Byron Jones and the Cowboys and Their 'Amicable' Goodbye

FRISCO - It's an odd way of framing it, we think, to say "The Dallas Cowboys are allowing Byron Jones to leave via free agency.'' It makes it sound like the team is completely in charge here, when it fact, Jones and the market have just as much stroke.

“It’s certainly pretty plain to see,'' Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said last week while aboard his bus at the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis, "that when you have the players we have right now under contract, plus we have arguably three of the top free agents there are out there and we have the prospects of this Collective Bargaining Agreement, that we’ve got some work to do.''

Those top three, of course are led by QB Dak Prescott and receiver Amari Cooper. Then comes the cornerback Byron Jones (though we've suggested that in Dallas' view, pass-rusher Robert Quinn might rank right there with him.)

“That’s a real challenge,'' Jones said of trying to re-sign Byron.

And so, per one report, the two sides met in Indy, the Cowboys and the agent for Byron, and they parted "amicably.'' If any numbers were exchanged, they must not have been in the same ballpark; the going rate for a top cornerback might this year be $15 million APY, and the Cowboys regard Byron as somebody worth less.

The Philadelphia Eagles and the Denver Broncos and others may compete to hire Byron, and he'll have earned it with fine play and fine character. The winning bidder will then celebrate its conquer ... but football watchers will have to wait to truly judge whether Byron was "worth it.''

Meanwhile, though, the biggest thing he's earned is "freedom.'' With $80 million or so in camp room, there would be enough money to keep Jones (if Dallas chose to prioritize him). But with two or three or four top-level free agents attached to the Cowboys roster, there aren't enough tags to own all of their rights.

Dallas is allowing Byron Jones to leave at the same exact level Byron Jones is choosing to leave. Maybe the Cowboys' position isn't so much "insulting'' as it is they simply don't want to set the market at cornerback. Maybe he won't get blown away by an offer elsewhere and could boomerang back to The Star on a deal far less than $15 mil APY, but that seems wildly unlikely.

Instead, if you are the always-polite Byron Jones, you part "amicably.'' And if you are the Cowboys, you hope you are right in saying goodbye.