Cowboys are playing with fire

The Dallas Cowboys finished 26th in the league in passing yards allowed last season, surrendering a total of 4,167 yards through the air.

Quarterbacks completed an astounding 67.1 percent of their passes against the Cowboys second highest in the NFL with a passer rating of 94.1, largely thanks to Dallas’ lack of interceptions (nine).

Dallas drafted Chidobe Awuzie in the second round and Jourdan Lewis in the third, then stole safety Xavier Woods in the sixth.

All four new arrivals have a chance to start in Week 1, but Jerry Jones and his staff are playing with fire in the secondary, and it’s going to make or break the defense.

That leaves three open spots Dallas needs to fill, seeing as its base defense features five defensive backs for the most part.

Not to mention, Jeff Heath and Kavon Frazier will both compete for playing time at safety with the former leading Dallas in interceptions last season.

However, they no longer have the peace of mind that Carr will be starting at one cornerback spot with Church lining up at strong safety each week, providing good coverage and solid run defense.

What hurts Dallas’ defensive backfield, in addition to losing key starters, is the lack of a pass rush.

Combined, Dallas’ projected starters (Jones, Heath, Brown, Awuzie and Scandrick) have six years of starting experience a total of 105 games started, more than half of which are from Scandrick alone.

Either way, the Cowboys’ cornerbacks and safeties will ultimately break the defense because, well, we don’t quite know what we’re going to get from them this season.