Dallas Cowboys' Jerry Jones says Michael Gallup will break camp with team; Tyron Smith exits practice but initial ACL tests OK

FRISCO, Texas -- The Dallas Cowboys will open the season with wide receiver Michael Gallup on the 53-man roster, owner and general manager Jerry Jones said Wednesday, but the team is awaiting more reviews of the left knee injury suffered by left tackle Tyron Smith in practice to determine how much time he could miss.

The initial tests concluded the ACL in Smith's left knee is intact, but more will be looked at Thursday morning, a source told ESPN. 

Had Smith torn his ACL in practice Wednesday, his season would have been over and the Cowboys' offensive line would have faced a major overhaul less than three weeks before the Sept. 11 season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Depending on the exact severity of the injury, however, the line still could be in a state of flux.

Smith was spotted leaving the locker room after practice and did not appear to be limping. Left guard Connor McGovern spoke with him afterward.

"He gave me a nice reassuring grunt like he usually does," McGovern said. "That's the one thing playing next to him for so long, I can decipher his grunts. I think he's all right."

Smith had been slowed earlier in camp by an ankle injury and has not played a full season since 2015 due to a number of ailments.

The Cowboys are inexperienced behind Smith. They have used Josh Ball, who did not play as a rookie last year because of an ankle injury, as the swing tackle for most of camp. They selected Matt Waletzko in the fifth round in April, but he only returned to practice Tuesday after missing most of training camp with a shoulder issue. Aviante Collins has earned some praise from coach Mike McCarthy, but he has not played in a game since 2019 and spent most of last season on the Cowboys' practice squad.

Earlier in training camp, Gallup, who had surgery on the ACL in February, ruled himself out of the Buccaneers' game, but last week he began running routes and catching passes for the first time. He remains on the active/physically unable to perform list and if he were to be moved to the reserve/PUP list for the final cuts next week, he would be forced to miss the first four games of the season.

"We just don't want to do anything that would put him in some kind of category that would limit us from getting him in the first game," Jones said before Wednesday's practice.

McCarthy said later Wednesday that Gallup has not had any setbacks in his recovery, but he was not ready to publicly make roster decisions before Friday's preseason finale against the Seattle Seahawks.

"We've got to play this last game," McCarthy said. "There's young guys that are battling for spots, how that 53 comes together. Obviously we don't want to take away Michael's opportunity to play as soon as possible, but how that comes down at the end, that's really to be determined."

The Cowboys re-signed Gallup to a five-year, $57.5 million deal in March, despite knowing he would need to be eased into the regular season following the surgery. He was limited to eight games in 2021 because of calf and knee injuries, finishing with 35 catches for 445 yards and two touchdowns.

Despite trading Amari Cooper to the Cleveland Browns and losing Cedrick Wilson to the Miami Dolphins in free agency, the Cowboys opted not to add a high-priced free agent, knowing Gallup would be back sooner rather than later. Veteran James Washington signed a one-year deal in free agency, but he suffered a broken foot in the first week of training camp.

While the Cowboys know what they have in CeeDee Lamb, who will move into the No. 1 receiver role with Cooper gone, they spent the summer looking at younger receivers, such as third-round pick Jalen Tolbert, Noah Brown, Dennis Houston (an undrafted free agent), Simi Fehoko (a fifth-round pick in 2021 who did not have a catch last season), and KaVontae Turpin (the USFL MVP this spring).

"I feel better than when we initially did in training camp," Jones said of the group. "I really like the entire gambit of our receivers. We've got some things to scratch, head-scratch, with the numbers there. We certainly at this juncture don't have room for an outside receiver."