Cowboys thrilled with the distinguished ‘Senator’ from UConn

The “Senator” wasn’t going to jump into a political debate with a local sports talk host after practice one day last week. He refrained from offering his opinion on the Republican presidential candidates other than admitting Donald Trump has brought some “comedy” to the race.

Instead, Byron Jones is focused on football and his first rookie camp with the Dallas Cowboys.

“I’m very little into politics at this point,” said Jones, who earned the “Senator” nickname after interning with U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty and Connecticut State House Majority Leader Joe Aresimowicz in college.

“I’m a rookie in the NFL, so I’m focused on just football right now.”

Jones might not be able to focus on much else anyway, given the range of responsibilities the Cowboys are throwing at him.

Jones spent Sunday’s Blue/White Scrimmage getting reps with the first team at cornerback opposite Morris Claiborne, as Brandon Carr and Orlando Scandrick sat out with injuries.

On top of that, Jones also got action at free safety and has earned work in the nickel and dime packages. And let’s not forget Jones’ duties on special teams.

“Coaches are asking a lot of him,” safety Barry Church said. “He’s learning all of the techniques as best as he can. He’s always had the athletic ability to play this game, so it’s just simply putting the mental part down and learning all the positions.”

With Carr and Scandrick sidelined, and Tyler Patmon out with a soft tissue injury, the Cowboys’ cornerback depth is getting tested. But that’s precisely the reason the Cowboys were thrilled when Jones slipped to them late in the first round.

Jones is a versatile defensive back who has been asked to cover everyone from Dez Bryant to Jason Witten to Cole Beasley, and he’s held his own so far.

He made a nice play against Bryant during a one-on-one drill early in camp that drew praise from Bryant himself. On Sunday, he didn’t make any memorable plays of that nature, but soaked in his first live scrimmage and continued to impress Cowboys brass.

“I like what I see; I don’t think the game is too big for him,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “He handles a lot, which is real impressive for a young guy who can go from being corner to free safety to nickel. It doesn’t seem to overwhelm him.”

No, it hasn’t, and Byron Jones seems to embrace it instead of letting it overwhelm him. In fact, he feels it’s a positive to have so much thrown at him as a rookie.

“It’s cool because whenever they move me around, I feel like they’re challenging me,” Jones said. “It’s like they’re saying, ‘Hey, Byron, let’s see what you got. Can you play the nickel? Can you play dime? Can you play safety? Can you play corner? All in one practice, so I accept the challenge.

“Once you know the entire defense, the schemes of the zones and man coverages are very interchangeable. Everything is based on someone else doing something, so if you know what the safety is doing, you know what you’re doing. It helps knowing multiple positions.”

Similar to Jones’ embracing his versatile role, Claiborne is trying to take on a bigger leadership role with the veterans out for the time being.

Claiborne, 25, has largely been considered a bust since being drafted with the sixth overall pick in the 2012 draft. But he is taking a different approach after a season in which he missed the final 12 regular-season games with a torn patellar tendon in his left knee.

“During the off-season, I put in the work and tested it out,” Claiborne said. “I put my body to the limit. I planted on it hard, ran on it hard, did all kinds of strange things to it just to see how it would hold up.

“It’s been holding up pretty well.”

The same can be said about the cornerback depth early on in camp.

This story was originally published August 9, 2015 at 10:04 PM with the headline "Cowboys thrilled with the distinguished ‘Senator’ from UConn."