Cowboys Updates: Claiborne Expects To Play, Dez Bryant Okay

-- Morris Claiborne thinks he'll be back on the field for the Saints game. He's been feeling better since late last week but the Cowboys decided not to risk it and held him out versus Pittsburgh. With the injury to Orlando Scandrick and this one to Claiborne, one guy who has flown under the radar but was desperately needed by Dallas this season is Mike Jenkins. It's a good thing Dallas didn't trade him.

-- Every time the ball was thrown to Dez Bryant on Sunday, I winced just a bit. I couldn't help but think this was the play were his finger was really going to get hurt. The good news, Bryant came out of the game unscathed. He hasn't reported any problems and the Cowboys are treating it much like any other injury.

-- Tight end James Hanna finally made a significant impact in a game. He had two catches for 45 yards on the first touchdown drive of the game.

"He’s improved really day by day," Garrett said. "He has some really good receiving attributes and those traits were on display. We got some real favorable matchups against some of their linebackers out in space and he was a big part of that."

-- I've seen plenty of player rotations in pro football. Running back tandems that take turns, third-down specialists all over the place on offense and defense, even quarterbacks being swapped out. But it's hard to remember an offensive line rotation. That's one spot where you almost always see the same five guys lineup unless injury strikes. But the Cowboys are bucking that theory by rotating their right tackles.

The right tackle rotation between Doug Free and Jermey Parnell is doing well. Garrett said the competition between Free (47 snaps) and Parnell (23 snaps) has resulted in each pushing the other do better. "I think it's been a real positive impact for not only Doug but also for Jermey," Garrett said. "Bill Callahan has done a great job. That's something he wanted to do a couple of weeks ago just to rotate Jermey in to take some reps in practice and see how it went and he thought it went well. He wanted to rotate a series in ballgames and play it out as the game wore on. Doug has played more than Jermey in each of the last two ballgames but has played some of his best games and Jermey has responded to that challenge also."

-- With all the injuries, the Cowboys practice squad has been a whirlwind of activity. So here's where it stands now.

WR Andre Holmes, WR Tim Benford, CB Vince Agnew, S Micah Pellerin, LB Brashton Satele, G Ronald Leary, TE Andrew Smith and new addition DE Ike Igbinosun.

-- Finally, leave it to Jerry Jones to start talking Super Bowl run.

"You can legitimately look at how the Giants played last year, what they did at the end of the year and how they took it all the way," Jones said after Dallas beat the Steelers in front of thousands of Terrible Towel-waving fans at Cowboys Stadium on Sunday. "And that's not unrealistic to think that that can happen to you."