Jones happy with defensive backfield

The St. Louis Cardinals have failed to reach contract agreement with safety O.J. Atogwe, whois now a free agent, but Cowboys owner Jerry Jones indicated little interest in Atogwe.

In fact, because Jones was not certain whether or not Atogwe was no longer under contract, he did not want to talk about the safety for fear of a tampering charge.

"We don’t comment on any of those players and I’m not even for sure what his status is right now," Jones said. "He’s a great safety but really because I don’t know succinctly what his status is, I wouldn’t comment. I know they’re involved in negotiations and that’s good enough for me.

The discussion of another safety led to another question on whether Jones is happy with the depth at safety, where Alan Ball and Gerald Sensabaugh are starters and Mike Hamlin and Patrick Watkins are backups.

"I’m ready to go to our season with the safeties we have," Jones said. "That might answer your question [about Atogwe]."

-- Jan Hubbard