The Dallas Cowboys added another elite player to their roster.
Rewinding time, the Dallas Cowboys are getting ready for another postseason run. Following his Tuesday workout, offensive lineman La’el Collins was added to the Cowboys practice squad as a replacement for starting left guard Tyler Smith, who is sidelined due to a plantar fascia tear.
In addition to Tyler Smith’s injury, Tyron Smith of the Cowboys recently missed a game due to a back injury. The Cowboys appear to be attempting to fortify themselves for a postseason run by bringing in some veteran depth.
Collins would have been selected in the first round, but he was unable to be selected due to some off-field problems. In 2015, he began the season behind Ronald Leary as a reserve left guard, but he quickly moved up the depth chart to take Leary’s spot and was given a starting position. Collins was the starting left guard for the first three games of the 2016 season before suffering a torn ligament in his toe. After a year, Collins signed a $15.4 million, two-year extension to secure a spot at right tackle.
Collins established himself as one of the better right tackles in the NFL by starting all 32 games for the Cowboys in 2017 and 2018. Collins started 15 of 16 games after agreeing to a five-year, $50 million extension in 2019, but after that, his time in Dallas wasn’t easy. Following a car accident that left him with a neck stinger and additional hip and groin problems, Collins would miss the entire 2020 campaign. Collins was given a five-game suspension in 2021 for breaking the league’s drug-abuse policy. In March 2022, he asked to be traded; he had started 10 of the 12 games he had played. Collins was released later that month and signed on with the Cincinnati Bengals, with whom he has been affiliated ever since.
