”Mike Jenkins will not practice while the Cowboys are in California and his availability to start the regular season is in doubt.”

The lack of depth on the Cowboys is stunning.  They signed former Jet safety Brodney Pool this offseason, and then cut him this week.  Signing a Jet safety probably wasn’t the best idea, and Pool proved he’s not interested in working hard.  Thaf leaves Gerald Sensabaugh and Barry Church as the starters right now.  No wonder Hakeem Nicks is working so hard to get back healthy for opening night.  Behind them are listed 5 guys with a combined 4 years of experience.  The dream of having a shut down secondary might have to put on hold for a while.  Add to this the fact that Morris Claiborne is already hurt, and Mike Jenkins and Orlando Scandrick were the guys you wanted to replace, are the backups.

On offense it doesn’t look any prettier: Dez Bryant, who is one wild weekend away from a suspension, and Miles Austin are the starting wide-outs.  Miles managed to get into 10 games last year because of injuries, while Bryant played in 15.  Behind them?  Kevin Ogletree at 6′ 1″ and 190 and Dwayne Harris at 5’10″.  At running back they have DeMarco Murray and Felix Jones.  Murray had a great season last year, but was injured the final 5 games and registered just 17 carries for 63 yards in that span.  Felix finished the season with efforts of 4/24 against Philly and 11/30 versus the Giants in must win games.

The new NFL is a pass first league.  The Cowboys seem ill prepared for such a journey.  They seem to have no available answers for the 4 and 5 wide sets they will see against most teams.  They also seem like they are one nagging injury away from a losing season.

Dez Bryant and Marshawn Lynch are the latest casualties of too much time off, or too much time at home actually.  Lynch is the bigger disaster as he has repeatedly been in trouble since high school.  His drivers license revoked, a misdemeanor weapons charge, a hit and run pled down to reckless driving, and now a DUI.  Thank goodness he can afford good lawyers.  Unfortunately the NFL is unimpressed with attorneys, and Lynch will certainly be suspended AGAIN.  On a team with three back-up caliber QB’s,  a College Caliber Coach who thinks discipline is a four letter word, and no wide receivers….their only weapon will be missing for a while come the regular season.

Dez Bryant has been a ticking time bomb since his days in college.  He may never grow up, or realize that making it to the NFL is not the prize, but staying there and changing your lifestyle and of those around you is.  Dez may not be suspended, but we need to see how it all plays out.

Others like Elvis Dumerville, Odrick Ray, Dion Lewis, Adrian Peterson, Kiante Tripp, Eris Wright, Aaron Berry, David Diehl, Justin Blackmon, Jerome Felton, Nick Fairley, Darrius Heyward-Bey, Caleb King, and Brandon Meriweather have all been arrested for some infraction since May.  More time off you say?  I don’t think so.  These guys live in a world of discipline and routine…take them out of that routine and they get lost.  Another failure by the players union, but hey, it keeps their fellow attorneys working.

via PFT:

It looks like Newman will miss his second straight week. Bryant also missed practice Wednesday with a “thigh contusion” and his status for Sunday’s game against the 49ers looks to be in doubt.

Bryant missed four games last year and was at less than 100% for many more. He hurt his quad against the Jets and was gimpy for a large portion of the game.

Giants WR Hakeem Nicks is of course the latest key member of the WR unit to make the injury list after his knee/wrist got banged up in the week 1 matchup against the Redskins. Between Osi Umenyiora, Justin Tuck, and Prince Amukamara all on the mend — the Giants defense still has a ways to go before it approaches full speed.