Cowboys’ Stephen Jones breaks down similarities between DaRon Bland and Trevon Diggs
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Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones recently joined the K&C Masterpiece on 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM) to discuss DaRon Bland’s on-field instincts and Terence Steele’s health.
Here are some highlights, edited for clarity:
Does DaRon Bland remind you of Trevon Diggs in terms of his instincts for getting to the football?
Stephen Jones: “Absolutely. Some guys just have ball skills and, hats off to Dan [Quinn] and Mike McCarthy as well. They’re very big when we sit in that scouting room on draft day, and going after a guy like [Stephon] Gilmore, who’s got great ball skills — ball skills is at the top of the list when we go after these corners now. We’ve had some great ones, great corners that don’t have ball skills and, not to be negative in any way because they were great corners, but a Terence Newman and Byron Jones, that wasn’t their big deal. Obviously, they were very sticky in coverage and had long levers, had great speed and great athletic ability and were able to get their guy covered. They just didn’t have great ball skills and it’s something now that we [look for].”
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Terence Steele was kind of a lightning rod last week. What’s been the most difficult thing for him to overcome, the physical or mental part of recovering from an injury?
Jones: “Well, he’s mentally tough and I think he understands what he’s going through. I think we got the best in the business in Britt Brown on the rehab, and Jim Maurer and how they take care of our players. It’s just getting your hands around it. I mean, Terence is a mentally tough guy. I know he’ll work at his trade, know he’ll continue to get better as we move forward and certainly, I think had a much, much better game [against the Giants]. He understands it better than anyone. You look at the tape, and you understand and see where you need to improve. He can grow and he knows that, doing the things he needs to do for his body as well.”
Is Steele doing well physically at this point of the season?
Jones: “Absolutely. I think he’s just — I think he’ll continue to improve. It’s like any player that comes off a major injury. You just keep getting better as you trust it more, and you learn to cope with some of the things that may be a challenge and how you can do things that make you feel better. I know Britt and him talk all the time about communicating about how he’s feeling. A lot of guys just have that mindset that they don’t want to complain about something. Sometimes it is better to communicate, it’s not that you’re complaining. You just got to communicate with our staff how they feel, and then our guys can do things that can be better week to week.”
Listen to the rest of Jones’ radio appearance here.
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