Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones usually makes himself available to reporters after the NFL’s annual winter meeting in Irving, Texas. However, Jones was nowhere to be found Wednesday following this year’s meeting.

Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones was in attendance. He answered questions for about 10 minutes with the most common topic being Mike McCarthy’s future as Cowboys head coach.

“I think he’s done outstanding,” Stephen Jones responded when asked about evaluating the job McCarthy has done. “Our guys are playing hard. He’s got them competing. That was a tough game the other night. Guys played hard. … Guys are competing. Hats off to Mike. You look around the league sometimes and see a lot of teams that start like that and they’re thinking about next year. But Mike has everybody focused on winning each and every game.”

It’s not a surprise that Jones didn’t have much to say when asked if they have made a decision on McCarthy’s future. The Cowboys front office and top players have recently shared their support for McCarthy, who is in the final year of his contract.

“We’re talking about the next game,” Jones responded.

Even if the Cowboys were completely prepared to move on, this isn’t the time when they would share that information. Dallas has four games remaining. But when there’s a disappointing season and a coach is in the final year of his contract, reporters are going to ask about the future.

With the news surfacing that Bill Belichick was taking the University of North Carolina head coaching position, Jones was also asked if there was ever a conversation about potentially looking at Belichick as a future Cowboys head coach.

“Like I said,” Jones responded, “we’re worried about the next game.”

There’s a difference when Stephen Jones and Jerry Jones answer questions. Stephen is much more likely to get straight to the point and not leave much room for speculation. Jerry often provides a response that allows reporters to take things in several different directions. That difference was on display Wednesday.

In regards to Belichick and the Cowboys, if they ever really wanted him to be their next head coach, they could’ve hired him last offseason. And if there was serious interest this year, they certainly would have ways to get that message to him. But judging by this result, it seems like there wasn’t much legitimate NFL interest in Belichick.