Don’t forget about Anthony Brown in the secondary

We’ve already begun discussions about pet cats for 2018 around BTB, and you’ve no doubt got a favorite.

There are a lot of great nominees. Part of the reason for this is the parameters for exactly what a pet cat is are wider for some. There are those that allow second- or third-year players that are still relatively new with the Cowboys.

I’m not necessarily petitioning he should be allowed to be a pet cat or anything, but Cowboys cornerback Anthony Brown has been relegated to back of the most-hyped or even moderately-hyped lists. He’s the original version of Mario Party, and now that we’ve got parts two and three we’ve moved on as a group.

When OTAs began this week it was reported that Chidobe Awuzie and Byron Jones were working as the starting cornerbacks. Many have believed all offseason that this would be the case with second-year stud Jourdan Lewis working in the slot, but it was Anthony Brown who was in as the team’s nickel back.

Coming off of 2017 the state of the cornerback group has definitely changed. Orlando Scandrick is gone. Chido and Jourdan are no longer rookies. Byron Jones is once again a cornerback. Those are three solid options up top, but they’ve all left Anthony Brown as the forgotten man.

A year ago many were all-in on Brown and him ascending to the next level in his sophomore season. Those believers had every reason to feel good a few weeks into the 2017 season.

Even though this partly reminded you that Nolan Carroll was on this team a year ago, it’s encouraging. More often than not during his Cowboys career, Anthony Brown has been solid.

The coaching staff clearly lost faith in Brown entering December of last year, evidenced by the fact that they benched him. Anthony did have an interception on the final day of November against the Redskins (a game he only played eight defensive snaps in), but that was in large part due to a David Irving tip.

Brown’s dip in play coupled with the rise of Awuzie and Lewis are what have helped put us in this place where we’ve somewhat moved on. Toss in a new toy in Byron Jones with a new maestro in Kris Richard, you have to go deep down the list before you begin getting excited about #30.

There is faith regarding Anthony Brown though, even if it’s not necessarily coming from the coaches themselves. Jason Garrett said on Wednesday that different players would have to step up and be vocal leaders of the team (now that Dez Bryant and Jason Witten are gone), and DeMarcus Lawrence was a name he mentioned.

Call it leadership, call it rah-rah, call it whatever you want... D-Law made a public declaration of belief in Anthony on Thursday evening.

If the Cowboys are able to get the player Anthony Brown has been and add him to the collection of Awuzie, Lewis, Jones, and Richard... that’s a secondary worth being awfully excited about as a whole (the subject of safety is for another day). After all, he’s the most-experienced cornerback of the group, which is amazing in and of itself.

Let’s bring the Anthony Brown hype back to life. There’s plenty to go around.