According to Dallas Morning News\u2019 Joseph Hoyt<\/a>, Thomas is taking second-team snaps at right tackle\u2014where Terence Steele currently starts. That\u2019s in addition to him competing for the starting job to protect Dak Prescott\u2019s blindside.<\/p>\nNow, that by itself isn\u2019t a big deal on the surface. If Thomas is going to be the backup tackle, he will likely be asked to play on both sides of the line. Not to mention, this is only minicamp after all. Offensive line battles get real until training camp comes around. <\/p>\n
But there are a few things to take away from the development. <\/p>\n
For starters, it can be looked at as confirmation that Guyton is the favorite to start Week 1. Thomas is getting a swing tackle workload, not the other way around. It looks like it\u2019s Guyton\u2019s job to lose. <\/p>\n
Another contender steps in the ring?<\/p>\n
The report also brings a new name into the mix: fourth-round rookie Drew Shelton. <\/p>\n
The product out of Penn State took second-team snaps behind Guyton while Thomas took right side snaps. Now, we\u2019re talking about a longshot candidate to start here. Shelton dropped to Day 3 of the NFL Draft largely because of strength concerns, which he must work on before the regular season. But he has the agility and tools to be an NFL starter. <\/p>\n
Hoyt\u2019s report is the first public sign of Shelton getting second-team snaps. And while he wasn\u2019t announced as part of the battle to start at left tackle, it\u2019s not like the bar has been set very high by Guyton and Thomas in the past (there\u2019s a reason why there\u2019s no clear-cut starter). <\/p>\n
Consider Shelton a sleeper to watch when training camp kicks off. <\/p>\n
Our Drew Shelton scouting report <\/p>\n
Prior to the NFL Draft, this is what our own Travis May wrote about Shelton:<\/p>\n
Scout\u2019s take: The entire Penn State offense struggled in 2025, so much so, they fired their head coach. However, that was no Drew Shelton\u2019s fault. Shelton was already obviously an NFL-ready tackle prior to his final season, then played perhaps his best year yet last fall. He gave up just one sack, and held up against some of the best defenses in the country, despite blocking for backup quarterbacks for much of the year. Shelton might benefit from starting out at guard, learning from some more detail-oriented tackles, then trying his hand shifting outside after a year or two.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys have to get this one right<\/p>\n
We already saw Dak Prescott can make the offense work even with pass protection concerns at offensive tackle. But to be honest, when the Cowboys faced the toughest defensive fronts, the passing game took a hit. <\/p>\n
Guyton is the team\u2019s best candidate in terms of upside and the hope has to be he steps up in Year 3. But when it\u2019s time to make a decision, it\u2019s crucial that Brian Schottenheimer gets it right. <\/p>\n
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Dallas Cowboys News<\/p>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDak Prescott\u2019s new knee issue will affect his participation in Dallas Cowboys mandatory minicamp, but it\u2019s nothing serious\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\nDallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer informed reporters Dak Prescott is currently dealing with an injury during mandatory minicamp. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys are figuring things out at offensive tackle, and it extends beyond the left tackle competition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":340126,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,113,104,103,99505,41953],"class_list":["post-340125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-drew-shelton","tag-tyler-guyton"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=340125"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/340125\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/340126"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=340125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=340125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=340125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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