FRISCO, Texas 鈥 One thing seems pretty clear with the Cowboys as they get ready for Thursday's Thanksgiving game with the Giants and a 4-7 record:
The only form of "tank" they seem interested in his getting DeMarcus Lawrence back from injury at some point.
But when it comes to "tanking" games for the sake of a better draft pick, that doesn't seem to be on anyone's mind, especially owner/GM Jerry Jones.
"That has not come across anybody's mind in this organization," Jones told 105.3 The Fan. "Somebody's gonna say 鈥 'You need to be playing for a higher draft pick, Jones.' I get it. I get all of it. It's critical for us to get out here and compete. Those (draft picks) will be there for us 鈥 the ones we want 鈥 when we get there in the draft."
Jones was asked about Micah Parsons' recent post-game comments that suggested the same thing, hoping to "ruin" anyone's ideas of losing games for a better pick.
"I loved it. Just absolutely love it," Jones said. "Micah gets criticized for some of the things that he says. The way that was articulated was strong. It was a succinct statement. It's just the way that it is."
Jones added, "I just think the game is too important. The win is too important. ... A win is a very satisfying thing under any circumstance. It helps you build. There's a lot of ambiguity with those draft picks."
Jones knows injuries can be an excuse for every team in the league and understands the "next man up" philosophy but also knows this year has been the exception for his team that has seen half of the Week 1 starting lineup miss at least one game this year.
"Everybody has injury as an excuse to use in the NFL," Jones said. "We've had a train wreck this year with our availability of players. There's no question about it. You can start right there at the top with Dak. There's been some good work done, relative to how we've dealt with the unavailability of our players. 鈥 and a bunch of them."
The good news for Jones and the Cowboys? Slowly but surely, they're starting to get healthier. And it's happening at an opportune time.
"We're going to start be getting a bunch of them back," he said. "You saw some of them back last weekend. You'll see some of them back this week and you'll really see some more back the next week. And that's why we want to really take advantage of an uptick here and put some wins together.
"This thing isn't over."
