With veteran guard Montrae Holland out for the time being and following Monday's flip-flop at the position, there is a little bit of optimism around training camp that rookie David Arkin might be on the field this year, possibly starting.
Not so fast, according to Jason Garrett. Arkin still has a long way to go.
"He's done a nice job," Garrett said. "A lot of what we've seen on tape is what we've seen here. He's a smaller school guy, so the jump for him is big. But it's big for anybody."
On Tuesday, Garrett again underlined one of the traits the Cowboys like most in Arkin - his aggressiveness. The coach has said that when the rookie makes mistakes, they are at least aggressive mistakes, which the team can live with, from time to time.
But the coach was as blunt as he gets when talking about how far away Arkin is from being ready to start in a regular season game.
"He still has a lot to learn," Garrett said. "He doesn't know what he's doing yet, both from a scheme standpoint or from a technical standpoint. But he's going about it the right way and he's grown a lot in just the 11 practices we've had here.
"There's a lot we're throwing at him, both from an offensive standpoint, the looks on defense are difficult and blocking the guys is difficult. But he's hanging in there and fighting."
