SETBACK: Dallas Cowboys Offense FACES Uncertainty After Tyler Smith Injury | Can TJ Bass DELIVER?

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1:01supported during an emergency. When every second counts, count on ADT. Visit ADT.com to learn more. The Dallas Cowboys will be without Tyler Smith for the foreseeable future. We'll tell you how they might try to manage that loss next. You are locked on Cowboys. Your daily Dallas Cowboys podcast. Part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome back I am your host Marcus Mosier. He is Lannem McCool and today's episode is brought to you by Kalshi for a limited time download the Kalshi app and use promo code Lockdown to get 10 when you trade 10. Welcome back on today's show. We're going to be discussing Tyler Smith and his absence. How the Cowboys can try to cover up not having an all pro left guard. We're also going to talk about Ryan from the way at the end of the show.

2:03But Lannem and I want to start with this. It sure sounds like Tyler Smith is going to miss probably at least the next five weeks just because of the schedule. We'll see if he's back for that week six matchup against Green Bay. Are you nervous about the state of the Cowboys' offensive line now that you've simply removed the best player from it? I don't think I'm nervous. I think a lot of that will be about what we're going to talk about in segment two. I do think that it just kind of changes maybe how the kind of plays that you want to run, maybe a certain protections that you may run with Smith that are kind of unique to him. I think you definitely have to configure some plans, including what is the backup left tackle situation look like. I think that there's a lot of shuffling of plans that are going to happen.

3:04I think that ultimately losing Tyler Smith, I think it takes more off of your ceiling than it does from your floor. I think, and we'll explain a little bit more about that later, but ultimately, that's why I'm not so much nervous is because I think if you can find a way with the next, first four or five games that you play, I think you can find a way to win some of those contests without Tyler Smith being in there. I think that that gives me some hope. I think if this had been an injury that they had sustained or a surgery that he has to recover from a little bit later in the year, especially over that kind of murderous row where you play the Rams in the sea hawks and the Eagles and some of the other teams with more incredible players at the defensive tackle. I think you feel a little bit more nervous about it, but I think the Cowboys are still going to have to make some adjustments despite all that.

4:06And it certainly is something they're going to have to work around. So it's weird because I think if you told me that Cowboys were going to have, there's the starting five offensive linemen that they have right now. Tyler Guy in TJ Bass, Cooper BB, Tyler Booker and Terrence Theo for the next six games, I don't think I would be all that, all that nervous, right? Because I do think it's, that's a functional NFL offensive line. And this is something you and I talked about a couple days ago, but the issue that comes up now is if another injury happens in the next month, because now you go from, let's call it a league average unit to an offensive line that I think could be well below average. So like just pick it offensive line. Well, let's say it's Cooper BB, right? Cooper BB goes down and now you're playing with Nick Lervet at center, TJ Bass at left guard, Terrence Theo at right tackle and all of a sudden, like you've got three below

5:08average starters or, you know, maybe Bass is a little bit better than that, but you get my point like it's really hard to hide three offensive linemen or if one of your tackles goes down, now you're in big trouble. I think they're okay for the short term. And because this isn't a season ending injury, I think they're okay for the long term as well. It's just we're going to be crossing our fingers for the next four weeks that nothing else happens. Yeah, I mean, listen, I think what you describe is certainly a nightmare scenario. I also think that what you describe is the 2025 Dallas Cowboys offensive line scenario, because many points during the year where the Cowboys missing multiple starters along those that offensive line. And it wasn't always pretty, but they, you know, as an offense at least, they were able to kind of function at times. Thanks to that. And this is one of the other reasons that you really are thankful for that Crescott,

6:09right? And you hope that he that if something does happen that he can kind of help mitigate some of that right now, but you're right. Like you don't want to live in that world. And frankly, one of the things we talked about last year or this, this off season is just really hoping that some of the improvement that comes on this offense comes through the offensive line. And it's kind of hard for this offensive line to take that step without one of its best players in the lineup. Now we should also mention there are some stats out there. It's there's a really good website called Raycarp.com where you can go look at the on off splits for every player in the NFL. And again, these are very noisy. It does depend on the matchups and that kind of stuff. But the Cowboys average last year, 7.2 yards per play when Tyler Smith was out of the lineup. One of those games was against the Jets. One of those games was like the second half against Green Bay, I believe. You're looking at like 120 plays. It's not that big of a sample size, but I think it just goes to shows they can still put

7:13up points. So we're going to be able to put up points on a lot of teams. I think the issue is when you go up against some of these better defenses like Houston and we'll see about Baltimore in week three. They play Tampa Bay in week five that have V2 Bay and Kalaysh can see. That's where I think they're going to have to be a little bit better game planning around those teams. But this isn't like losing Dak Prescott or losing CDLAM a couple of years ago when you didn't have George Pickens. This is kind of the argument against drafting guards or valuing guards high is that they just don't alter the outcomes of games that much. And I, one of my favorite running jokes is Cowboys went from being three point favorites against the Giants with Tyler Smith to being three point favorites against the Giants without Tyler Smith. That's not to diminish anything that Tyler Smith has done, but it does show you like you can get around not having your all pro guard for a couple games.

8:13Yeah. And I think that, you know, it's again, I think a lot of what it's what we described. It's having Tyler Smith raises the ceiling on what you can do because not only can you do more things with him and some things that you can only specifically do with him, like some of the protection stuff where he's kicking out to the to the edge to kind of play a pseudo left tackle. And, you know, they do a lot of interesting stuff with him because he's such an incredible athlete. He can do things like that. I just think it's about, you know, not having those cool bells and whistles added to your offense, having a more league average left left guard in the situation. But it's not like you don't still have one of the best collection of offensive players in the league on this offense. Now, one again, I want to emphasize the sample size is small. But over the last couple of years when Tyler Smith has missed games, you've actually seen the Cowboys run rate go up. It doesn't necessarily mean that they become a more efficient running team. They just run the ball more.

9:14And the idea is it's easier to hide your left guard in a game. If you're just running the ball downhill, you don't have to focus as much. Now, again, you and I were talking, TJ Bass has not really a people mover. That's just not really his game. And maybe that's where you don't see as much inside zone and duo and that kind of stuff. But I do wonder if rather than dropping back and trying to throw the ball 35, 40 times a game, maybe they try to hide their offensive line a little bit more earlier in these games. Yeah, I mean, I don't think that yeah, they're certainly not going to run less with TJ Bass in the game because they need to make sure that they're protecting all their offensive line and not just TJ Bass by keeping the defense honest. And I think your overall game plan, especially just going into this week, and we'll talk about this obviously later, is to still try to continue a balanced offensive attack so that you don't have there, specifically the Giants pass rush coming, you know, pinning

10:14their ears back and attacking you on no passing down. So I think that's probably going to hold throughout, right, is that you're going to need TJ Bass to be a part of an efficient run game. So whether that means that you're just pulling more to your left and you've got Booker kind of coming out as your pull guy versus going the other way a little bit more often. But honestly, I mean, they may not even limit their offense that much. I mean, I really do think that they trust TJ Bass a lot. It's more just they're not going to go out of their way to feature the left guard position like they would if Tyler Smith is in there. I think they're still going to run most of the same office because they have a lot of trust TJ Bass. All right, let's talk about TJ Bass because I think this is a huge opportunity for him, not just this year, but moving forward. Let's get to that next. This episode is brought to you by Quo Spell QUO, the business phone system built so that

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12:20This episode is brought to you by Fandall. Welcome to your most rewarding NFL season ever. Only on Fandall. How rewarding are we talking? More rewarding than a touchdown with time expiring. More rewarding than an 18 point comeback and maybe even more rewarding than an offensive lineman catching a touchdown. This season, Fandall was making the excitement go beyond what happens on the field with the all new Fandall rewards club featuring exclusive offers, surprises and more. I already cashed in one of my rewards. It was a 50% profit boost on the SMU Florida State game on Monday night. There are so many awesome profits and tokens that you can use. All you have to do is go to Fandall, make this the most rewarding season ever with Fandall and visit Fandall.com to get started now. Welcome back to the Lathon Cowboys podcast. We'd like to thank you for making us your first listen of the day.

13:21Lynn, and I want to talk about TJ Bass because we've mentioned him in this conversation. But I do feel like this is a really big opportunity for bass. The Cowboys put the second round restricted tender on bass in the off season. If you look at the cap hits right now, and that's not a great way to judge players, I'm just telling you, but he's currently the 10th highest paid player for the 2026 Cowboys. He is a restricted free agent. After this year, everything is in front of bass to turn this four to six game window into a monster contract next off season. Yeah, and look, he's already been given a couple of really good opportunities to kind of showcases skill set. I mean, I think that there's been a lot of buzz around this kid. I mean, ever since he was an undrafted free agent coming out of Oregon, right? If I'm not mistaken, he was, you know, I think the Cowboys had a very clear vision for what they wanted him to be right away.

14:22And ultimately, they got, you know, something out of Brock Hoffman as well. But when they came down to having to choose between the two, I think they they recognize that TJ Bass is, you know, a really high quality guard. High enough that I would not be shocked if at some point he ends up soon, but, you know, after this year, he ends up being a starter and on an NFL team. I mean, I was telling you before the show, like part of the reason that I feel so confident about the floor of at least the situation with Tyler Smith is because TJ Bass is so good. I mean, I think when you play the Giants, you know, this coming Sunday night, he's going to be the best left guard on the team. I mean, on the field, even with the Giants on the field. So I do think that TJ Bass is a very skilled guard. I think he could really be a good fit for several different teams. And this is just going to be another opportunity for him to kind of showcase himself against some high quality teams.

15:23And we'll see what happens when the when the office is rolls around. Couple of stats for you. Again, I want to make sure I'm emphasizing that the sample size is relatively small. But I went looked at his number or stats last year. And if you remove garbage time that can kind of affect some of these numbers, 291 non-garbage time stats, the Cowboys average 6.1 yards per play with him on the field. Their success rate was 48 and a half percent. And if you just look at where that compares like around NFL offensive lineman, 17th most efficient offensive lineman last year, the Cowboys were 0.211 EPA per play better with bass on the field than with him off it. Now again, a lot of that is noisy because of who they played. But what I think it goes to show is it's not like he goes on the field and they can't move the ball. I've seen that. I mean, you and I have been covering this team for a long time. You remember the days of when Chaz Green and Byron Bell were out on the field and the

16:28offense couldn't function. Now, this doesn't mean that the Cowboys are the 2013 Broncos when he's on the field, but they could still score enough points to beat just about anybody in the NFL. Yeah. I mean, he's not going to get you. He's not going to be the reason that you get beat, right? And I think he's just maybe not a plus plus player that you're going to feature in the lineup before you know, when you talk about the all pros before the game, like his name is not going to get mentioned, like maybe Tyler Smith would sure, but that doesn't mean he's the worst player on the field automatically just because he's the backup. I don't think that's the case at all. And I think that's that's why you have and there's a reason we voted on him as the archoicist is the most important backup. I think he, you know, he is the guy that you feel like out of all the people that are, you know, technically second team, that if he had to be a starter at somewhere else, you could easily see him sliding into that spot and being a long term starter. Another reason why I feel somewhat optimistic about it is because he's got a bunch of

17:31experience. I think he's got like a thousand career snaps in three years. That helps. The Cowboys were also smart to give him a lot of work with the starting offense during training camp. Even before we knew about Tyler Smith news, right? They were rotating him in and there were, you know, practices where he was working as the first team left guard. So it's not like you're in the middle of a game and now you're inserting a player who's not prepared, right? It's totally different when you have not only just a full week of practice and really more than that because you really have this extra practice that they had on Labor Day. He's had plenty of time to work next to Tyler, Guy and Cooper, BB and work with Dak Prescott. So this isn't like your typical backup who's going to be inserted into the lineup for the next month. No, I mean, he's been working with both of the guys that are on either side of him since they came into the league. So, you know, I mean, like I think that it's the continuity aspect of it plays nicely because he's not some veteran guy that you signed off the street that, you know, has

18:32only done a couple snaps in training camp with these guys. He's played with all these guys in real NFL games before. So I think that really, really helps with just kind of giving the whole situation to high floor. One more question on the offensive line before we move on. The Cowboys traded for Barodic Jones was two weeks ago now, whatever it was. Do you think this makes it less likely that we see a change at tackle just because you're already moving one guy into the starting lineup? Do you think now they give steel a little bit of a longer leash just so you're not having so many changes up front? I mean, look, you and I may have, I don't think we feel differently, but my opinion with the whole situation was steel and Jones was always that any competition that was really happening between steel and Jones was going to be happening at the end of the year, right? Like because I think for for Jones, he needs to still continue to recover from the next situation and continue to get stronger before he's really ready to kind of take on that

19:35role. And for steel, ultimately, this whole situation is about the wear and tear on his body. How does he hold up through a whole half season worth of snaps? Does he start to wear down? And at the point that he starts to wear down, do you see Jones start to rise a little bit and be ready to take that on? So to answer your question, I don't think that this necessarily affects it just because the timelines are different. But yes, I do think that they would probably feel less comfortable swapping him out early than they did before the situation was spent developed. All right. Who's the primary backup going into week one just on the offensive line? If an injury happens, who's the first guy out in the field? I mean, I think it's, I mean, depending on the position, but I think it's probably lever it, right? Like who's on the practice squad currently? Yeah, I would imagine that that's that's going to be a situation where he gets called up for these first few weeks. I mean, I have to imagine just because I don't know what else you're going to do. Well, I don't know. They put Tyler Smith on injured reserve, which is what the expectation is.

20:36Maybe leverage the guy that they just filled that spot with. Yeah. And otherwise, I mean, I think, you know, do they start getting cornealious work on the left side a little bit like just to try to get him ready to be a, you know, backup in game as if anything were to happen to either the last card of the left tackle. I just something you just have to look at, look at all situations because otherwise, I think, you know, ultimately you could look to the street, but I think you're trying to solve that in house first and then go to the street only when it's necessary. And maybe they bring back someone like Robert Jones who was with the team last year. He was with the 49ers during camp. They released him again, not a great option, but just somebody who has some NFL experience that you could play at guard if need be. I want to talk about Ryan Thanoi because I am fascinated by this year three receiver and how he could change the Cowboys offense. We'll get to that next. This episode is brought to you by CalShi before the season even kicks off.

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22:42For more information, see CalShi.com. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. It's destroying. Athlete, creator and YouTube Maxer. YouTube Premium enhances how I use YouTube with awesome features like offline downloads so I can download my favorite training videos before I hit the gym. So no Wi-Fi doesn't turn leg day into loading day. Plus, I get ad free videos, background play and so much more. YouTube Premium is like YouTube got some extra gains. Try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Try eligibility varies, terms apply, cancel anytime. Welcome back to the Lotton Cowboys Podcast. We'd like to thank you for making us your first, listen every single day, really quickly here, Lannan. I want to talk about Ryan Fenoy because the Cowboys, they really didn't do a ton on offense this year. Their biggest additions were true, shout and a fourth round pick that we hope never plays. Amari DiMarcato, a third running back that we hope never plays.

23:42Am I forgiving anybody else? Nick Levin? Nick Levin? Yeah, I mean, yeah, some free agents, a couple of undrafted free agent guys that are on the prize run. Yeah, Camden Brown, right? So for the offense to take the next step, they need some of these young guys to develop. And Ryan Fenoy is a guy that I am fascinated by because last year he played like 70% of his snaps on the outside, which is incredibly hard for a young receiver to do. And yet he average, I got the numbers right here from Sumer Sports, 16.3 yards per reception as an outside receiver. And I don't know that his targets are going to go way up in year three. I don't know that he's going to become an all pro receiver or pro ball receiver, anything like that. But it does feel like if he can become someone who is hyper efficient on his four or five targets per game and play it well enough on the outside so that CDLAM can hang out in the slot. George Pickens can stay as the X receiver. I don't know how you're going to stop this offense.

24:44Yeah, I mean, I think the difference between last year, you know, his first year as a starter, as they agreed upon starter going into the year. And this year is I just feel like you're going to see some more stuff developed for him, right? Which, I mean, on a team in which you've got CDLAM and George Pickens, that's quite an achievement, right? So I don't know that it's going to be a ton of stuff, but I do think that, you know, what you've seen from Ryan Flenoy, we've talked about it all since throughout last year. And I think the key word again is like you said, efficiency, that's always been the thing with Ryan Flenoy is that he got opportunities and he made the most of them almost every time. And that level of high efficiency to target ratio, I think is what's really appealing for the Cowboys. So I think that, you know, sometimes with guys like CDLAM and with George Pickens, it could be very flashy, you know, and not that those guys aren't, you know, efficient themselves, but there certainly can be some boom and bust to that situation.

25:45You counterbalance them a little bit, but having a guy like Flenoy out there who is just, you know, very reliable and especially like you said, for him to be able to play on the outside so early is just really impressive. And he's just a guy that has like a physical skill set that you hoped would develop, but he becomes from a small school. And now that he is kind of getting into the swing and think he understands what he's doing, he's a professional now. You're seeing him hold his own, you know, in these situations. And again, yes, obviously he's getting a great situation provided to him by the two out, other outside receivers, but he's making the most of it. And I think that's the key aspect that we want to continue to highlight. The other part of it is I think the Cowboys have three receivers who are awesome at beating press. I've got the numbers here. CDLAM 20.4 yards while facing press last year. George Pickens 16 point yet, one yards per catch while facing press coverage. And same for Ryan Fennoy, 16 point one yards, all three of those receivers saw dramatic

26:49decreases in their production when facing off coverage. And I just wonder this year if the Cowboys are going to see more cloud coverage than ever because of their three receivers. And what that means is Fennoy is going to have to be really good about being in the right spot, settling down in zones. And that's kind of the next step for these receivers is being on the same page as your quarterback. If he can do that, this offense can go to another level in 2026. Yeah. And I think the other thing there is that when you're going to get all that cloud coverage, you have to punish them in the run game. And the way one of the reasons they're going to be able to punish or they need to be able to punish them in the run game is getting these wide receivers up to the second, the third level to block to that a seven yard run can become a 20 yard run. And I think that's going to be a huge element of this as well. Fennoy is one of your best blockers. Looked for him to be featured in that way as well. Fennoy isn't always linear. So we got to remember like just because Fennoy is going into year three doesn't necessarily

27:49automatically make him a break out candidate. But I do think based on the training camp that he's had and all the buzz we're hearing, it seems like he's ready to take that next step. And that's what the Cowboys need if they want this offense to evolve. That is it for today's show. We like to thank you for making a lot of time. Cowboys, you're first listen of the day. Now on video, we send you to the first ever 24 seven YouTube channel on the NFL in an audio check out the Lockdown Fantasy football podcast with Fabs and Marcus. That's the name of the podcast. I'm not just saying my name twice for your second listen. We'll get you ready for your fantasy football season, including waiver wire, pickups, all that kind of stuff. Trays that you need to need to make go check that out. Follow Lane and on Twitter at McCool BCB. I'm at Marcus underscore Mosher and we will see you right back here tomorrow. Every game day you show up for your team. Now it's your time.

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29:54That's Creightonbarrel.com slash podcast. Hey NFL fans, I'm Brian Peacock and that is Matt Williamson hosts of the NFL six pack part of the Lockdown podcast network. Your team every day NFL six pack brings you the latest NFL news and analysis and breaks down all of the weekly action. A six pack of takes daily on the playoff pushed in the 2025 season or if your team's in draft mode, yeah, we'll hit that too. All right here every day on the Lockdown podcast network. The NFL six pack subscribe on YouTube or everywhere you get your podcasts.