Training camp injuries have turned the Cowboys’ OL into the walking wounded

The Cowboys offensive line has been absolutely decimated by injuries.

The hits keep coming for the Dallas Cowboys offensive line. Thursday afternoon Pro Bowl left guard Tyler Smith exited practice early with knee soreness – tendinitis, as it seems – and it remains to be seen if he misses any time.

Tyler Smith is the latest Cowboys offensive lineman to come up lame at training camp. Thankfully this doesn’t seem to be anything serious, but will still need to be monitored closely along with the rest of the Cowboys walking wounded injured OL right now.

Smith is simply just the most recent of the Cowboys OL who have sustained some degree of injury since training camp got underway. He joins Terence Steele (ankle), Rob Jones (neck), and Tyler Guyton (knee) in missing some practice time thus far in training camp due to injuries and all will need to be closely monitored. That doesn’t even include some down roster linemen who missed time.

While thankfully none of these injuries have been of the season-ending type, it does raise somewhat of a concern about the cohesiveness of this group and the further development of Guyton. The quicker everyone can get healthy, the better.

Unfortunately, Guyton is expected to miss 4-6 weeks with the fractured bone in his knee and Rob Jones is expected to miss 2-3 months with a broken bone in his neck. Terence Steele however has returned to practice after his ankle injury, which is good news considering Dallas’ OT depth.

If you’re looking for a silver lining to all of these injuries along the Cowboys o-line, with those players sidelined the coaching staff is getting a good look at the depth chart behind them. These extra practice reps will give everybody a better idea of where these backups fit on the depth chart as well as who may or may not stick to the final 53-man roster.

It’s also important to remember this is a new coaching staff with a new OL coach (Conor Riley) and offensive coordinator (Klayton Adams), both of which were brought in to help get the best out of this group. Their fresh eyes and different approach have already proven to show neither aare opposed to making changes.

With several of the starters sidelined with injuries there have been some mixing and matching of Dallas’ backups to find their best fit. For instance, T.J. Bass has received work at both RG and at LG in place of Tyler Smith as well as at RT. The biggest surprise though is second-year OL Nate Thomas stepping in for Tyler Guyton at LT.

Thomas was pretty much an afterthought entering training camp, but is now working with the first team and more than holding his own. The seventh-round pick last year was already catching the eye of the coaching staff prior to Guyton’s injury, but even more so now as an injury fill-in.

Ideally everybody would remain healthy, but in reality injuries happen and circumventing them is just part of the process. Dallas’ offensive line maybe the walking wounded right now, but that’s only temporary. They will return to the lineup eventually, but in the meantime getting an extended look at their backups could prove to be invaluable.