{"id":457799,"date":"2026-10-06T08:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/457799\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T08:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T08:22:10","slug":"why-tyler-smiths-thumb-surgery-was-a-difficult-choice-for-cowboys-og","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/457799\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Tyler Smith’s thumb surgery was a difficult choice for Cowboys OG"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRISCO \u2014 To play or not to play: that was the question for Cowboys left guard Tyler Smith <\/a>when he suffered a torn ligament in his thumb this offseason. It wasn\u2019t an easy one, either.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was extremely difficult,\u201d Smith said. \u201cIt was one of the hardest things I\u2019ve gone through.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith met with the media for his first in-depth interview since his decision to have surgery on his left thumb\u2019s torn UCL<\/a>. He returned to practice for the first time Monday since the surgery and could play this Thursday against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Smith has been mostly healthy during his NFL career. He\u2019s played and started in 66 of a possible 71 games during his career. This, however, was the longest stretch he\u2019s been absent. Smith said it\u2019s been extremely frustrating for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve gone through things, but nothing quite like this,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I think it\u2019s good to go through.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI couldn\u2019t grab, I couldn\u2019t punch. \u2026 I just couldn\u2019t do my job as an o-lineman,\u201d Smith said. \u201cWe hand fight. We see somebody every play. It\u2019s not like I\u2019m in space or I\u2019m dropping back, or I\u2019m tackling somebody. I have to block and I have to manhandle somebody every play. So that was my biggest issues. If I could do all those things with no issues, then we don\u2019t have a problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Smith did. The decision may have been hard, but it was obvious by the time they decided to pursue surgery. He had the surgery on Sept. 8.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a point. I feel like, as football players, we\u2019re all tough,\u201d Smith said. \u201cEven me, myself. I feel like I\u2019m the toughest dude in the world. But at the end of the day, you\u2019ve got to be realistic with yourself. You\u2019ve got to do not only what is the best for you, but what\u2019s best for the team. I\u2019d advise any young athlete or any guy playing at a high level to do the same. You\u2019ve only got one career. Ultimately, there are going to be millions of dudes who play in the NFL after me or whatever the case may be. Ultimately this is my one career, and I have to make the best choice for my teammates and myself at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it\u2019s Thursday or next week, Smith will return to an offense that\u2019s been playing well.<\/a> The Cowboys’ offense is tied for second in points per game. He\u2019ll also play next to a left tackle who\u2019s playing well. Smith said he\u2019s not surprised by the four-game success of Tyler Guyton based on the work that Guyton\u2019s put in.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adding a healthy version of Smith to the lineup, in his mind, was worth the wait.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRISCO \u2014 To play or not to play: that was the question for Cowboys left guard Tyler Smith…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1638,102,104,103,93042,88229,137031],"class_list":["post-457799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-brief","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-tp-dallas-cowboys","tag-tp-nfl","tag-tp-tyler-smith"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457799","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=457799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}