The countdown is on. The Dallas Cowboys and Tampa Bay Buccaneers have been thinking about each other for a long time, but on Thursday they began their on-field work in anticipation of their all-eyes-on-me duel. The wild-card round of the 2022 playoffs begins on Saturday, but it ends on Monday night with the two teams rematching. Dallas and Tampa began their seasons with each other and one franchise’s year will come to an end at the hands of the other. Thursday was the first day of practice for both after each kind-of-sort-of tried in Week 18.
Dallas had relatively great injury news, at least to start the day. While there are several key players on injured reserve for the year, there are four key guys who had concerns as recently as last week who are not concerns any more. Corner DaRon Bland (chest) isn’t even listed after leaving the loss to Washington, and two other starters in Tyler Biadasz and Leighton Vander Esch were full participants. There are a couple new names though, as right tackle Tyron Smith showed up with a knee injury.
In years past, Smith would get Wednesday’s off, and Thursday is basically Wednesday when the game’s on Monday, but this is the first practice report he’s appeared on since returning from his hamstring tear. Also, safety Tyler Coyle played well after being elevated last week, but he’s been lost for 2-to-4 weeks with an MCL sprain suffered in practice today.
Meanwhile the Buccaneers sport 14 players on their list of injuries, but nine of them were full participants. Among the limited players of interest are three offensive linemen and DT Vita Vea. Also not listed is center Ryan Jansen, who is on IR but practicing. He’s missed all season and is a longshot to return for this game. Not a longshot but currently on IR is Dallas DT Johnathan Hankins, who is set to make his return after four weeks out.
Here’s a look at the full initial practice report.