Jerry Jones Estimates 4-6 Weeks On Morris Claiborne & Barry Church, Possible Rolando McClain Return?

Jerry Jones went on radio this morning and hinted strongly that Dak Prescott was going to remain the starter for the Dallas Cowboys unless he starts to lose the hot hand. But Jones also discussed other aspects of the team during that same radio interview.

He gave updates on the timelines for the return of Barry Church and Morris Claiborne. On both players, Jones said the guesstimate was 4-6 weeks, but made it clear those were very rough guesses. Earlier Stephen Jones said that Church likely wouldn’t need surgery on his fractured forearm and gave a 3-5 week guess. On Claiborne, there has been no official determination as to how severe his groin injury is and whether he will need surgery or not.

Among the other interesting tidbits Jones dropped during the interview was this one on a couple of linebackers.

"I don't want to dismiss Jaylon Smith. I don't want to dismiss possibly Rolando McClain. I don't want to dismiss these guys from our picture in this season's future."

We’ve been hearing that from Jones about Jaylon Smith since the moment they drafted him. So we’ll set that one aside for the moment. But Rolando McClain? He’s been a forgotten man since he was handed a 10-game suspension earlier this year for substance abuse. The Cowboys sure sounded like they were done with him at the time. They never actually said it, but they hinted around it.

Now, could they actually be looking at him returning to the team? We all know the story on McClain, when healthy and motivated, he’s a superior linebacker. Getting him into that zone has always been the problem. Would he even be in shape if he returned? Has he been in rehab for his addiction? Maybe we’ll learn more now that Jones has open up the possibility of his return this season.