A year ago, five-time Pro Bowl center Andre Gurode reported to training camp in poor shape and was released by the Cowboys at the end of the preseason.

Backup running back Felix Jones, whose most memorable moment at this season’s camp was flunking the conditioning test, doesn’t have to worry about the same fate when the Cowboys cut the roster to 53 players this summer.

“That’s a ridiculous thought,” Jerry Jones snapped on KRLD-FM when asked if the former first-round pick’s roster spot was in jeopardy. “I’m not worried about him at all. From what I’ve seen out there, he’s got a chance to have a big year for us.”

It’s really a ridiculous thought to believe that Felix Jones, based on what he’s done in California, is on the verge of a big year.

Jerry Jones claims Felix Jones is in shape, but the owner/general manager has acknowledged that his fellow Arkansas alum was trying to cut weight the days before camp opened with the conditioning test.

There is a long list of better backs who were on the draft board when the Cowboys selected Jones with the 22nd overall pick in 2008, but he has been a dynamic change-of-pace back when healthy and used in that role. But Jones’ effectiveness has decreased as his role – and body – have gotten bigger over the last couple of years.

There have been no glimpses this summer of the burst that made Jones such a fascinating player his first couple of years.

Yet there is no chance of Jones, the only experienced back behind DeMarco Murray, being in jeopardy of losing his job.