Mike Jenkins has taken a big step back from last season, when he earned a Pro Bowl bid and looked every bit the Dallas Cowboys’ best cornerback, better even than mainstay and fellow Pro Bowler Terence Newman. But through his struggles, Jenkins is confident that he will return to form.
“I'm going to keep my head high and I'm going to eventually get back to being that guy you don't want to mess with,” Jenkins said Wednesday, per the Dallas Morning News.
Jenkins’ troubles are reflected in the statistics: Quarterbacks this season have completed 49 of 75 attempts in his direction for a quarterback rating of 105.7; in his Pro Bowl season, quarterbacks had a 53.6 rating when throwing at Jenkins.
The trouble may stem from an early flurry of pass interference calls on Jenkins, which have since deterred the third-year corner from his preferred, aggressive style of play. Jenkins said that he planned on returning to that style to some degree moving forward.
“It's going to be more man press,'' he said. “That's what I do best. When I line up in their face, its hard for a lot of guys to complete balls on me. I had gotten to the point where I was playing a lot of off coverage, and that was in man coverage too, and that's not really my game. I kind of got out of my game.”
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