Who will be the MIKE (middle) linebacker going forward? That’s anyone’s guess at the moment, because Barham will get the aforementioned shot at the role, but so will Winters, and the team seems fairly high on second-year talent Justin Barron as well, though the latter has an uphill climb to try and leapfrog Barham and Winters for the job.
And, quiet as it’s kept, the signing of veteran linebacker Curtis Robinson both reunites the former 49er with Winters in Dallas while adding another candidate for the MIKE role, even if for depth, in competition with Barron behind the starters, one could logically surmise.
None of this means the Cowboys are done shopping but, if they are, Schottenheimer feels they’ll be fine as-is.
“I’m comfortable where we are,” he said. “We’re not not looking. We’re not not evaluating. I think adding Dee and Jaishawn, and Curtis Robinson, we’ll get a chance to evaluate these guys once Phase 1 is ended. We’re never closed for business.
“At the end of the day, we’ve got a great group of linebackers and now it’s about training them with Christian and Scott Symons and getting them on the same page about the system we want to run.”
From working to figure out the green dot to solving the equation at middle linebacker, the two things inherently and mostly tethered to one another, it’ll be an interesting summer for Christian Parker’s shiny new defense.