The Dallas Cowboys might end up taking a quarterback in the 2016 NFL Draft, but owner Jerry Jones says he feels no pressure to spend a pick on Tony Romo's heir apparent this year.
Jones said on Wednesday after the North team practice at the Reese's Senior Bowl that the Cowboys do not feel like they have to take a quarterback with their first pick -- No. 4 overall -- or at any other point in the draft.
"There are many options," Jones said. "There's free agency ... We have to (draft a QB) to do what? We have to win a Super Bowl next year? Do we have to compete for a Super Bowl in the future? Do you have to have it in place after this draft? There's no have-to here, in my mind, because we have the luxury of having Romo here for three, four, five more years."
Dallas' staff is coaching the North team at the Senior Bowl this week, and it just so happens that one of the top QB prospects in the 2016 draft, North Dakota State's Carson Wentz, is on the North roster, giving head coach Jason Garrett and his staff an opportunity to get a very good feel for the prospect's abilities. Jones said he had a chance to say hello to Wentz after practice on Wednesday.
NFL Media analyst Lance Zierlein rates quarterback as Dallas' biggest need with Romo moving past the midway point of his 30s and coming off of injury. Earlier on Wednesday, Pro Football Hall of Famer Troy Aikman told NFL HQ that Romo's durability "certainly is a concern."
Aikman, the first overall pick of the 1989 draft, is the only quarterback the Cowboys have drafted in the first round since Jones became the team's owner that same year.
So, it's going to take a talent the team considers to be very rare for Jones to go back to the well for a QB in the first round. As Jones says, there are other means of adding to Dallas' QB mix behind Romo. Perhaps the team will opt for a retread over a newbie, or maybe it'll add both. If the Cowboys do fall in love with Wentz by the end of this week, as NFL Media analyst Daniel Jeremiah has predicted, they wouldn't have to rush him onto the field with Romo as the starter for a while longer. That could be an ideal situation.
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