3 Cowboys players to watch in Week 1 vs. the Buccaneers
By Randy Gurzi
If the Dallas Cowboys are going to win in Week 1 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, they’re going to need their star players to step up. They’ll lean heavily on Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Dalton Schultz, Micah Parsons, and DeMarcus Lawrence.
Having said that, star power won’t be enough to win this week. Dallas will also need some of their role players to step up and play well, and here are three players to keep an eye on as potential difference makers.
3 Cowboys players to watch in Week 1 against the Buccaneers
3. Tyler Smith, LT
Dallas made a couple of questionable calls this offseason but none bigger than banking on Tyron Smith as their left tackle. Sure, he’s one of the best in the game when healthy, but he has missed 20 games over the past two seasons and hasn’t played a full schedule since 2015.
While it’s true that they drafted Tyler Smith to be the eventual replacement, they elected not to give him any time at tackle, instead having him transition to guard. If that wasn’t enough, they even tried to say Connor McGovern would be the starter, so that means they were giving him all these interior reps to be a backup at a new (less important) position — rather than letting him try to become the swing tackle.
Sadly, but predictably, Tyron Smith was hurt as he suffered a torn hamstring in practice. Dallas then quickly learned Josh Ball wasn’t up to the task and waited far too long to sign a veteran — landing Jason Peters too late in the week for him to start at left tackle.
So their answer now is to move the rookie to left tackle. Thankfully, he played this position at Tulsa so he should be comfortable but it’s worth keeping an eye on him to see how he handles the veteran Shaq Barrett.