When the Dallas Cowboys first drafted Morris Claiborne with the #6 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft they believed they were getting a shut down corner, similar to a Deion Sanders. Instead Claiborne has severely underperformed during his time in Dallas and has now lost his starting cornerback position to Orlando Scandrick for week 4's matchup against the New Orleans Saints.

Claiborne did not take the news very well, as he stormed out of the facility at the end of practice when he was told by the coaching staff of his demotion. Instead, Orlando Scandrick will start opposite of Brandon Carr this upcoming Sunday.

Claiborne made the interception that clinched the win over the St.Louis Rams this past Sunday, September 21, but looked lost for the majority of the game. He was responsible for surrendering the Rams’ two longest completions and missed a tackle on St. Louis’ most productive running play.

In total, when Claiborne was targeted he allowed 108 yards and two touchdowns in which he was simply beat in man coverage.

When head coach Jason Garrett was asked about the possibility of benching Claiborne against the Saints early Tuesday, he did not exactly give a yes or no answer.

“We’ll determine how we’re going to play guys as the week goes on. It really doesn’t matter where guys come from,” Garrett said. “We’ll evaluate them and see who can play best. We’ll do that again this week and determine how we play guys all throughout our roster.”

“Mo was just in situations in yesterday’s game where he was isolated by himself and they made good throws and catches against him,” Garrett said. “His technique on each of those plays wasn’t perfect and they had success for different reasons on each of those plays where he got beat and he just needs to continue to learn and grow and develop as a player.”

It comes as no surprise that Claiborne has been benched in light of comments made by Jason Garrett to the media earlier on Tuesday. What is surprising, however, is how Claiborne reacted to the news and it now remains to be seen if the Cowboys will penalize him for in the manner in which he left the facility.

Not only has Claiborne not lived up to expectations, but he has missed a number of games in his career due to various injuries. He has missed long stretches of training camps each summer and has never played in a preseason game.

Veteran cornerback Orlando Scandrick is back from suspension and has out performed Claiborne for the better part of over a year now. Not only Scandrick, but former undrafted costless agent Sterling Moore has looked like a superior cornerback in comparison to Claiborne.

The Cowboys traded their first and second round picks in 2012 (14th and 45th overall) to obtain Claiborne out of LSU sixth overall. Many in the Dallas front office pinned him as the next Deion Sanders.

But in Claiborne’s first two seasons in Dallas, he has been widely considered a bust. In two years as a Dallas Cowboy, he has recorded 67 total tackles, two interceptions, and one forced fumble, which are not not exactly Deion numbers.

Claiborne is not the player they thought they had drafted and going up against Drew Brees and the high offensively powered New Orleans Saints. They will need their best players on the field and Claiborne is simply not one of them. Hopefully, losing his starting job will light more of a fire under Claiborne, but nonetheless the Cowboys are making the right decision.

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About the author
Bryan Castillo
Mechanical Engineer graduate from Texas A&M University class of 2012. Favorite teams are the Dallas Mavericks, Cowboys, & Texas Rangers.