There was plenty of hope that Dallas would have the starting lineup they were intented to have for the first game this season on offense. Then, on Thursday, wideout Amari Cooper tested positive for COVID and will miss both Sunday and Thursday’s contest. Another hope was that left tackle Tyron Smith – who has missed the last two games with an ankle injury – would be available to play.
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, that won’t happen either. The report is that after ramping up activity during practice this week, he is still not ready to undergo a full game and Dallas will go again without him, Terence Steele, who had started Weeks 2 through Week 6 at right tackle while La’el Collins was injured, will start once again on the left side.
#Cowboys standout LT Tyron Smith, who has missed the last few games dealing with an ankle injury, is not expected to play today vs the #Chiefs, source said. This is a big-picture move, especially with the short week ahead.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) November 21, 2021
It is expected that Connor McGovern is going to make his first start of the season at left guard, as a talent replacement for fourth-year starter Connor Williams. It will be interesting to see if this plan takes hold as there would now be a lot of inexperience from the center left, as Tyler Biadasz is just in his second season. Steele is a 2020 UDFA and McGovern redshirted 2019 with a pectoral injury.
