Dallas Cowboys training camp will be make or break for free safety J.J. Wilcox, but will new safeties coach Greg Jackson help him turn his career around?

Dallas Cowboys Spotlight is a weekly series that will look to predict how a member of the roster will produce during the 2016 season. After analyzing the reliable Jason Witten last week, we now take a look at the opposite in J.J. Wilcox.

Not taking the easiest route this week. Very few Dallas Cowboys fans need reminding of how special a player Jason Witten is – however this week a far less uncertain player is under the spotlight. Entering his forth season J.J. Wilcox is running out of opportunities to prove himself as an NFL Safety.

The only argument one can realistically make in defense of Wilcox is that he was never suited to play free safety as he has since being drafted by the Cowboys in the 3rd round of the 2013 draft. His skill set is much better suited at strong safety – but that position has been occupied by Barry Church.

Unfortunately, that’s where the tangible excuses end for Wilcox. He’s not a very instinctive player, commonly out of position, not good in coverage, and takes bad angles when angling down to make tackles – extremely mitigating the physicality he could bring if he brought a superior approach.

What about being relatively new to Safety?

That is no longer an excuse after already going through three offseason programs and full seasons worth of practices with the Cowboys.

It’s about time we see production out of Wilcox. The coaching staff may have run out of patience with him as it has been all except officially announced that Byron Jones will be taking over the starting free safety position – baring injury.

Could new safeties coach Greg Jackson turn Wilcox’s career around? Coaches can provide guidance, information, technique, and motivation – but players have to put them to use. Jackson has a pedigree of working with strong secondaries for both the San Fransisco 49ers and University of Michigan while under Jim Harbaugh.

With that being said, here comes the prediction for Wilcox for the upcoming season. With the current core of safeties the odds are on the 4th safety spot coming down to Wilcox and rookie 6th round selection Kavon Frazier. Wilcox will make the final 53 as it should be easy to get Frazier to the practice squad and Wilcox will have a core special teams role.

It would be of no shock to see Wilcox cut either, especially if he doesn’t show any improvement during training. To his credit, he is approaching the situation with a positive attitude – which probably does gain him at least a bit of favor with the coaching staff.

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