Blogging The Boys
How much confidence do you have in the Cowboys without Tyler Guyton?
The way new Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer has built a level of trust in the fanbase from the time of his hire to just a few practices into his first training camp is nothing short of remarkable. The Cowboys took to the practice field again on Wednesday after a day off on Tuesday, marking their first practice since losing left tackle Tyler Guyton on Monday to what is luckily not an ACL tear.
Guyton will still factor into the Cowboys plans at left tackle, but will do so after missing valuable reps in a new system with a new play-caller, offensive coordinator, and line coach. On top of that, Guyton did not have the type of rookie season the Cowboys have come to expect from first-round offensive linemen.
Guyton’s injury is the latest open door in the name of competition and finding the best players ready to compete in Oxnard. The first opportunity to step into the starting left tackle role went to second-year draft pick Nate Thomas. On paper, this fact alone should be ringing alarm bells all throughout the Cowboys fanbase and a very serious cause for concern.
For a team with so many questions coming into the year on the heels of their first losing season in four tries, there simply is nothing more important to the Cowboys turning things around than the health, level of play, and support they give to quarterback Dak Prescott. A quality left tackle is very high on the list of priority positions when it comes to supporting a franchise quarterback, and Dallas of all teams knows they need to be deeper to withstand the season’s attrition. Yet here they are in Oxnard, one injury away from a player with zero professional snaps being the starting practice left tackle. A seventh-round draft pick in 2024, Thomas was hurt and placed on injured reserve before ever getting a chance to appear in the preseason as a rookie.
This is where that trust in Schottenheimer comes in. Thomas was a player he called out early on as one that’s caught his eye going into his second camp with the Cowboys. So far, it seems like at least on the true football stuff between the lines, fans are willing to buy into Schottenheimer’s vision for the offense. There is excitement for his use of new route concepts, motions, shifts, and run game focus, but now this list must include a solid plan to solve for left tackle. Wednesday’s practice was the first glimpse into what these things may look like, although the Cowboys went through it in shells instead of full pads, after back-to-back fully-padded practices on Sunday and Monday.
Thomas and Asim Richards shared the reps at left tackle throughout this practice, which is noteworthy, but also done out of necessity. Backup tackle Hakeem Adeniji was in street clothes and not available at Wednesday’s practice, and rookie Ajani Cornerlius was...
