The Cowboys have no more room for error on the OL

If you haven’t noticed by now, the hits just won’t stop coming for the Dallas Cowboys on the offensive line.

left guard Tyler Smith came out of practice early on Thursday. Thank goodness this one was not anything major either.

Smith is dealing with tendinitis in his knee, Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones told the Dallas Morning News.

Smith left practice with about 30 minutes remaining and told reporters he was fine as he walked down the sideline back to the team’s training camp setup.

No Room For Error

Look, after losing Robert Jones with a broken bone in his neck and Tyler Guyton expected to miss 4–6 weeks, the Cowboys had to go out and sign La’el Collins.

Collins played for the Cowboys for seven seasons, but he has not played in the NFL since 2022, when he was with the Bengals. He had a brief practice squad stint with the Cowboys in 2023 and was with the Bills in camp in 2024.

Collins has played 89 games with 86 starts in his career, seeing action at both tackle and guard, but at this point in his career should he be a guy that the Cowboys have any confidence in sending out there for at least a month to start?

I would say no.

Nate Thomas, a second-year player from Louisiana Tech, is getting the first look at replacing Guyton at left tackle. Thomas is 6-foot-4 and weighs 330 pounds, and that size carries over to the field.

Steele has been working his way back into practice since his high-ankle sprain forced him to miss a couple of days, so there is no telling how long it will be until he’s back with the first-team offense on a full-time basis.

Cooper Beebe is a guy that I still think highly of, and he is going to be needed big time this year to play at a high level.

Tyler Booker will hopefully need to have a Smith-type year in his rookie season, but we have to be honest. This offensive line does not have much more room for error at all.

Let’s see how the rest of this summer unfolds, but man, it feels like someone is going down with an injury every single week, and I just hope these stop at some point.

This offensive line is going to need to be good for the running game they have, and with Pickens and Lamb on the outside.

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7 Comments

Roy Chambers 9 months ago

The 500.000 thousand Jerry took from T. Digg should be used to buy state of the art equipment and a real trainer staff I realize that injuries are a part of sports especially football there is something amidst in their training room there's to many injuries to the players if Digg didn't trust they're training facility is totally understandable
bardolf 9 months ago

Cowboys are stacked in the offensive line. Guyton going down is not world shattering, there are capable replacements who are just as good if not better to fill his position. Nate Thomas might prove to be a "boss" at that weakside tackle slot.
1. Shane Taylor Post Author 9 months ago
  
  Did you see them get dominated yesterday against the Rams D line? They are FAR from stacked lol
  1. Cowboys fan 9 months ago
    
    They didn't get dominated!! They were having a hard time though!! Especially in the run game, but Dak and Milton both had plenty of time to find a open receiver, so the offensive line wasn't being dominated!! Milton even had a 65 yard touchdown pass, and that's not even possible unless the offensive line is doing really good blocking!! But the offensive line wasn't having a hard time in the run game because the offensive line is bad, it's because the rams defensive line is that good!! Plus we had a pretty new lineup working together too!! So I think I said it in my first comment, but if not, I'll just say I agree with bardolf!! We have plenty of good offensive linemen!! That's why we have training camp and preseason, so we can work out who the best will be, and we're still working on that!! The players that were starting on the offensive line against the rams in the joint practice isn't guaranteed to be the starters in week 1!! As a matter of fact, I guarantee all of them won't be starters because at least 1 or 2 of the starters are injured right now, so the ones playing against the rams in the practice wasn't even starters!! But they still did pretty good for being backups and not having much time to get used to working together!! So like I said, I agree with bardolf.... We are stacked with offensive linemen!! We have a really good group of starters, and a lot of the backups are good enough to be starters on most other teams!! Like Saadiq Charles, Brock Hoffman, Tj Bass, La'el Collins, Asim Richards, and Nate Thomas has been doing really good too!! And that's not including the rookie Adeniji who has been pretty mean in camp so far and the other free agents we signed, especially the one that's out with a broken bone in his neck!! That's 8 good linemen I just named off, and at least 7 of them could be starters on most other teams!! So I think we are stacked at that position!! The only thing bad about it is we're not gonna be able to keep all of them when we cut the roster down to 53!! But other than that, we have a loaded group of offensive linemen!!
Cowboys fan 9 months ago

I think we'll be fine on the offensive line!! The main player we have to worry about is Guyton, and there's no guarantee he'll even be any good this year!! He mite be a little better than last year, but there's no guarantee he'll make a big jump in his performance!! Tyler Smith is fine and Steele hasn't been that good the last couple years, so we mite be better off using somebody else there anyways!! And I think you should have a little more confidence in Collins.... He wasn't even a bad player when Steele took his place, and just because he hasn't played in a couple years, it don't mean he can't be good!! It mite be a good thing he hasn't played since 2022.... That means he don't have the wear and tear to his body that the other players have!! And then we still have other linemen that are fully capable of being a starter if they need to be!! We have La'el Collins, Asim Richards, Saadiq Charles, Tj Bass and Brock Hoffman that I would feel comfortable with starting for us, and that's just the main ones!! We still have the 6th round rookie that has looked good in camp so far and another couple free agents we signed in the offseason!! So I think your a little too worried over nothing!! We are loaded on the offensive line, and even though we're not gonna keep all of them, we'll still have plenty of options to play for us!! And if we still end up having problems with them during the season or have more injuries during the season, there's always gonna be free agents out there we can sign if it comes to it!! But with all the linemen we have, I don't think we'll have anything to worry about!! So you shouldn't worry so much!!
Edward Carmichael 9 months ago

a Dallas Cowboys fan, since the 70's Jerry Jones will have know choice to start using back ups or go to the practice squad because injuries are happening on the Cowboys offensive line
1. Cowboys fan 9 months ago
  
  What practice squad?? There is no practice squad!! We have a 90 man roster right now, and we won't have a practice squad until after we cut the roster down to 53 players!! That's the way it works!! We don't just have a practice squad full of players all year every year!! But I guess I shouldn't expect you to know that since you don't really know anything about football!!

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