’ve got the bye cinched or in the playoffs, but from the standpoint of having Tony at the readiest to come in and play would be my immediate or quick assessment."
 
Top Bottom