Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones recently joined 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM) to discuss his confidence in the team’s defense despite injuries, how the team got K.J. Henry and more.
Here are some highlights, edited for length and clarity:
How confident are you that the defense can be good enough without Micah Parsons and DeMarcus Lawrence for the first time?
Jones: “Obviously that’s a challenge, but all 32 in the NFL have the same challenge. People have injuries, they’ve got to work through them. You put together your roster good enough that you can overcome that. When you’re missing two of your best rushers, you’ve got to count on your scheme. We feel very comfortable with Mike [McCarthy] and certainly we made a big jump against the Giants in terms of improving our defense. I know Mike, talking to him this week, will have some things up his sleeve in terms of ways to be productive against this very physical offense we’re going to go against.”
From what you’ve gone through in the secondary, do you feel like you’ve been able to practice some guys to get ready for game week? Do you feel better prepared with your backup corners in this game?
Jones: “Yeah, we’re getting better there. [Caelen] Carson is coming on. Certainly [DaRon] Bland is right around the corner. He’s not going to make it this week, but he’s got a real shot to start working back in the next week. Carson’s working through his situation. We’re getting everybody prepared out there. It was nice to have some extra days this week to get prepared and of course play a night game to boot there on Sunday night. Certainly gives us an opportunity to prepare more. I do think going forward, our hair is going to be up. We’ll have gained a week on Micah, gained another week on Bland. We know we’re going to be missing D-Law for a longer period of time, but we do feel like a lot of these guys are going to be back sooner rather than later. Not in some of those situations that we’ve been in where you’re not going to see them till next year.”
On how he feels about players like Chauncey Golston and Marshawn Kneeland getting a bigger opportunity...
Jones: “They’re very disciplined, they’re young so they do exactly what they’re told. We all know the great players, what makes them great is sometimes they can make some decisions on the move. I know these guys will go out and play just the way [Mike] Zimmer, [Jeff Zgonina] and everybody wants them to play.
“I think they’ll go out and play real disciplined football and have their integrity in their assignments. Hopefully between [Carl] Lawson and [Tyrus] Wheat, what they can help add in terms of some rush and some good schemes that Mike will hopefully have ready for them, then we can play good defense against the Steelers. We’re certainly going to need that.”
What went into getting K.J. Henry from Cincinnati’s practice squad?
Jones: “He’s actually a guy we were interested in when Washington waived him. Cincinnati was higher in the claiming deal and they got him, then they ended up waiving him and putting him on their practice squad and we were situated. But he’s a guy that we were interested in coming out, he went to a big school, Clemson. Did some really good things coming out. We wanted to get our hands on him and see what he could bring to the table here while we’re working through our injuries at that position.”
Listen to the rest of Jones’ radio appearance here.
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