Dallas Cowboys: Four key players to watch in preseason opener
By Brad Austin
The wait is over. The hay is in the barn. The lights are on. Only one cliche remains. Dallas Cowboys fans, are you ready for some football?
Tonight at 7:00pm CT the Dallas Cowboys will square off against the Arizona Cardinals in the NFL’s first live contact battle of the 2017-18 season.
While the Hall of Fame Game is the first of five Cowboys exhibitions, the action and desire will be high stakes for those involved.
At the time of writing Dallas has yet to announce a complete list of inactives or predetermined play time for starting players.
The Cardinals will hold back their starters, so the Cowboys will likely follow suit. While all the details remain a mystery, there are definite holdouts on tap.
Chaz Green (G/T), Jaylon Smith (LB), Jourdan Lewis (CB), Justin Durant (LB), Maliek Collins (DT), Ryan Switzer (WR) and Tyron Smith (LT) are known injury scratches.
Other key veterans will also be spectators or play sparingly as a precaution.
Despite the long list of missing notables, there will still be several key performances to keep an eye on in Canton, OH.
Here are my four key players to watch in Thursday night preseason opener for the Cowboys, the Hall of Fame game.