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It wasn’t until Friday that Cowboys right tackle La’El Collins practiced in full at training camp. Collins had been sidelined since Aug. 19 with a minor yet cryptic ailment which limited him to individual drills.
Dallas head coach Mike McCarthy, in his introductory camp presser, revealed Collins would miss “some time” but declined to get into specifics, terming the issue as “nothing serious.”
Whatever was plaguing the 6-foot-4, 322-pound edge protector went unreported by the media and unannounced by the team. And it was exacerbated by a rash of maladies at the tackle spots, with All-Pro Tyron Smith and backups Brandon Knight and Cameron Erving all hurting at one point or another. The club also lost reserve OT Mitch Hyatt to a significant, reportedly season-ending knee injury.
But the mystery is a mystery no more. Collins told reporters Friday that he’s battled “some knick-knack stuff“ — wear and tear, in other words — during the pre-regular season acclimation period. Such is the reason he’s spent a majority of August working alongside the Cowboys’ training staff, sitting out team drills.
Recovered, he finally made his 11-on-11 debut and “took about eight snaps” during the session, per ESPN’s Todd Archer, coming away unscathed.
“I don’t feel behind at all, to be honest,” Collins said, via Archer. “This is year six for me, ain’t nothing new. I feel good. I feel like I’m fresh, it’s like riding a bike you get back on it and keep rolling.”
The club’s starting RT since 2016, Collins is an integral component of the league’s top-ranked offense in yards per game and fifth-best ground attack. He appeared in 15 games in 2019, drawing plus marks in pass- and run-blocking from Pro Football Focus.
Last season marked his first after signing a five-year, $50 million contract extension, which included $35 million in total guarantees. It was a solid return on an investment he believes will continue providing dividends.
“I feel like my most successful years are ahead of me, to be honest,” Collins said, per the team’s official website. “I feel like last year was just the scratch of it, just the beginning, to be honest. I think this is my third year ever playing right tackle. I’ve been playing football my whole life, but my third year playing right tackle. I’m left-handed and everything on the left came natural.
“So switching over, I really had to get in tune with technique and really understand footwork and where my body needs to be and stuff like that. I think as I continue to get more and more reps over the years, I feel like that’s what kind popped out last year and I’m just going to build off of that.”
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Collins Gushes Over Smith
Joining Collins in the first-string offensive lineup Friday was his all-star bookend, Smith, who missed a few practices after experiencing hamstring tightness.
Arguably the NFL’s best tackle duo, central to the Cowboys’ high-flying offense, the two have a close teacher-student relationship with Smith — he of seven consecutive Pro Bowl selections — functioning as the former. And largely molding the latter, a guard-convert, into what he is today.
“No doubt — it’s Year 10 for him and he’s still like a big old kid,” Collins said of Smith. “Tyron’s a great guy, man. He’s a great friend, brother, all of that, man. And he’s a great example of what a pro should look like, how a pro should handle their business and he’s set the example for me when I was coming in, for sure. He kind of took me under his wing and showed me the ropes, especially when I made that position change from left guard to right tackle.
“Like I said, there’s a lot of technique that I had to really just get because it just wasn’t natural for me. But he helped me out a lot, our relationship grew and, definitely, he just bought a lot two doors next to me, so I think we’re going to be talking about all the good times for a long time. So I’m excited about it.”
Hyatt Likely Bound for IR
As previously mentioned, Hyatt, a 2019 undrafted free agent, sustained a severe right knee injury at the beginning of Thursday’s practice and was carted off the field. He underwent a MRI the same day which purportedly confirmed the Cowboys’ worst fears.
Archer reported Saturday that Dallas is expected to move Hyatt to injured reserve ahead of final roster cutdown day on Sept. 5. They’re unlikely to fill his spot on the 80-man squad due to lengthy COVID-19 testing protocols.
“[We’ll be] releasing that in the near future exactly what Mitch is dealing with,” McCarthy said Friday.
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