The Dallas Cowboys are going to have to be creative on Thursday night when they take on the Oakland Raiders at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington.
With Martellus Bennett (ankle) and Scott Sicko (concussion) ruled out for Thursday, the team is left with just two healthy tight ends--Jason Witten, who will play two or three series at most, and DajLeon Farr, who was signed on Tuesday. As you might imagine, Farr will receive a crash course in the Cowboys’ offense, but, no matter the rate of instruction, two days is a decidedly small window before being tested in live action.
To be sure, Jason Garrett’s usually tight end-heavy offense will look quite different on Thursday.
Dallas has experimented with fullback Chris Gronkowski at H-back, a position usually manned by John Phillips, who went down for the season with a torn ACL in last Sunday’s 16-7 win over the Bengals in the preseason opener. Gronkowski and Deon Anderson saw more action than usual in practice on Tuesday, per the Dallas Morning News, and the four-receiver set made an appearance as well.
"You have to use different personnel groups," said Garrett. "We've got to make due and figure it out."
If nothing else, this musical chairs game will make Thursday night in Arlington mighty interesting. Well, as interesting as a preseason game can be, that is.
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