Cowboys lineman La’el Collins returns to practice, set to face Raiders’ Mack

Right tackle La'el Collins returned to practice for the first time in more than two weeks due to a herniated disc.

He has not missed a game, even playing well in wins against the Washington Redskins and New York Giants.

But the Cowboys managed his workload by holding him out of practice to get him on the field for game day.

So it was a sign of marked improvement for him to practice in a limited capacity on Thursday, leading up to Sunday's game against the Oakland Raiders and standout defensive end Khalil Mack.

“I feel good man,” Collins said. “It's great to be back out there in practice and working on my game. It felt good to be back. The back feels great. All I needed was a little time to let it calm down a bit. It's feeling good.”

Collins learned a lot about himself and impressed the Cowboys with his ability to not only play through the injury with no practice reps but play at a high level. Offensive coordinator Scott Linehan said Collins has answered the bell for two weeks without practice.

“He’s a tough, tough guy,” Linehan said. “I know that injury, the pain he has to deal with is not easy. For him to be able to prepare himself mentally during the week and go out there and answer the bell physically says a lot about his professionalism and obviously his toughness. I don’t think that was ever a question at all.”

Collins has been forced to play well in his maiden season at right tackle after playing left guard for the first two years of his career because of the vaunted list of pass rushers has had to face so far in 2017. His match-ups have included Denver's Von Miller, New York's Jason Pierre Paul and Olivier Vernon, Washington's Ryan Kerrigan, San Diego's Melvin Ingram, Philadelphia's Brandon Graham, Green Bay's Clay Matthews, Arizona's Chandler Jones leading up to this week's game against Mack.

“It's awesome. It has made me a better player from Day 1,” Collins said. “I have played against some of the best guys in the league. It has made me better like night and day. It has helped develop my game faster. You can't sit back and wait. You have to go now.”

Collins said the biggest thing he has learned is to have patience, while understanding “they have to go through me to get to the quarterback. Being out there on an island, patience is the biggest thing.”

This story was originally published December 14, 2017 at 5:08 PM with the headline "Cowboys lineman La’el Collins returns to practice, set to face Raiders’ Mack."