Throughout the week following a game, the news that surfaces on the injury front needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Players put themselves through unimaginable physical stress and often times it takes longer than 24-48 hours to judge whether an injury is going to linger to the point of preventing them from playing the next contest. Around Thursday, we start to get a clearer picture for whom is going to suit up come Sunday. Normally.
When the news of Mike Jenkins and Tyron Smith's injuries surfaced Wednesday of last week, misinformation flowed freely and rapidly. There were reports that the injuries weren't serious, and those were answered with projections of 2-4 weeks on the shelf. A day later Jenkins was on the field, but Smith was not. In fact, Smith didn't return until pre-game warmups. But both played, and were two of the best Cowboys on the field.
At the time, I opined that Jason Garrett was taking a page out of Bill Beliceck's Handbook of Mystery (video taping chapters have been redacted by the NFL as if they didn't exist). The Patriots head hauncho is world famous for listing everyone with a boo boo on the New England injury report as questionable, regardless of their chance to play or not.
I love this tactic because, honestly, as a coach wouldn't you rather fool the opponent than give the Vegas insiders the neceessary information?
Wednesday's practice session saw full participation from WR Miles Austin (knee), C Phil Costa(knee) and RT Tyron Smith(knee). They are good to go. It also saw the return of TE Martellus Bennet(ankle)t, a limited participant. LG Bill Nagy(neck), and OLB Anthony Spencer(shoulder) were also limited in practice. Today, reports are surfacing that the team is looking to possibly start G Derrick Dockery in Nagy's place. This might be a good thing, as Nagy was abused by the dominant Jets defensive line.
Dez Bryant, Terence Newman and Orlando Scandrick all missed practice on Thursday. Cowboys owner Jerry Jones stated that Dez will be a go on Sunday, but Newman will not.
“He would go if we asked him to go. We’re using experience we’ve had with him. In this particular case, if we hadn’t had this similar injury before, we’d probably have him out there for the San Francisco game.”
The Cowboys are being overly cautious with Newman's groin, as the last time he had an injured man region, rushing back led to a sports hernia. Newman is what's referred to as a 'track' athlete, in that his body is more susceptible to these sorts of injuries and their lingering.
Cowboys K Kai Forbath, on the PUP list, began kicking yesterday. The team is hoping he is the answer to their placekicker problem that currently requires a field goal kicker and a kickoff specialist. He'll be eligible to play after Week 6.
In other roster news, as expected, the Cowboys signed TE Martin Rucker to the practice squad. He was released from the 53 man roster to make room for newly signed CB Frank Walker.