Cornerback Mike Jenkins played well for the Cowboys, the way you’d expect a first-round pick to play. But when they started signing other players to the kind of contract he wanted, it made for an inevitable and ugly divorce.
Now with the Raiders, Jenkins is going to see his old friends again, but has no love for the organization that replaced him last year by signing Brandon Carr and trading up in the draft to take Morris Claiborne. His insistence on rehabbing after shoulder surgery in Florida as opposed to Dallas didn’t help.
“My swagger and my confidence never left. My last few years in Dallas had nothing to do with swagger,” Jenkins said, via Brandon George of the Dallas Morning News. “It was more of a personal vendetta that was going on around there, and I don’t care too much to talk about it.”
Jenkins then tried to stomp out the embers he dredged up, saying it was “pointless” to “bring up old fire.”
If he holds a grudge, it’s not against cornerback Orlando Scandrick, who was given a five-year, $27 million deal which effectively left no room for Jenkins in Dallas.
“Why would I be envious of Orlando?” Jenkins said. “That’s like one of my best friends. I would never be envious of Orlando Scandrick. First of all, I came in on top. I came in as a first-round draft pick. There’s no reason for me to be envious.”
He’ll have a chance to see his old friend Scandrick on Thursday, and will doubtless be looking to make the rest of them pay.