Cowboys lose Mike Mickens

Tampa Bay has plucked cornerback Mike Mickens off the Cowboys' practice squad, bringing him up to its active roster. Mickens spent the first eight weeks on the practice squad for the Cowboys. A seventh-round pick out of Cincinnati, Mickens was looked at as a steal because of a knee injury that dropped his stock. He struggled some in training campo but he has some natural playmaking skills. With the Cowboys set at cornerback, Mickens opted to go to the Buccaneers, but I know the team generally likes to keep their guys if they can. Usually the way the process works is the player's agent will let the team know of an impending practice squad move and see if they would move the player up immediately or in the future or raise his salary to keep him. I'm not sure if that happened here, but teams in the past have been known to pay rookie minimum salaries instead of the weekly practice rate of $5,200. Mickens is the fifth member of the draft class to not play for the Cowboys ...