Cowboys Get Excellent Injury News on Important Starter Ahead of Panthers Contest
Posted October 10, 2025
The Dallas Cowboys‘ offensive line has been beaten up over the past few weeks, something the team hopes to address in the next part of the year. Luckily for the Cowboys, it wasn’t much of an issue against the New York Jets, as the offense was clicking on all cylinders.
The Jets’ defense is considered above average, but when the Cowboys start to play better teams, they’ll need all of their horses up front ready to go. It’s the harsh reality of the NFL, as teams typically struggle when multiple offensive linemen are out.
And fortunately for the Cowboys, this could be happening in the near future. According to Tommy Yarrish of the team, head coach Brian Schottenheimer said that offensive lineman Tyler Guyton is finishing up in the concussion protocol.
“Tyler Guyton is “finishing up” concussion protocol, hopefully will be out soon. Jack Sanborn is in concussion protocol,” he wrote on X/Twitter.
It was later reported that Tyler Smith and Guyton were both back at practice after missing the game on Sunday in Week 5.
“Tyler Smith (knee) and Tyler Guyton (concussion) were back at practice today after missing the Jets game,” he added.
Can Tyler Guyton Make an Impact for the Cowboys
Only 24 years old, Guyton still has plenty to prove in the NFL. He’s shown some decent signs for the Dallas Cowboys throughout his young career, but he’ll have to continue to improve, just like every other 24-year-old in the league.
Despite that, some believe he’s guaranteed himself a starting job moving forward, not because of how he has played, but because of how poorly others have played. That includes Nate Thomas, who was in for Guyton over the weekend. When examining this, Cem Yolbulan of FanSided wrote that Guyton should have a starting job for the foreseeable future due to his poor performance.
“The reason for that was the performance of Nate Thomas, who started in Guyton’s place. In his first career start, only a week after his first offensive snaps in the NFL, Thomas played every down as the left tackle. Even relative to the very low standard Guyton has established at left tackle, Thomas wasn’t able to hold his own, finishing the game as the lowest-graded offensive player for Dallas on Pro Football Focus with 45.9. His pass block grade left plenty to be desired with 29.1.
“This means that upon his return, Guyton shouldn’t be at risk of losing his starting spot to Thomas. Even though the former Oklahoma standout has yet to put it together in the NFL after being considered a top prospect with some of the most intriguing athletic and physical tools, there is little reason for the Cowboys to bench Guyton if this is what they are going to get out of Thomas,” he wrote.
Cowboys Will Need to Rely on Their Depth
Regardless of whether it’s Guyton, Thomas, or others, if injuries continue to happen, the Dallas Cowboys will have to continue to be strong up front. They’re in a good position to go on a bit of a run over the next few weeks, but if they don’t get healthy, they shouldn’t expect much to change.
A pair of goals from Nikita Kucherov and three points from Brayden Point were not enough for a Tampa Bay Lightning win in Thursday night’s 2025-26 season opener
A pair of goals from Nikita Kucherov and three points from Brayden Point were not enough for a Tampa Bay Lightning win in Thursday night’s 2025-26 season opener.
Tampa Bay led Thursday’s game 3-1 to open the second period thanks to its power play, but Ottawa scored four straight goals to steal a 5-4 win from the Lightning at Benchmark International Arena.
“I don’t know if our execution was there as that game went on, and when you don’t execute, it makes you look kind of slow,” Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper said postgame. “I think that’s kind of what crept into our game. We just couldn’t connect two or three passes, and when you do that you’re late in plays, and it came back to bite us in the end. Our execution has to get better. We’re better than we played down the stretch.”
While Thursday was only game one of a new regular season, Tampa Bay’s power play looked strong for a Lightning team seeking a ninth-straight trip to the postseason–Tampa Bay went 2-for-3 on the power play with goals from Oliver Bjorkstrand and Kucherov.
The first Lightning goal of the season came off the stick of Bjorkstrand on the team’s first power-play opportunity. Bjorkstrand crashed to the right post for a pass from Jake Guentzel down low 5:25 into the game.
Guentzel also set up the 2-0 goal, this time for Point, 1:25 later.
Defenseman Darren Raddysh held the zone at the right point and ripped the puck to Guentzel below the goal line. Guentzel found Point, whose snap shot from the right faceoff circle beat Ottawa goalie Linus Ullmark to the left post.
Ottawa took some momentum back with a power-play goal of their own midway through the period, but the back-to-back Art Ross Trophy winner in Nikita Kucherov had the response, wiring his first goal of the season on the power play to make it 3-1 Tampa Bay with 5:14 left in the first period.
“We had some good looks on the power play, a couple goals,” Point said postgame. “It's been a work in progress, and I think tonight for the power play was a good step. Just weren't able to get it done in the third.”
Ottawa cut into the Lightning lead 42 seconds into the second period when a point shot hit the post and an unfortunate bounce carried the puck into the net to make it 3-2. The Senators then tied the game at 3-3 with Shane Pinto’s short breakaway goal late in the period.
Pinto’s second goal of the night came with 1:47 left in regulation to give Ottawa their first lead, and an empty-netter wound up being the winner after Kucherov’s second score of the night made it 5-4 Ottawa with 12 seconds remaining.
"It's hard not to be disappointed, right? You're up a 3-1 lead, and you let it slip away and let a team hang around and get back in it,” Lightning defenseman Ryan McDonagh said. “You leave it up to chance or one mistake, and we got caught making one too many tonight and gave them too many looks in the end. And we should win a lot of games when we score four goals, and for us to give up that many, that's not a recipe for us. So (we’ve) definitely got to clean some things up."
Raddysh and Hedman also had two points for the Lightning on a night Andrei Vasilevskiy ended with 29 saves.
The Lightning will look to even their season record on Saturday when the New Jersey Devils visit Tampa.
