The NFL is a business predicated on performance. The teams are constant, save for the occasional expansion, the same set of franchises compete year after year, decade after decade and from one century to another. The players rotate in and out, as the human body can only withstand so many collisions before starting to deteriorate.
That’s really how age shows up in the NFL; in all sports really. Talent withers away in the form of injuries that keep a player’s mind from being able to move muscles the same way they did at the age of 21 or 22. Depending on the body, some players can hold it off longer than others, but it happens to everyone, even the all-time greats. Everyone except Tom Brady, that is. For the Dallas Cowboys, this is happening in real time to Tyron Smith and it appears unlikely the team will be able to keep him on the roster beyond 2022 at his current salary.
During Smith’s first five seasons he played in all but one game. He rolled an ankle in November 2012 (his second season) after 16 snaps and missed the next contest. He next missed time in 2016, when a back injury caused him to miss two contests in September before he sat out the regular season finale with a knee sprain, returning for the playoffs two weeks later.
Those three missed games were the first sign.
Over the next three seasons Smith would miss three games each due to a variety of injuries to his back, neck and lower body. Then in 2020 the first extended absence occurred where he played the season opener, hurt his neck in practice then returned in Week 4 just to hurt it again. Smith played two games that year, returned to suit up for just 11 (now out of 17) in 2021 and with this recent injury he’ll miss what seems to be at least 12 games this season.
It’s led to what seems like the inevitable situation that there’s no way the Cowboys will have Smith back as the starter at his current salary. When looking over the landscape of the roster, Smith isn’t the only high-pedigree draft pick (first or second round) who could be in another uniform in 2023. Here’s a look at that list.