IRVING, Texas -- When the No. 45 overall pick came and went Friday night it was difficult not to speculate who the Cowboys could've selected had they not traded that pick to the St. Louis Rams as part of the package that helped acquire the sixth overall selection, cornerback Morris Claiborne.
Asked about that scenario following the end of the third round Friday night, Jones struggled to think of the name of the player the Cowboys liked when the 45th pick was on the board. All he seemed to remember was that it was a linebacker.
About five minutes later Jones finally came up with the name: "Wagner."
That would be Utah State inside linebacker Bobby Wagner, who went 47th overall to the Seattle Seahawks. The 6-0, 240-pounder was ranked by many experts as one of the top five inside linebackers available in the draft. However, it would've been somewhat of a surprising pick considering the Cowboys already have Sean Lee, Dan Connor and Bruce Carter, last year's second round pick, at that position.
Jones specifically ruled out selecting Wisconsin center Peter Konz at that selection and denied that the team would've traded up in the second round to draft Alabama OLB Courtney Upshaw.
"I don't think we would have," Jones said of trading up to grab Upshaw, who went 35th overall to the Baltimore Ravens. "There was a good player there."
Jones added: "We measured it every way, who, what would it have been, who we would have gotten, and we would have had to taken this. We had to have something to do, we were sitting on our [butts].
"But we're proud we got what we got."
Follow Jon Machota on Twitter: @jonmachota
