As we learned during his rookie season, cornerback Morris Claiborne isn’t one to sugarcoat things when he fails to meet his own expectations. To wit, on Tuesday, Claiborne told reporters that he graded his own rookie campaign a “C-minus.”
That said, Claiborne isn’t down on himself. Rather, he believes he’s primed for a major stride in his second year.
“I expect a great big jump for myself,” Claiborne said, per the Dallas Morning News. “I expect to go out and play way different than what I did last year.”
One difference in Claiborne is already immediately noticeable: He’s bigger. The Dallas staff had hoped Claiborne would hit the weights hard this offseason--corners in Monte Kiffin’s 4-3 are expected to play a physical game--but the LSU product says he was going to do that anyway. Now he’s around eight pounds heavier than he was his rookie season.
“Before they even came out with that, I felt that I needed to do it to help my game as well,” Claiborne said. “I felt a little bit last year like I was losing receivers at the top of the break and not being in front of them enough at the line of scrimmage. That was a big emphasis that I wanted to do in the offseason.”
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