The Dallas Cowboys provided some interesting tidbits at the recent OTAs. First, we have an inkling of where the coaching staff would like to set their depth chart, at least for right now. Newcomer Dee Winters and Shemar James worked with the first team at inside linebacker in Dallas’ 3-4 alignment. DeMarvion Overshown was absent due to personal reasons.
Cobie Durant and Caelen Carson also took part in first-team reps as DaRon Bland was in the rehab group. However, it’s the other side of the ball that brings a lot of intrigue over the next few months.
Head coach Brian Schottenheimer announced that Tyler Guyton and Nate Thomas are in an open competition to start at left tackle this season. When you consider the difference in investment between both players, this is surprising.
Guyton, a first-rounder in 2024, was taken to fill the shoes of longtime great and likely Hall of Famer Tyron Smith. Whereas Thomas was taken in the seventh round the same year as Guyton to be depth on the roster. Whoever wins the offseason battle will have ramifications throughout the team. Here’s what each winner could mean.
First, how we got here. The Cowboys knew that taking Guyton in the first round meant they weren’t getting a finished product. With Guyton, the potential as a prospect was easy to see. He has tremendous size, is very athletic relative to the position, and has a lot of room to grow with only 14 starts in college at Oklahoma.
Thrust into the starting lineup as a rookie, Guyton struggled mightily with technique, and as a result, penalties followed from there to compound his mistakes. Injuries would soon follow, and so after two years, what you had was a player who allowed 57 quarterback pressures over his first two seasons and shuffled in and out of the lineup. This ultimately led to Guyton effectively being benched at the tail end of last year by Tyler Smith, who moved over to tackle from his left guard spot.
Now in 2026, Guyton will battle against Nate Thomas. As for Thomas, he started in four games last season, and he didn’t perform all that well either. Per PFF, Thomas was ranked 88th out of 89 eligible tackles and ranked dead last in pass block grade with a score of 31.6. Considering who gets the nod out of training camp will shape the team in different ways.
If Guyton wins:
It would vindicate the front office for taking Guyton in the first place. There would be a Texas-sized egg on the face of the front office if their top draft pick in 2024 was outplayed by a player drafted near the bottom of the same draft class. This would also suggest that Guyton has improved and that, along with Dallas’ solid interior trio of Tyler Smith, Cooper Beebe, and Tyler Booker, Guyton has finally emerged as an outside protector in the passing game. It also means that the Cowboys can allocate more help to the right side, where Terence Steele has also had his troubles in pass protection.
Next, of course, is financial control and being able to defer a big decision for at least a few years. As a first-round pick, the Cowboys have the right to pick up the fifth-year option on Guyton by next offseason. If Guyton blows improves to a substantial degree, the Cowboys can, in essence, reserve Guyton’s rights for two more years to make sure a productive 2026 season wasn’t a flash in the pan. With that contractual control, the Cowboys would hold all the leverage and make Guyton prove himself once again in 2027 and potentially 2028 if not beyond that.
If Thomas wins:
This is largely projection, but if Thomas wins the job, it would mean that Guyton underwhelmed so much that the Cowboys were given no choice but to give the job to Thomas. With how Thomas has performed thus far, that doesn’t bode well for the team’s ambitions this season.
If Thomas is named the starer outright, that means Dallas would be left scrambling to find better options outside of what’s on the team. There’s a lot at stake for the Cowboys this season. The defense should be better, and the Cowboys have to maximize their offensive window with George Pickens on the franchise tag. The Cowboys cannot afford to let an underperforming first-round pick or an inexperienced late-round pick jeopardize that.
If Thomas wins, the Cowboys are in a lose-lose situation and likely will have to address left tackle in the draft once again or look for a blindside pass protector on the trade market, if not in free agency next spring.
Coach Schottenheimer also spoke glowingly of rookie tackle Drew Shelton after the draft as well, signifying that nothing is truly off the table. Schottenheimer isn’t one to mince words. The writing is on the wall for Guyton to step up because he has to. Otherwise, it sends the Cowboys into uncertain territory and hamstrung at one of the most integral positions in the sport.
We’ll see if this is a real competition, or whether Schottenheimer is just trying to light a fire under his under-performing left tackle. It may not turn into much of a competition, but if it does the outcome will be significant.
Do you think it is a real competition? Who would you start?