Job Sharing Program: Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick Share Starting Job at Right Cornerback

The biggest position battle entering the 2009 season was between second-year cornerbacks Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick.  Which player would beat-out the other for the starting job at right cornerback?  When the Cowboys traded incumbent veteran starter Anthony Henry to the Lions for backup quarterback Jon Kitna, the job was open pickings for Jenkins (last year’s 1st round draft pick) and Scandrick (last year’s 5th round draft pick).  Which player won the battle? 

The answer is “both”, in the opinion of the coaching staff.  In an unusual arrangement, Jenkins and Scandrick will share the starting position.  Jenkins got the start in the season opener at Tampa Bay (only 40 minutes from his hometown of Bradenton, FL).  Scandrick starts the following week in the regular season home opener versus the Giants.  Then it will be Jenkins in Game 3, Scandrick in Game 4…and so on.

“I thought both of them played well enough to start and we need both of them,” head coach Wade Phillips explained.  “If one of them had played a lot better than the other one, then it would’ve been different, of if one of them had played poorly.  As long as you have good players, you want them playing.

“There’s no telling how long this arrangement will last.  Maybe one of them pulls ahead or falls behind.  Maybe someone gets hurt, perhaps Newman (the starter at left cornerback) who has missed games because of injuries each of the last two years.”

Jenkins gave up a couple of passes in the opener at Tampa Bay, but he also had an interception nullified by an illegal contact penalty on safety Gerald Sensabaugh.  Scandrick still got a lot of playing time in the game because he is the team’s nickel cornerback.

“Both of us are great players,” Jenkins said of the job-sharing duties, even though he boasted in a preseason blog posting that the starting job was his to lose.  “I have a lot of confidence in myself and also in Orlando.  I feel like we both can go anywhere else and start, any team.”

“I rooted for Mike, he rooted for me,” notes Scandrick.  “We wanted to help each other.  We knew it would take both of us to make this team better. 

“I'm not here to say if sharing a starting position is right of wrong.  It doesn't matter at this point.  We're sharing time and that's the way it's going to be.  It's going to give us both the opportunity to be on the field and help this team win.  We don't know how long we'll share.  If both players continue to excel and play well, it will go on.  If one player separates himself from the other, I'm sure he'll become the starter.”

Scandrick will admit, however, that as a competitor it’s difficult to complete a “position battle” with no clear winner.

“I've never been around anything like this before,” says Scandrick.  “For a guy like me, where I've been from (5th round draft pick competing against a 1st round draft pick) to get where I'm at, to be considered a starting-caliber player is positive.  There are a lot of guys in this league who've played a long time that still aren't starters.  It's not really natural for guys in their second year to be considered starters.    That's all honesty.  If you look at some of the good players:  if you weren't picked in the first round, you weren't really expected to start for your team right away.  I feel like I've overcome a lot of odds and I'm going to continue to work hard and strive for the best.”

Scandrick finished his 2008 rookie season as the star of his draft class.  Due to his proficiency in playing the slot, Scandrick got more playing time than Jenkins who was the higher draft pick.  Scandrick admits to playing with the proverbial “chip on his shoulder” because he felt he should have been drafted in an earlier round.

The Cowboys decision to trade Anthony Henry as well as release Adam “Pacman” Jones during the offseason was due to the coaches’ belief that both Scandrick and Jenkins will make even greater strides during their second NFL season.

“I think (sharing starting duties) keeps them both into it, which they should be,” said Phillips.  If one guy is intercepting for touchdowns and playing great, that’s just the rub of the grain.

“(Jenkins) has really learned to pull the trigger.  He’s now actually doing the same thing Scandrick does.  We saw it with Scandrick last year.  Boy, when something was happening, all of a sudden he saw it and he went after it.  That’s what Mike’s doing, too.”