On Wednesday, reports confirmed that the Dallas Cowboys’ offensive line had been dealt a major and most unfortunate blow. As per initial reports, star left tackle Tyron Smith suffered a torn hamstring while making a block during practice. It was later confirmed, however, that Smith had in fact suffered an avulsion fracture in his knee, which shockingly involves the hamstring tendon tearing off the bone. Needless to say, it’s highly unlikely that the Smith will feature for the Cowboys this season.
No stranger to injury, the 31-year-old has had his ups and downs over the past few seasons where his fitness is concerned, but without doubt he is still one of the NFL’s best tackles and an eight-time Pro Bowler. While there is never a good time for an injury to occur, there most definitely can be worse. That’s to say that with Dallas already in the middle of restructuring their offensive line, Smith’s injury is not ideal. Consider for a moment, the idea that Connor Williams left in free agency and La’el Collins was let go. Collins was set to be replaced by Tyler Smith, but that in itself causes issues as the franchise had hopes that Smith could start at guard alongside Smith in the short term. That’s no longer the case, which leads to the question, ‘what now?’
Here’s the thing, on the one hand the Cowboys could opt for the quick fix by homing in on their first-round pick immediately. The other option would be to go with in-house options like 2021 fourth-round pick Josh Ball who it must be said has struggled in training camp, 2022 fifth-rounder Matt Waletzko, who has played exclusively on the right-side during camp and is coming off an injury, and finally, there is veteran swing tackle Aviante Collins, who has played just five games since entering the league undrafted back in 2017. According to sources, the Cowboys seem to be leaning towards the in-house option at the moment, but it goes without saying that they will be keeping an eye on who goes where around the league
While it’s true that there are a few free agents on the market that could fill in – think Eric Fisher or Jason Peters – and the Cowboys do actually have the cap space to take the hit, the reality is there is nobody that’s going to that’s going to give them what Smith has. To be clear, Dallas’ offensive line didn’t give a good account of itself when it mattered most in their last season, which is to say the loss of Smith and the subsequent lack of a suitable replacement, is nothing short of disastrous for the Cowboys.
