FRISCO, Texas – Through a diligent, nearly year-long rehab with the athletic training staff, Orlando Scandrick recovered from the torn ACL and MCL that cost him the entire 2015 season.
Two games into the 2016 season, he's dealing with a "very frustrating" hamstring injury that limited his workload this past Sunday against the Washington Redskins.
"It's disappointing to myself that you're not the player that you really are because you're not healthy," he said after the team's 27-23 win.
The Cowboys still got beneficial snaps from their veteran cornerback. Typically a starter on the outside in the base defense, Scandrick mostly stuck to his nickel role in the slot when the Redskins brought in an extra receiver.
"He wasn't able to practice fully last week and had some tightness in his hamstring, so we just felt like it was better to give him an opportunity to just play nickel in the game – play mostly inside and let Mo (Claiborne) and Brandon (Carr) handle the outside work," head coach Jason Garrett said.
"As we all know, the nickel (cornerback) plays so much in pro football. He plays 65, 70, 75 percent of the game just because of the personnel groups that people use offensively. So he got a lot of snaps in the game. We just felt like with what he wasn't able to do last week in practice that was the best course for us to take."
Rookie Anthony Brown is next on the Cowboys' depth chart behind Scandrick, Carr and Claiborne. He didn't play the slot in college but showed improvement there in preseason.
--Rob Phillips
