FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys can win the NFC East by beating the Washington Commanders in Week 18. After that, they are confirmed for the playoffs, where they could have added offensive line help, with former starter La’el Collins. throughout the process of signing to the team’s practice squad, according to NFL Media. They treated him Tuesday morning.
“I think we can see that again tomorrow,” head coach Mike McCarthy said Wednesday. “He was here yesterday for a great workout. He looks great. We’re still working on some things.”
Collins, who reportedly visited the Bills a few days earlier, is joining Dallas’ practice squad after passing his physical, making him eligible for game-day promotions throughout the 2023 playoffs.
The former LSU star spent the majority of his NFL career with the Cowboys, starting 71 games for Dallas – primarily at right tackle while also playing a left guard role – from 2015 to 2021. The team signed him as an undrafted free agent out of LSU in 2015, and extended him to a five-year extension worth $50 million before the start of the 2019 season. Collins served a five-game suspension for bribing an NFL drug test collector during the 2021 season, his last with the Cowboys. The team released him in March of the 2022 offseason.
He recently spent the 2022 campaign with the Bengals, who cut him early in the season. Prior to his release, Collins was on the physically unable to perform list while recovering from a knee injury suffered in late 2022. Cincinnati had signed him to a three-year contract worth $21 million four days after Dallas released him in 2022.
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Collins is still getting back into game-day shape, NFL Media reported this week, but could provide some insurance for veterans along Dallas’ front. Both of the Cowboys’ current starting tackles are healthy, but starting left guard Tyler Smith completely tore the plantar fascia in his foot in Week 17, again against the Lions. Smith did not participate in practice Wednesday, but he did some physical therapy work on the side.
Still, McCarthy said the interest in Collins didn’t really have much to do with Smith’s health.
“I think it’s more the opportunity and where he is and trying to make sure that the veteran experience that we have, the things that he has to offer, he obviously has a great history here, I mean, all of those things,” McCarthy said.