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“Obviously playing Thursday night gives us time,” McCarthy said Friday. “The players are on leave, the three mandatory days off. So we’ll bring the players in on Monday, we’ll spend the morning working on Tampa, and then we’ll spend the afternoon working on the Chargers.”
The Los Angeles Chargers have yet to play their first game, but by the time the Cowboys meet again on Monday, they’ll have a full LA opener strip game against Washington. Most notably for a team that appear to be without their starting right tackle for five weeks, they’ll have a tape from Chargers Pro Bowl pass carrier Joey Bosa.
McCarthy isn’t set to divulge the game plan for facing Bosa, period – let alone nine days before kick-off. But it was interesting to hear him work on the possible process to replace Collins in the starting lineup.
On the one hand, he admitted that he would like to continue working with the two main substitutes who have divided the tackling reps since the start of training camp, Ty Nsekhe and Terence Steele. But when asked about the possibility of firing Zack Martin for a straight tackle, he noted that Connor McGovern played well in Thursday night’s loss to Tampa Bay.
“We have our eyes wide open – you have to be, because things are happening,” he said. “We want to be able to have as many combinations as possible.”
It would probably be a mistake to infer too much from this answer. Despite a string of injuries along the offensive line, the Cowboys were reluctant to move Martin to tackle last fall, hesitant to make the switch until their Week 11 win over Minnesota.
They also worked extensively with Nsekhe and Steele to insure against the loss of Collins and Tyron Smith. As McCarthy noted at his press conference, both players have spent the past six weeks working on both sides of the line.
“Ty and Terence both worked on left and right tackles so I feel very comfortable playing with these guys,” he said.
Again, it’s probably too early to guess what this means. At least unlike last year, the Cowboys have a handful of experienced options to fill Collins’ place. Nsekhe has made 17 starts on the spot in his career, while injuries last year have given Steele the opportunity to make 14 of his starts.
Even Martin, who had never played an NFL tackle game, had three opportunities to try it last year.
The Cowboys have the time advantage, but they also have options. It will be interesting to see how many of them will be on the table next week.
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