The Dallas Cowboys did their best Neo impression, dodging a serious bullet with the Tyler Guyton injury in Oxnard.
Initially, the fears were an ACL injury, but after the MRI results came back, a bone fracture and a four-to-six-week recovery timeline meant the Cowboys wouldn't be without their starting left tackle for a significant period.
Still, it isn't ideal for a young player who needs to build up and bank reps, but as Brian Schottenheimer states, it could have been far worse.
“We’re pleased in that it could have been worse,” Schottenheimer said. “He's had such a great off season, such great growth, great confidence, and now he's got to continue to grow professionally and learn how to attack rehab. no different than how he attacked learning his sets. He's excited about that.
"My stance with guys that are injured is whether they're, a couple weeks, a day-to-day thing, the year, man, is we love him up. We communicate with them. We want them around. He's going to be here training his ass off. I do feel like we dodged a bullet there.”
With Guyton now attacking his rehab, it has been Nate Thomas who has stepped in at left tackle and is getting first-team reps. A couple of nice sets against Marshawn Kneeland were seen, with the common theme being that Thomas was "stout" in his first practice taking over from Guyton.
So, it is a good first step, but as we know, it doesn't take much to humble you in the NFL, but Thomas is making the most of his first-team reps.
Yeah, the Cowboys dodged a bullet with Guyton ... and now they'll try to deal with the absence with "love.''
