FRISCO, Texas – Another week, another offensive line injury.
Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones confirmed Tuesday morning that Joe Looney will be out for a while with the knee injury he suffered on Sunday.
"Joe will be missed," Jones said. "He is truly one the leaders of this football team, and he will be missed out there."
Looney went down on the first snap of Sunday's loss to the Browns, prompting rookie Tyler Biadasz to enter the lineup at center for a second-straight week. Biadasz has played 133 snaps over the last two weeks, and has seemed to handle the workload well.
"The play of Biadasz will come into play here real quickly," Jones said. "That's usually the way it works. We anticipate that. That's the way that, normally, a young player gets an opportunity to play."
Meanwhile, Jones also confirmed a report from the weekend that La'el Collins likely headed for season-ending hip surgery. Collins had a very limited training camp and was placed on injured reserve to start the season. The Cowboys had hoped that he might be able to play through the hip problem that's been troubling him, but Jones seemed to confirm that his season is over before it had a chance to get started.
"It looks that way this morning, and it will be that way if he has surgery," Jones said. "Right at this particular time, there's a plan for him to have surgery, but I don't have any particulars on that."
It's been quite a month for the group that is typically one of the mainstays of the Cowboys' roster. Losing Looney means that the team is now without two of its preferred starters heading into training camp. Tyron Smith has also spent half of this young season out of the lineup with neck stingers, though he did return Sunday against Cleveland.
Fortunately, Biadasz seems quite capable of stepping in for Looney, and Jones expressed confidence the rookie will continue to "rise to the occasion." As for Collins, the Cowboys will likely continue to weigh their options between Brandon Knight and Terence Steele. Knight stepped in for Steele last week after a Myles Garrett strip/sack of Dak Prescott, but both players have gotten playing time with Collins out of the lineup.
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