The Dallas Cowboys were dealt a heavy blow on Wednesday night with news that left tackle Tyron Smith could miss an extended period of time due to a torn hamstring suffered during practice. The injury to Smith raises questions about a Cowboys offense that already had several glaring issues.
Tyron Smith, when healthy, has been a stalwart for the Cowboys. At his peak, he was the benchmark among tackles for the last decade and even last season, Smith showed signs of his former self. In 11 games, he allowed just one pressure a game and finished with the second-highest grade among all tackles in the NFL per PFF. The problem is that Smith has struggled to stay healthy, and the torn hamstring suffered on Wednesday, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter, has exacerbated some offensive troubles for the Cowboys.
The Cowboys offense underwent some drastic changes in the offseason after cap restraints pushed them into a corner. Re-signing the likes of Michael Gallup, Dalton Schultz, and a few defenders like Jayron Kearse and Leighton Vander Esch was a necessity for the front office. But to do it, sacrifices were made. The front office were forced to trade away Amari Cooper to the Browns for a measly fifth round pick due to Cooper’s bloated contract. Losing Cooper was an unfortunate, but necessary, casualty.
It does, at least for a few weeks of the season, leave the Cowboys with a real lack of juice on offense. Ceedee Lamb is an exceptional football player, but he’s not a burner who can create acres of separation on deep routes. He’s shifty, using head movements and smart route-running to separate at the top of his routes.
Gallup is on the road to recovery after tearing his ACL in Week 17 last season, but he’ll likely take a few games to get rolling which means there’s more pressure on Jalen Tolbert, a third-round rookie, to produce from day one. Tolbert could do that, but it’s a lot to ask from a player that hasn’t played a pro snap. Especially for a team that has aspirations of making a Super Bowl run.
The Cowboys could be accused of being too compact on offense. Prescott’s 7.7 air yards per attempt placed 19th out of 31 qualified quarterbacks in 2021. The running game was also one of the least efficient in the NFL, and that was with Smith. The team also lost Connor Williams and La’el Collins, both competent starting linemen who departed in free agency. As a result, the offensive line was already weaker heading into the 2022 season. The loss of Smith until December, at the earliest, heightens the woes even more.
When healthy, Prescott has the potential to be one of the 6 or 7 best quarterbacks in the NFL, and he was arguably comfortably in the elite tier for the first six games of the season before injury, but the Cowboys still have issues that plague them offensively.
In a vacuum, each issue wouldn’t be a nightmare by itself, but the amalgamation of them all together, as well as the ascension of the Philadelphia Eagles is a problem for Dallas. It’s not a stretch to say that the Smith injury could be the catalyst for an underwhelming season for the Cowboys when factored in with everything else going on with the team.
-Thomas Valentine
Twitter: @tvalentinesport
Photo: Jeffrey Beall. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.