Dallas Cowboys: Connor Williams lost for the season with ACL injury
The Dallas Cowboys will be without a starter along their offensive line as second-year guard Connor Williams has suffered a season-ending ACL injury.
The Dallas Cowboys like making their strengths even stronger. It’s the reason they justified using a second-round selection in 2018 (Connor Williams, Texas) and a third-round selection last season (Connor McGovern, Penn State) on their highly-touted offensive line.
The Cowboys O-line has already reached legendary status. Dallas has famously spent three first-round selections in order to build this once dominate positional group behind perennial Pro Bowlers in left tackle Tyron Smith, center Travis Frederick, and right guard Zack Martin.
Right tackle La’el Collins, who signed as likely the greatest undrafted rookie free agent ever back in 2015 after being touted as a possible first-rounder, is currently having a Pro Bowl-worthy season himself.
The weak link across the Cowboys offensive line is left guard Connor Williams. After starting in his first eight games as a rookie last year, Williams lost his job after suffering a knee injury to veteran Xavier Su’a-Filo.
But the second-rounder bounced back this offseason, adding 15 pounds to his frame in order to strengthen his base and regained the starting role at left guard to start the 2019 season. Yet, Pro Football Focus (PFF) has given Williams an overall rating of 61.2 for 2019, barely up from 58.0 his rookie season. According to RotoWorld, that ranks him 36th at his position out of 86 qualified players per PFF.
Williams has started 11-games for the Cowboys so far this year, missing one contest after having arthroscopic knee surgery earlier this month. The 22-year old was able to work his way back quickly, starting against both the New England Patriots in Week 12 and the Buffalo Bills on Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, Williams tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee against the Bills on Thursday and will now miss the rest of the season.
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Luckily, the absence of Connor Williams along the Dallas Cowboys offensive line should be mitigated due to the depth of the roster, with Xavier Su’a-Filo set to replace him in the starting lineup. Next season, we could see Williams shifted to swing tackle if Connor McGovern is able to fulfill his potential at guard after spending his rookie season sidelined with a pectoral injury.