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Before their full list of actives and inactives came out ahead of Sunday’s contest against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the Cowboys had some interesting news pop up.
Sean Lee will be a healthy scratch against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. For real.
#Cowboys LB Sean Lee won’t be active today per a team source. Lee, back from injury has been limited, but he’s healthy. This is about depth at other positions today & because he doesn’t play on special teams and would average about 12-15 plays made more sense to activate others
— Jane Slater (@SlaterNFL) December 23, 2018
There’s a lot to consider here. Firstly dubbing Lee “healthy” may be a bit of a stretch. He returned from injury last week in Indianapolis and the Cowboys lost their first game in six attempts. Those two things aren’t necessarily related, but Lee was hardly his full normal and healthy self.
Secondly the Cowboys obviously have depth at the linebacker position and it’s likely ahead of Lee in Leighton Vander Esch and Jaylon Smith (who refers to the Cowboys defense as his defense). It makes some sense to put Lee on ice while the machine continues to run as normal and it also keeps The General healthy for a playoff push.
This honestly might be the final factor of sorts going into this decision. With the Redskins loss on Saturday afternoon the Cowboys now simply need a win themselves or a loss from the Eagles to secure a division title and playoff berth. That’s four opportunities that lie ahead so it’s fairly conceivable (although obviously not guaranteed) to assume that they do indeed get at least one hat and t-shirt this season. Maybe Dallas is feeling confident on top of the other elements regarding Lee and that’s why they’ve reached this conclusion.