OXNARD, Calif. –The most long-running drama in what was a fairly dry offseason for the Cowboys appears to winding down.
After asking to be traded earlier in the summer, cornerback Mike Jenkins has now given the team's top decision-makers reason to believe he is willing to dutifully fill whatever role he is given in the new-look secondary.
Both Jerry and Stephen Jones said that recent conversations with the former first-round pick have given them reason to believe Jenkins is buying in. The team owner and general manager suggested that Jenkins could still do himself some favors as he heads to the open market after this year by playing well in a rotation with Brandon Carr, Morris Claiborne and Orlando Scandrick.
"Sometimes your feelings can get hurt when a team goes and signs somebody, they draft somebody at your position," Garrett said. "Once those emotions settle a little bit, you come back in and you say, 'OK, this is my situation. What's the best thing for me to do?' And I think, typically, if you have a guy who is a competitor, he's going to come back in and compete."
If Jenkins is committed to giving the Cowboys his all in the final year of his contract, the only issue remaining would be the health of his shoulder, which was repaired in a surgical procedure early in the offseason. After staying away from the team and its medical personnel for voluntary portions of the offseason, he resumed treatment from team athletic trainers last week.
Jenkins is expected to leave camp in the next week to visit Alabama orthopedist Dr. James Andrews.
"His shoulder is certainly getting better," Garrett said. "He has made progress over the course of the offseason. He's going to start the season on PUP (the Physically Unable to Perform list) like some of the other injured guys we have, but we're going to continue to get that shoulder stronger, get that range of motion better and get him in condition to play football. We're hopeful over the course of the next week or two that he can get out there and start practicing and playing in the preseason – probably not by the first preseason game, maybe not even by the second preseason game, but certainly by the end of the preseason, we'd like to see him playing in some NFL games."
