FORT WORTH, Texas — Do not blame Tyron Smith.
Blame the Dallas Cowboys for banking on Tyron Smith.
Planning (praying?) for an older guy, who has injury history, to stay healthy for one more season is a common risk in the NFL.
The Cowboys knew they were near the end with Smith. Now, that end, is here. Less than two weeks before the start of the 2022 regular season.
The Cowboys’ starting left tackle suffered a torn hamstring during practice this week, and the earliest he will return is December.
Pro Football Hall of Famer Jerry Jones said the day after Smith sustained the injury he thinks Smith can be back for the playoffs. Little disappointed Jerry didn’t say, “Which includes the Super Bowl.”
As silly as it was to take this type of risk with Smith, they did so for a reason. The same risk worked once.
What the Cowboys barely got away with in Flozell Adams got ‘em with Tyron Smith.
These two men have basically played left tackle for the Dallas Cowboys this century.
In 2009, the Cowboys, and then-coach Wade Phillips, gambled they could squeeze in one more year with Adams at left tackle in 2009.
They knew he was near the end, but they thought maybe he had one more year in his legs.
Sure enough, Flo’ played all 16 games at the age of 34.
The Cowboys finished 11-5, won the NFC East, and defeated the Philadelphia Eagles in a home playoff game before losing in the divisional round at Minnesota.
In that divisional round playoff loss in Minnesota, Flo’ had a terrible game and his 12-year tenure with the Cowboys was over.
(Flozell played for the Steelers in 2010, and was a starter at right tackle for the team that made the Super Bowl and lost to the Packers, and coach Mike McCarthy, at AT&T Stadium).
In 2010, the Cowboys flipped right tackle Doug Free to the left side for the season but once starting quarterback Tony Romo suffered a season-ending injury early in the year it didn’t much matter what happened.
Phillips was fired mid-season and replaced by Jason Garrett, who made the offensive line his priority.
Smith was a first-round pick in 2011; Free started on the left side that season with Smith on the right. Smith has been the Cowboys' starting left tackle since 2012.
He’s been a Pro Bowler and an All-Pro, and a player the Cowboys could not only count on but not worry about.
The injuries started in 2016.
In each season from 2016 to ‘19, he played 13 games. In 2020, he played in two games. Last season, he made 11.
This season, he will be lucky to play four.
There’s a knee issue. A back. Now it’s a hamstring that he ripped.
The Cowboys gambled because they wanted to believe he could do it, and he didn’t make it to Week 1.
Where have you gone Chaz Green?
If the Cowboys are toast because of the absence of Tyron Smith, they were never going to be any good.
Historically, Dak Prescott without Smith hasn’t been as good; in 2017, Smith missed the game in Atlanta and was replaced by Green, who gave up six sacks to Falcons defensive lineman Adrian Clayborn.
Not every game without Smith has been that Adrian Clayborn disaster.
But the drop without Smith on the left side has been perceptible, and his prolonged absence for the 2022 season will dramatically alter what the Cowboys can expect to do on offense.
However they juggle the line, and whomever is the permanent starter on the left side, they won’t be as good as Smith; without their starter, it will change how the Cowboys can run plays to the left side, and how many receivers go run pass routes.
They know now they are at the end with Tyron Smith.
It’s not his fault.
The fault is the Cowboys, who thought they could squeeze in one more year from a player who simply can no longer hold up for an NFL season.
