Cowboys may have accidentally ended All-Pro's career
The Dallas Cowboys received some very unfortunate news regarding Tyron Smith late last week after it was announced Smith would miss the majority of the year due to an avulsion fracture in his knee. It's just the latest injury on a long list of many for Smith. The eight-time Pro Bowler hasn't played a full […]
The Dallas Cowboys received some very unfortunate news regarding Tyron Smith late last week after it was announced Smith would miss the majority of the year due to an avulsion fracture in his knee.
It's just the latest injury on a long list of many for Smith. The eight-time Pro Bowler hasn't played a full season since 2015 and if he misses the amount of time that's expected in 2022, he'll only have played in 13 of 44 possible games over the last three seasons (including 2022).
The Cowboys obviously have to find a replacement, but according to the team, they won't look outside for help. The expectation is that Tyler Smith -who the team considers to be the left tackle of the future- will step in at left tackle in 2022.
Stephen Jones even likened the rookie's position to that of Dak Prescott's rookie year, when he took Tony Romo's starting job because of his strong play. Jones' latest comments all but assured Tyler Smith will get the first crack at the starting gig.
“From the get-go, we said that (Tyler Smith) is our future at left tackle,” Jones said on Friday. “Not unlike Dak — five years ago, six years ago, whatever it was. He had to step up when Tony got hurt. We didn’t go get a veteran quarterback.”
It's a logical plan, but there are doubts about whether or not Smith is ready to play in the NFL. Even head coach Mike McCarthy recently said that Connor McGovern would be the starting left guard, Tyler Smith's initial position when Tyron Smith was healthy, if the regular season started last Wednesday.
“If we started today, Connor McGovern would play (left guard),” said McCarthy in Wednesday’s press conference. “Tyler has come along strong. He does a lot of good things. (But) he’s like the rest of our rookies. They need to play and keep getting better.”
That's obviously not ideal. Especially if Smith is going to be playing left tackle – a position that is far more important than left guard.
However, if Smith can come out of 2022 with an overall grade of "solid", the Cowboys should be just fine.
But Tyron Smith's career as a Cowboy won't be just fine. In fact, it will be over.
If Tyler Smith has a good year at left tackle, it'd make zero sense for the Cowboys to move him back inside once Tyron returns. You can guarantee that Tyler Smith's development and momentum would be severely hindered in this scenario. Therefore, he will be the team's starting left tackle in 2023 and beyond.
2023 also represents the last year of Tyron Smith's deal and, his $17,605,000 cap hit is primarily composed via his $13.6 million base salary. Meaning, the Cowboys will be in a solid position to let him go if Tyler Smith shows the promise Dallas wants (and needs) to see.
And, of course, Tyron Smith's injury history doesn't help anything.
There is some slight hope for Tyron outside of Tyler not performing up to set standards and that's the fact Terence Steele, who's currently slated to be the starting right tackle, is without a contract after 2022. However, he's a restricted free agent, so it will be harder for other teams to sign him away from the Cowboys. It's very likely teams will have to give up some significant draft compensation based off the NFL's RFA rules, which could easily deter them from pursuing Steele.
This is a big year for the Cowboys, so they have to do what they have to do in order to keep themselves in the mix for the postseason. However, the route they have to take could inadvertently end the career of one of the franchise's best players.
Featured image via Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
