FRISCO, Texas – There hasn't been much in the way of news about David Irving in recent weeks, but he hasn't been forgotten.
The Cowboys' mercurial defensive tackle has been missing in action since he sprained his ankle during the week leading up to the Nov. 5 against the Tennessee Titans. That sprain has kept him out of the last seven games, and the lack of updates has prompted plenty of speculation about his future.
It's a curious enough issue that Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones was asked Tuesday during his weekly interview with 105.3 FM The Fan: does he expect to see Irving on the field again this season?
"As we sit here today, I do expect him," Jones said. "He's limited on how he's moving around right now, but he's working to get viable."
That's still pretty vague, as far as updates go, but it at least offers some hope that Irving might be part of the Cowboys' playoff run. In just two games this season, Irving has tallied four tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack.
Even if he doesn't return until a possible playoff berth, it could be a big boost for a Dallas pass rush that didn't register a sack in Sunday's loss to Indianapolis.
Jones was also asked for further clarification on the knee injury Zack Martin is currently dealing with. Martin missed his first NFL game on Sunday with a knee injury, and fellow starter Xavier Su'a-Filo left the game with an eye injury. Combine that with Travis Frederick's season-long absence with Guillan-Barre Syndrome, and the offensive line became quite an issue in the loss to the Colts.
"We'll let you know more about how Zack is as this week goes along," Jones said. "We don't have any excuses for Sunday, but, boy, compared to where we thought we would be at this time missing Frederick and having Xavier, having missed those guys, we were getting down pretty limited and that was impacting to some degree how we were able to execute and how we were able to protect Dak. That's one of the challenges as we got coming up this week."
