News: SAEN: Garrett explains why he kept six safeties but only four cornerbacks

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IRVING – Are the Dallas Cowboys gambling by carrying only four cornerbacks on their 53-man roster, especially with Mo Claiborne having missed the preseason with a knee injury and rookie B.W. Webb clearly not ready for prime time?

That was a question posed to Jason Garrett at Monday’s news conference. His answer reveals the Cowboys discussed the situation thoroughly and decided to roll the dice.

“People might think you’re hanging out a little bit, but we feel good about Mo’s health,” Garrett said. “We feel good about B.W. Webb, his preseason and what he can do for our football team. You have to make those decisions. Sometimes those are hard decisions and you’re trying to put the best combinations together and sometimes they go across positions: This guy might help us more, we might hang out a little more here. But those are decisions you make and hope it all works out.”

The Cowboys have a roster spot open after trading tight end Dante Rosario to Chicago on Monday, but they are likely to look for help for the injury-riddled offensive and defensive lines rather than corner.

Garrett also explained why the Cowboys kept six safeties: Barry Church, Will Allen, Danny McCray, Eric Frampton, third-rounder J.J. Wilcox and undrafted rookie Jeff Heath.

“They are good players as defensive players, but also good players on special teams,” Garrett said. “Danny McCray has been as good a special teams player as we’ve had. He’s been our special teams captain, he’s one of those guys where you say, he’s playing safety, but his most significant role is as a teams guy. You can really view Frampton the same way. We feel good if something happens that those guys can play on defense for us, but more than anything else they’re special team guys that will help our team that way.

“You know as well as I know, there might be 18, 20, 25 snaps in a ballgame that those guys are playing in the kicking game and those are critical plays. They’ve been very good at it for our team, in Framp’s case throughout his career with other teams. So, that was a big decision. We feel good about the two young safeties, Wilcox and Heath, those guys came in and did a heck of job for us and in Heath’s case he really came in from outside of the radar and said, ‘Hey I’m a good football player, and you just got to keep me.’ He did that in practice and he did that in the preseason and that’s good for your team when that happens.”

Bottom line: Garrett believes every decision was well thought out.

“Sometimes your heavy at this position, your light at this position, and often times you’re thinking about what they’re roles are actually going to be on Sunday afternoons,” he said. “So that’s the combination we went with and we feel good about those guys can do for our team.”

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