There are players on every team who are basically irreplaceable — or, at least that’s the case if you have some serious talent on your roster. If you have no irreplaceable players, that’s a separate issue. For the Dallas Cowboys, left tackle Tyron Smith is one of those players. Selected with the ninth overall pick in the 2011 draft out of USC, the eight-time Pro Bowler, two-time All-Pro, and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame’s All-2010s team is on a path to Canton, and at age 31, he came into the 2022 season as Touchdown Wire’s fourth-ranked offensive tackle, and the 60th-best player overall.
The Cowboys were hoping that after a 2021 season in which he lost six games to ankle and back injuries, as well as time in the COVID protocol, Smith would be back at full strength. That hope was dashed on Wednesday, when Smith suffered a serious injury in practice, and is estimated to be out for multiple months of the 2022 season.
