Tyler Smith's Thumb Surgery Puts a Dent in Dallas' Super Bowl Buzz Just Before Kickoff

The Dallas Cowboys reported to training camp in Oxnard this summer looking like a team that had been quietly rebuilt on the fly. Pundits started whispering Super Bowl. ESPN polls gushed over Dak Prescott, who landed at No. 31 on the NFL Top 100 and drew praise from league decision-makers. The defense that surrendered 30.1 points per game last season was "almost unrecognizable," per camp reports. Even the schedule looked cooperative.

Then, a week before the opener, the ground shifted.

On Monday, head coach Brian Schottenheimer announced that three-time Pro Bowl left guard Tyler Smith will undergo thumb surgery and miss four to six weeks. The injury is to a ligament that had been nagging the fifth-year veteran, and Smith is expected to land on injured reserve, shelving him for at least the first month of the season.

That is not how you want to begin a comeback campaign.

The Cowboys are coming off back-to-back 7-10 seasons. In 2025, they finished with four losses in their final five games and went 3-6 on the road. They scored 27.7 points per game but gave up 30.1, a number that fueled an aggressive offseason makeover. The front office pursued safety Caleb Downs hard in the draft, added multiple veteran defenders, and restocked the safety room — a "long-overdue" shift, observers noted.

But all that reconstruction meant little if the quarterback can't stay upright, and Smith was the anchor of the interior line protecting Prescott. Now his absence lands at the worst possible moment.

T.J. Bass Gets the Call

The Cowboys showed faith in T.J. Bass this offseason, using a second-round restricted free agent tender to keep him. That decision now pays immediate dividends: Bass steps in at left guard, with Schottenheimer expressing "great confidence" in the reserve.

Bass has been a reliable swing piece along the line, but replacing an All-Pro caliber blocker against the NFL's opening slate is a tall order. Dallas opens on the road at MetLife Stadium against the Giants on September 14, then faces the Commanders, Ravens, and Texans in the weeks that follow. That stretch is a gauntlet for any offensive line, let alone one breaking in a new starter on the interior.

The betting market reflects the uncertainty. For Monday night's division opener, Dallas is listed as a 2.5-point road favorite with a -154 moneyline (a 60.6% implied probability) and a total of 48.5. Those numbers suggest the market still trusts the Cowboys' overall talent, and how the line holds up in Week 1 could tell us a lot about whether Dallas' September trajectory shifts.

A Question of Depth and Timing

The silver lining for Dallas is timing. Smith's thumb issue had been bothering him for a while, so the team can address it now rather than gamble on it lingering through the season. If the recovery goes as planned, he'd return sometime in October, just as the schedule eases.

Until then, the burden falls on Bass, on a coaching staff that has talked up its depth, and on a front office that spent the summer turning over the roster. The Cowboys have invested heavily in a bounce-back season. Whether that plan survives contact with Week 1 may come down to how well the patchwork offensive line protects Prescott against the Giants' front.

Dallas spent all offseason generating optimism. One bad thumb just made it a lot more complicated.