Jones seems to slam the door on picking Manziel

With the draft two days away and the Cowboys holding the 16th overall pick, speculation remains that owner/G.M. Jerry Jones will try to make a play for quarterback Johnny Manziel.

Not so, says Jones.

“I”m not that gunned up over what a rookie quarterback could do for us this year,” Jones said Tuesday, via Clarence Hill of the Ft. Worth Star-Telegram. “That takes time. This is not rebuilding time.”

So does that mean the Cowboys can rule out using a first-round pick on a quarterback?

“It does not qualify for the biggest need,” Jones said.  “I will go as far as to say it is not our primary goal in the first round to be looking at a quarterback.  We’ve got a good one.”

It’s hardly a categorical denial.  While drafting a quarterback may not be the “primary goal,” it technically could still be the secondary goal.

At this point in the process, it’s impossible to believe what anyone says so close to the draft.  If Jones doesn’t want a quarterback, he has no reason to say so.  In fact,it would make more sense to suggest he wants one, in the hopes a team drafting lower than No. 16 jumps the Cowboys to take a player the Cowboys wouldn’t taken.

Actually, the biggest reason for saying Jones doesn’t want a quarterback in the first round could be to conceal the fact that, in reality, he does.