Report: Dallas Cowboys LT Tyron Smith suffered avulsion fracture, ‘if he’s back at all it’ll be December’

Late Wednesday night ESPN reported that Dallas Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith suffered a severe left hamstring injury during practice a few hours before, one that was potentially going to cost him months of the 2022 season.

This is of course devastating news to a Cowboys team that will host the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in just over two weeks. While the sun did rise on Thursday morning details began to emerge of Tyron’s injury and a potential time for return was finally listed.

According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, Tyron suffered an avulsion fracture of the knee. Rapoport added that if Tyron is “back at all” that it will be in the month of December.

If we take the point of December literally then the first game that Tyron could feasibly play in is in Week 13 when Dallas hosts the Indianapolis Colts (Sunday, December 4th). They will have played 11 games without him at that point.

Tyron actually played in “only” 11 games last year so we are at best looking at an exact inverse of his 2021 season relative to availability. Of course that assumes he would play every game from that point on which is no easy assumption.

In the aftermath of the Tyron news we are all waiting to see how the Cowboys are going to handle the sudden yet predictable void at left tackle. They could choose to move rookie Tyler Smith out there, sign a veteran (here are some options), or whatever else they see fit.