FRISCO, Texas — Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith will require surgery and an extensive absence after tearing a hamstring tendon near his left knee Wednesday during the team’s final training-camp practice, a person with knowledge of the diagnosis said, dealing a significant blow to an offensive line whose tackle depth already was considered a roster stress point.
Further testing revealed Smith suffered an avulsion fracture in his left knee related to the hamstring tear, the person said. According to the Mayo Clinic, an avulsion fracture occurs when a small chunk of bone attached to a tendon or ligament gets pulled away from the main part of the bone.
Smith will undergo surgery on Friday, another person familiar with the injury said. The team will have a better idea on a timetable for return after the surgery, but Dallas is proceeding on the assumption that Smith will be able to return late in the season.
On Thursday morning, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones called the injury a “setback.”
“We’ll have him, and we’ll have him at the right time,” Jones said while appearing on ESPN’s "First Take." “We’ll have him in that San Francisco [playoff] game, or the equivalent of it that we had last year. Maybe we won’t fall short.”
The Cowboys evaluated free agents and potential free agents at offensive tackle before Wednesday’s development, one team official noting recently the difficulty of finding quality external help at the position. Any and all efforts to identify support at left tackle, including internally, now intensify.
Rookie first-round pick Tyler Smith is suddenly in the conversation to start at left tackle Sept. 11 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Around 7 p.m. Wednesday, Tyron Smith ran to deliver a second-level block on linebacker Leighton Vander Esch but fell to the turf inside Ford Center at The Star. Original indications from the team and a person close to Smith were he injured his left knee, and very cautious optimism surrounded the injury entering an MRI. Smith lay on the ground about a minute before standing and slowly walking off the field under his own power.
Smith later was seen walking out of the facility, again without assistance. ESPN first reported a hamstring tear that could cost Smith months of the season.
“I was in pass protect, and all the sudden, I see him on the ground,” left guard Connor McGovern said Wednesday evening. “I didn’t even care where the ball was downfield. I instantly just went to him. You saw literally everyone on the offense, even defensive guys, running over there. When a guy like that goes down — it doesn’t even matter who it is, this team is so close. Everyone is trying to get over there and see if they’re all right and get them back up.”
McGovern met with Smith after practice in the locker room.
Their exchange was brief.
“He gave me a nice, reassuring grunt like he usually does,” McGovern said. “That’s one thing, playing next to him for so long, I can decipher his grunts. I think he’s all right.”
Josh Ball finished practice at left tackle. A high ankle sprain sidelined the 2021 fourth-round pick for most of training camp as a rookie, and he spent the entire season on injured reserve. Despite gradual improvement, Ball has struggled this preseason.
In April, the Cowboys drafted former Tulsa left tackle Tyler Smith in the first round and rotated him between left guard and left tackle during the spring. Their vision for Tyler Smith was to start him immediately at left guard but have him ready to slide to left tackle in the event of a Tyron Smith injury; the eight-time Pro Bowler has missed at least three games each of the past six seasons, including 20 the past two.
Tyler Smith is the Cowboys’ long-term successor plan at left tackle.
But the rookie is still fairly raw from a technical standpoint. In acknowledgment of that, the Cowboys worked him exclusively at left guard in training camp to build his comfort there. Smith, who hadn’t played guard since high school at North Crowley in Fort Worth, was not taken a practice snap at tackle since June. A minor ankle injury sidelined him this week in practice.
“We’ve played a lot of games without Tyron,” Jones said on First Take. “Not as successfully as we do with him. But in the meantime, we’ve got a guy named Tyler Smith that’s come onto the scene. We’ve got some other young guys that can step in there and make it work during this particular time.
“By the way, all in, they’ll be readier when we get to the playoffs this year than, believe it or not, if that injury had not happened.”
Matt Waletzko, a rookie fifth-round pick, aggravated a college shoulder injury on July 28 during camp’s third practice. He eventually will need surgery to repair the problem but is pushing through it for now. He resumed practice Tuesday and is expected to play in Friday’s preseason finale against the Seattle Seahawks.
Between Ball, Tyler Smith and Waletzko, three of the Cowboys’ top internal options at left tackle never have played an NFL regular-season game. Right tackle Terence Steele does have left tackle experience, but teams prefer to avoid disrupting multiple positions on their offensive line when a single starter is lost.
The Cowboys had issues at tackle before Tyron Smith’s injury.
Those are exacerbated now with the Sept. 11 opener less than three weeks away.
———
Staff writers David Moore and Calvin Watkins contributed to this report.
