Cowboys Country

Cowboys Safeties 'A Mess'; Jerry Jones Reveals Malik Hooker Plan

Says Cowboys owner Jerry Jones: "I'm excited over this Hooker. I'm excited over him. That's pretty impressive. Every time he's been healthy he starts. So, you know, what are your chances of that with health?''

Mike Fisher

OXNARD, Calif. - The Dallas Cowboys situation at safety, as one insider puts it, is "a mess.''

Can Malik Hooker bring a mop and a broom to training camp?

"There’s definitely interest,'' said Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy of the Hooker connection. "I think he just gives us another excellent football player. He brings competition. We just feel he’ll be a really good fit for us.”

McCarthy is mixing together some timeline concepts there; it's gone beyond "interest,'' as Hooker, the oft-injured former first-round star of the Colts, was to arrive in Oxnard over the weekend, as CowboysSI.com was first to report, to begin his five-day protocol that should result in a Wednesday signing.

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“This conversation has gone on for quite some time,” McCarthy said. “I think the obvious is we’re working through protocols because of the state we’re in ...''

Added Cowboys owner Jerry Jones: "I'm excited over this Hooker. I'm excited over him. That's pretty impressive. Every time he's been healthy he starts. So, you know, what are your chances of that with health?''

With health, the chances are that Hooker - who has missed 28 games over the last four seasons, including 14 missed games last year due to a torn Achilles that Dallas hopes is healed - becomes a starter in the safety group  ...

A group that 105.3 The Fan colleague Bryan Broaddus terms "a mess right now.''

Today's starting safeties would likely be Donovan Wilson and Damontae Kazee Hooker would jump into the picture ahead of Jayron Kearse and Darian Thompson ... and maybe the Cowboys would jump up from "mess'' status.

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Mike Fisher
MIKE FISHER

Mike Fisher - as a newspaper beat writer and columnist and on radio and TV, where he is an Emmy winner - has covered the NFL since 1983 and the Dallas Cowboys since 1990, is the author of two best-selling books on the Cowboys.

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