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Discussions about Byron Jones have been all over the place this offseason.
The Cowboys have been mum on the subject, but the writing on the wall has suggested that in 2018 Jones would be moving back to cornerback (where he played for part of his rookie season). On Monday that idea was basically set in stone.
#Cowboys Byron Jones introduces himself as a “corner” today.
— Drew Davison (@drewdavison) April 16, 2018
So Byron Jones is a cornerback? Got it? Good. There’s more where that came from.
The FWST also reported that Byron said he still doesn’t know whether the Cowboys will pick up his fifth-year option or not. If you were wondering what the exact impetus was for Byron moving back to corner, we seemingly have our answer. It’s one many have speculated on for some time now, but it’s now fully known. New defensive backs coach Kris Richard has championed this cause, and he’s done it from the very beginning.
Byron Jones said ever since Kris Richard was hired as the Cowboys' new DBs coach he talked about moving Byron back to CB. "I think it will be a good move for me and the team."
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) April 16, 2018
It’s definitely a great thing to see Kris Richard taking control of his new weapons in the Cowboys secondary, and it’s a good thing to see the team giving him leeway over his position group.
The other side of that spin though is that it basically took Kris Richard all but a cup of coffee to look at Byron Jones and realize the Cowboys had been using him improperly over the last two years, this is of course assuming you value Richard’s opinion (which most do). That’s... not ideal.
Ultimately Kris Richard is in Dallas now and Byron Jones is all but officially playing cornerback. How things got here is moot at this point, and hopefully it works out this season.