The Cowboys like what they’ve seen from linebacker Rolando McClain so far this summer and now they want to see more from the former first-round pick.
Head coach Jason Garrett said Monday that the team is going to take a look at McClain at middle linebacker with the starting defense this week. Justin Durant, who has been in the middle, will move to the weak side with either Kyle Wilber or Bruce Carter rounding out the starting trio.
“At the end of the day, we need to find our three best linebackers and our best combination of those guys to start for us in base, and then there are some roles in nickel as well,” Garrett said, via ESPNDallas.com. “If guys demonstrate that they’re a better cover guy than base linebacker, maybe they’ll get their opportunities there. So we’ll continue to work the different looks and the different combinations and see what looks best.”
McClain played well against the Ravens over the weekend and the Cowboys need to be open to all alternatives on a defense that looks shaky, to put it mildly, across the board. Whether someone who hasn’t played in a regular season game since November of 2012 is going to change that is unclear, but it looks like we’ll get a chance to find out.