Dallas Cowboys Rumors: Team Will ‘Look Around’ At Running Backs – Injury Updates On Dez Bryant, Sean Lee, Lance Dunbar
The Dallas Cowboys thought they were hurting when wide receiver Dez Bryant went down with injury, but then it just continued to get worse. Tony Romo is out for a while, and Jason Witten had to miss a game. Now, Sean Lee left Sunday night’s game, and the Cowboys may have lost running back Lance Dunbar for the season. It has gotten to the point where the Cowboys are looking outside of the organization for some extra help.
According to Sports Day DFW, Bryant actually had his fractured foot examined late last week and things are looking pretty good. Cowboys Vice President Stephen Jones is happy with his progress and believes the star wide receiver will be back sooner rather than later.
Jones said that “there’s been no setbacks” with Bryant’s injury and is return is imminent. If nothing goes wrong, there is a “real shot” he could be back to play against the New York Giants after the Cowboys have a bye in Week 6.
Running back by committee is what the Cowboys came into the regular season doing as their plan. No one out of the trio of Darren McFadden, Joseph Randle, and Lance Dunbar stepped up, and now the team will be minus one of their cogs.
Pro Football Talk has said that Dunbar is “almost certainly” gone for the season with a knee injury suffered against the New Orleans Saints on Sunday night. The team may end up having Christine Michael, but they’re not against looking elsewhere for running back help.
The Cowboys believe that Dunbar may have a torn ACL and MCL in his knee and that he won’t be playing against until next season. Now, they need some help and Stephen Jones knows that further help is in the free agent market or via trade.
Cowboys VP: Dez Bryant update; Sean Lee expected back; team will ‘look around’ at running back http://t.co/b4nMcpsi47
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) October 5, 2015
Rumors of the Cowboys showing “serious interest” in Chicago Bears’ running back Matt Forte are out there, but it would require a high price. With Forte having a 2015 base salary of $7 million, it would take a combination of players and possibly draft picks to get him into Dallas.
Another problem developed on Sunday night as well, and it was the loss of linebacker Sean Lee, who went out with a concussion. His presence was truly missed for the rest of the game against the New Orleans Saints, and an extended time out will be even worse.
Lee was really missed later when linebacker Andrew Bachkar left the game with a foot injury and had to be replaced. That left rookie Damien Wilson to chase Saints’ running back C.J. Spiller in overtime, and it resulted in an 80-yard game-winning touchdown for New Orleans.
The Dallas Morning News states that Lee’s chances of being able to play next week against the New England Patriots is high. Jones said that it looks like Lee will be back from his injury, and the team will also get Greg Hardy and Rolando McClain in the lineup as well.
Dallas will need all the help they can get against a strong Patriots’ offense that is tearing up every team they play against right now. Lee will have to pass the NFL’s concussion protocol before he can even practice this week, so only time will officially tell.
The Dallas Cowboys have a lot of injury problems, but Sean Lee’s return and Dez Bryant coming back in a couple weeks could be huge. The loss of Lance Dunbar is big, but the team does admit they’re going to start looking for outside help at running back and it needs to be found quickly.
[Images via Getty Images – Ronald Martinez/Elsa/Jamie Squire]
