The Cowboys left Tampa Bay with more than a damaging 24-16 loss on Thursday night. They also left with Tyler Guyton’s status suddenly in question after the left tackle exited late in the fourth quarter.
Dallas was trying to chip away at a 14-point deficit when Guyton went down following the failed two-point conversion attempt. He got up slowly, and the Prime broadcast showed him on the sideline stretching his back.
The team listed him as questionable with a back injury, and he did not return. Broderick Jones stepped in at left tackle and handled the job well enough the rest of the way.
After the game, Brian Schottenheimer said Guyton’s X-rays were good, though more testing is still coming, according to Patrik Walker of DallasCowboys.com. That’s encouraging news, but it’s not the kind of update that lets anyone breathe easy just yet.
Dallas is no stranger to the danger of waiting on a second round of tests. X-rays can look clean and still leave room for something more serious to show up later, which is why the Cowboys will be watching this one closely. Guyton’s back injury lands at an especially rough time for a player who has taken a real step forward in Year 3.
That development matters. The Cowboys spent this season trying to get a firm answer on their 2024 first-round pick: is he their franchise left tackle or not?
So far, the answer has looked more and more like yes. He has played at a Pro Bowl level, given Dallas a dominant presence in the run game, and looked far more refined in pass protection.
He still hasn’t allowed a sack this season despite a brutal slate of edge rushers.
That’s why any setback now feels bigger than just one missed game. Dallas needs Guyton on the field, especially with the offense operating under such a thin margin for error.
The concern is sharpened by his injury history. Guyton missed one game for Oklahoma in 2023 because of an undisclosed injury. As a rookie in 2024, he played in 15 of 17 games and started 11, but he exited Week 5 with a knee injury, came out again in Week 13 with ankle and knee issues, missed Week 6 because of the knee, and sat out Week 10 with neck and shoulder problems.
This season brought another scare early in camp, when Guyton suffered a right knee bone fracture that was initially feared to be a torn ACL. He avoided surgery and made it back in time to start Week 1, but he lost nearly all of camp reps.
A month later, he missed Dallas’ Week 5 game against the Jets while in concussion protocol. Later in the season, in Week 12, he suffered a high-ankle sprain against the Eagles and wound up missing the final six games, though he was available in Weeks 17 and 18 before the Cowboys shut him down.
All of that adds up to eight missed games in his first two seasons, a rough total for a young tackle trying to lock down a premium spot.
The silver lining for Dallas is that the initial word on this latest injury was positive. But until the additional testing comes back, the Cowboys are still waiting on the full answer.
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