Cowboys BREAKING: Vet RB Ronald Jones Cut

Would the Dallas Cowboys cut a young running back in order to bring back to the roster the suspended Ronald Jones? Coach Mike McCarthy's answer may speak volumes - and now comes the transaction as Jones is cut.

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys have a loaded running backs room, in more ways that one. "Loaded'' in the sense that the chairs are pretty much filled up ... and "loaded'' in the sense that on the way to their 2-0 record, everyone in the Tony Pollard-led group has made a contribution at some level.

The odd-man out? So far, due to his suspension, that had been Ronald Jones. And on Monday, with the veteran newcomer eligible to return after his two-game punishment for PEDs (a technicality charge he vehemently denies as it regards cheating) ... the subject came up in the media visit with head coach Mike McCarthy ...

And McCarthy's answer to the question about Jones may have offered a glimpse into the plan here. ... as moments after the presser, the Cowboys cut Jones.

“We haven’t discussed the direction we’re going,'' McCarthy said frankly, and so we can be frank as well: If Jones was viewed as an important piece, a needed piece, it seems to us that he would he be immediately brought back to the roster. Short of that? If he was viewed in any way as important or needed ... surely the coaching staff and the personnel department would've discussed it by Monday afternoon, right?

The Cowboys already employ four running backs on the 53-man roster. Pollard is a Pro Bowl-level player who has been the offensive bell cow for a team that's scored 70 points in the first two games. Rico Dowdle has gotten key snaps behind him. And two rookies, little Deuce Vaughn and big Hunter Luepke, are also part of the rotation with their roles.

Logically, to add Jones might mean the subtraction of one of the backups to Pollard ... which would come in the form of cutting one of them and hoping to bring them back to the practice squad.

Does Mike McCarthy value Ronald Jones enough to do that? His "we haven't discussed,'' we think, spoke volumes. And then cutting Jones made it completely clear.