Naturally, a semblance of panic settled in when the Dallas Cowboys announced a left tackle competition between Tyler Guyton, Nate Thomas, and Drew Shelton. You never want a first-round pick entering his third season to have to fend off a seventh-rounder and a fourth-round rookie.
Guyton should already have the left tackle job locked up, but injuries have prevented that. With that in mind, it's easy to understand why the Cowboys wanted him to earn it outright.
But nobody really gave any thought to Thomas or Shelton supplanting Guyton. And it only took one padded practice for Brian Schottenheimer to bring an end to the competition, citing a need for Nate Thomas to be more consistent (h/t Nick Harris, Fort Worth Star-Telegram).
Padded practices were always going to reveal whether this was a true competition. Guyton needed a little over two hours to pull away, meaning the battle ended before it ever truly began.
Cowboys OT Tyler Guyton will remain at left tackle for now, per Brian Schottenheimer. Nate Thomas was scheduled to get work with the first-team today, but they want to see more consistency from him.
— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) August 4, 2026
Tyler Guyton won the Cowboys' LT competition after one padded practice
It's impossible to spin this as anything but a positive for the Cowboys. Guyton needs every possible rep as the starting left tackle. This decision paves the way for that.
Having said that, Dallas merely avoided the worst-case scenario. Arguably, the worst development this summer would be Guyton not seizing control of the LT job. A sweat or two may have been broken when the team announced the competition, but anything other than Guyton being given every rep never made any sense. It was always heading this direction.
Thomas has had nice spurts filling in for Guyton, but the negatives have far outweighed the positives, as he ranked last among OTs last season with a 31.6 pass-blocking grade, per Pro Football Focus. That'll happen when you allow three sacks and 23 pressures on just 219 pass-blocking snaps.
A seventh-round pick in 2024, Thomas is a perfectly capable backup. But the idea that he could overtake Guyton has always been misguided. Guyton's ceiling has never been in question; only his ability to stay healthy long enough to reach it.
Shelton, meanwhile, has looked like a Day 3 rookie in camp. The Cowboys think he can develop into a backup swing tackle, but he had a rough go of it in individual drills on Tuesday. He's got a long way to go to be trusted to see the field this season.
Breathe a sigh of relief that Guyton needed one padded practice to pull away. But this was always the expected outcome.
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