Rowan Kavner of DallasCowboys.com writes that Mana Silva's release could be a sign the Cowboys are confident Matt Johnson could be sufficiently recovered from his injuries to get his first NFL snaps after the bye week.
According to Kavner, Johnson is already running and working out, and looks to be ready to contribute. Johnson missed most of training camp with an hamstring injury, then suffered another hamstring injury on his other leg in a preseason game against the Rams. Jonson said the second injury could have been caused by a back injury that started bothering him a few weeks ago.
With so many injury setbacks, Johnson is understandably cautious about his status:
“Each day is an improvement,” Johnson said. “We’re kind of just taking it day by day, I guess. I’m tired of looking in the future and having some freak thing happen again. As long as I’m progressing, it’s good.”
Johnson is appreciative of the fact that the Cowboys have held on to him this long, but also knows that he'll have to soon start repaying the Cowboys for their faith in him:
“It means that once I get healthy I have to prove myself, for sure,” Johnson said. “It definitely means a lot that they have that faith in me.”