Granted, we have only played one game so far, but coming into this season, our top three corners looked like a strength on this team.  We were returning two Pro Bowlers and had a solid slot guy.  Does the Washington game give us reason to doubt those preseason expectations?

Mike Jenkins:

The guy has picked up right where he left off last year.  A lot of people (including Terry) were convinced after his rookie season that he was a bust and that, in spite of his first round pedigree, it was truly Orlando Scandrick (more to come on him later) that was the real stud corner of this draft class.  One season later, and I think he's becoming the best CB in the NFC, if he isn't already.  Jerry Jones- PAY THIS MAN!  I don't want to deal with a Revis-like situation with this guy.  Let's get him locked up and make sure he's a Cowboy for the foreseeable future.


Terence Newman:

There were some (not many) that thought that Newman was still our best CB last year, with Jenkins a close second.  If the Washington game was any indication, there has been quite a clear passing of the guard.  Newman seemed to frequently lose his guy in coverage, and really seemed to struggle with Santana Moss (again, more on him later).  Is this a case of a speed corner starting to age and beginning his decline or a bad game?  That remains to be seen, and is a story line worth watching over the course of the season.  Personally, I think Newman can still play, but I worry that he will lack the consistency he has shown when healthy during his career.

Orlando Scandrick:

After a great rookie campaign, Scandrick seemed to regress last year.  Many chalked it up to a sophomore slump and pointed to his improved second half play as reason for optimism.  This year's season opener again showed the lack of consistency that plagued Scandrick last year.  Moss abused him from the slot, and you have to think that other teams on our schedule with great slot receivers (Eagles, Vikings, Colts to name a few) are going to see that on film and look to take advantage of that.  When the guy shows up, he's stellar, but you just don't know what you're going to get from the guy.

None of this even takes into consideration the fact that we only have 3 true corners on our roster.  We're one injury away from Akwasi Owusu-Ansah or Alan Ball playing considerable time at CB.  In addition, we play teams like the Saints and Colts who are going to go 4 and 5 wide and test our hybrid guys.

This all has me feeling like it's not as solid of a position as we have been feeling, and we need to consider making CB a top draft priority again next year.  We have no guys on our practice squad at the position to develop and we already know what we're getting with the three guys we have.  Newman can't last forever, and I'm not sure Scandrick is a guy you can count on to play the outside all game long.  Unless they see AOA as a CB down the road (which I think they don't), this team desperately needs to invest some high round currency in next year's draft into the position.