Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith on his balky back: I’m good

Dallas Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith didn’t seem overly concerned about his back issues after Thursday’s practice.

Smith sat out for the second straight day on Thursday with back tightness. The All-Pro missed two practices last week with back tightness as well.

“I’m good,” Smith said as he walked off the practice field.

Smith said the Cowboys are simply taking a cautious approach with him as the regular season opener is still a month away.　

“We’ll see how he does over the next few days and hopefully he can get some practice time in sometime next week,” Garrett said.

Smith, 26, missed two games early last season with back issues.

Filling in for Smith with the first team has been Emmett Cleary, who served as the team’s swing tackle the final 13 games last season when Chaz Green went down with an injury.

“It’s great work for me, but Tyron Smith isn’t getting Wally Pipp’d by anyone,” Cleary said with a grin. “It’s important for me because I need the reps.”

Green remains the favorite to win the swing tackle job going into this season, but has been slowed early in training camp with a shoulder injury. Green returned to practice Thursday, working at left tackle with the second team.

But Cleary is a candidate to make this year’s squad, especially if Green has more injury issues.

“You’ve got to win the job every day,” Cleary said. “We’ve got a lot of talented guys here, so you’re going to have to perform every day if you want to even be here.”

This story was originally published August 10, 2017 at 6:41 PM with the headline "Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith on his balky back: I’m good."