Jerry: La'el Collins Staying Put at Guard For Now

Collins has been working at left guard throughout training camp

Not that it comes as any surprise, but it sounds like La’el Collins is going to stay put at guard for awhile.

Collins was a left tackle in college but when the Cowboys signed him, it was generally assumed that he’d work out of the left guard spot for Dallas--because that’s the only position on the line that isn’t manned by either a recent first rounder or a recently paid veteran named Doug Free. Collins worked at Free’s right tackle spot some in the offseason as Free recovered from ankle surgery, but in camp he’s been at guard--and that’s not about to change.

Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones likes the set-up as it is now, with Collins at guard and Free at right tackle, with Darrion Weems serving as the team’s swing tackle.

“Free has every chance to be what we want him to be, we’re just going slow with Free,” Jones said. “And then we want Weems, who has had a little bit of a setback injury-wise, and certainly didn’t have as good of an outing against San Diego as we would like to see. But we had practiced him the whole time at right [tackle] and he ended up playing left because Tyron [Smith] didn’t play.

“Bottom line is, we got enough moving parts here, it’s not time to be moving La’el, he’s doing so well getting locked in on guard and having his reps there. He gives us so much strength with him and [Ron] Leary. If both of them are there all year long and give us that interior strength, that’s probably more advantageous to us.”

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