Sunday night, linebacker Sean Lee will make his second Opening Day debut after a season-ending injury, and Cowboys owner Jerry Jones expects to see a vastly improved version of the six-year pro.
"I think we're going to get a better Sean Lee than we had on the field then," Jones told "G-Bag Nation" on 105.3 The Fan. "And I think it's a case of continuing. We all saw it, if you looked. It was out there. But we've never had anybody rehab work harder, work harder on the intricacies of his game on the fact that he moved over from the middle to the weak linebacker and the homework he does in that area."
Lee will move from his middle linebacker spot, a position he played for Dallas since 2010, to a weakside linebacker spot that is more coverage-based. The move is expected to keep the oft-injured yet playmaking defender away from unnecessary contact.
On the first practice of OTA's in late May last year, Lee blew out his left ACL and was gone for the upcoming season. Jones admits he should have encouraged the Penn State alumnus to get his left knee, which only had 20 percent of the ligament remaining, worked on.
"You knew, we knew that he had this tear in his knee when we drafted him. And we thought that we would fix it at some time in the future," said Jones. "The mistake that I made was when he fixed his elbow, we should have had that knee done too. But Sean needs to be here saying that and he might disagree."
With Lee returning against the New York Giants Sunday night at AT&T Stadium, Jones expects his team to include a "major, better defense."
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