The Dallas Cowboys come into Thursday night’s preseason opener against the Broncos at Cowboys Stadium with six starters on the shelf. The good news is that five of these starters are expected to return to practice next week, and could be ready for the team’s second preseason exhibition, against the Chargers on Sunday, August 21.
Andre Gurode, Montrae Holland, Mike Jenkins, Jay Ratliff and Keith Brooking are each expected to return to the field in the days following the Broncos game. Only Terence Newman, who is dealing with a hamstring injury, is not expected to return, and rather will likely miss the entire preseason.
"All of those guys who have been out have made good progress in their rehab,'' Jason Garrett said recently, per the Dallas Morning News. "Our strength and conditioning staff and our training staff do a great job with those guys.
"We had a plan with them to get them through this first pre-season game and get them going next week and hopefully start playing in pre-season game two or three.''
Adding to one of the more intriguing preseason storylines, running backs Tashard Choice and DeMarco Murray will return in the coming days as well. In their absence, Lonyae Miller has emerged as a legitimate challenger for carries.
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