Dallas Cowboys defensive end Randy Gregory to miss ‘multiple weeks’ with calf strain

The Dallas Cowboys are coming off of a rough loss last week and are looking to rebound against the Atlanta Falcons. Winning in the NFL is never easy — as evidenced by last week — and it just got more difficult for this team.

While we are only halfway through the year, the Cowboys have dealt with an unfortunate number of calf-related injuries. Michael Gallup has been out since the season opener with one, and Dak Prescott missed the win in Minnesota due to the team being overly cautious with his.

Prescott has returned where Gallup has yet to, but unfortunately there is a new calf wreaking havoc on this roster. Mike McCarthy said on Thursday that defensive end Randy Gregory suffered a calf strain during Wednesday’s practice and is now set to miss “multiple weeks.”

Randy Gregory has been one of the best defensive players on the Cowboys this season, best players period really, so knowing that the team is going to be operating without him for a stretch of time is a massive loss.

McCarthy mentioned that the Cowboys could potentially place Gregory on injured reserve which would sideline him for at least three weeks. A reminder of the Cowboys upcoming games:

• Atlanta Falcons
• at Kansas City Chiefs
• Las Vegas Raiders (Thanksgiving)
• at New Orleans Saints
• at Washington Football Team
• at New York Giants
• Washington Football Team
• Arizona Cardinals
• at Philadelphia Eagles

For what it’s worth, two of the next three games for the Cowboys are against AFC teams. You never want to lose, but if you are going to lose, losing to the opposing conference is the least consequential. We need the Cowboys to have as many tiebreakers as possible for the purposes of playoff seeding.

Dallas is still awaiting the return of defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence who has also been out since Week 2, although they have yet to activate his return window which means it could be some time until he is back. When Dallas played without Gregory earlier this season against the Los Angeles Chargers they used rookie linebacker Micah Parsons in a pass rushing role, something they will likely lean on now.

Update: 11:42am ET

Mike McCarthy did also note that Michael Gallup is on pace to be activated from injured reserve this week so at least we have that.