The 2026 season has kicked off, but that doesn’t stop the teams from signing players while being days away from their season opener. While the three-time Pro Bowler, Tyler Smith, is on the injured reserve list, star quarterback Dak Prescott needs time in the pocket to execute his offense. As a result, the Dallas Cowboys have made some last-minute changes, adding a veteran to potentially do the job for them.

“Laken Tomlinson, who was a first-round pick in 2015, has been added to the Cowboys’ practice squad,” Jon Machota of The Athletic wrote on X on September 9. “The interior offensive lineman has started 162 of the 173 games he’s played in for the Lions, 49ers, Jets, Seahawks, and Texans. Nick Leverett is going to the 53-man roster. Tyler Smith is going to injured reserve, designated to return.”

No. 24 overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft, Smith is a cornerstone of the Cowboys’ offensive line, earning three consecutive Pro Bowl honors and has been on par with Smith, also earning three Pro Bowl honors consecutively.

But things took a turn when Smith got injured during the offseason and reported to head coach Brian Schottenheimer about his difficulty with his thumb, but he brushed it off for a while before this Monday, when Schottenheimer told the media that he would get surgery on his thumb, missing four to six weeks, stating that they couldn’t “pinpoint when it happened.”

This is where Tomlinson comes in. The veteran has been around for 11 years now, earning over $58 million during his career. He played for the Houston Texans last year after they signed him in March 2025 to a one-year, $4.25 million contract. He appeared in 10 games for them before being waived on December 2, 2025, with the Baltimore Ravens also releasing him on January 12, after previously signing him to the practice squad.

Now that the Cowboys have signed him, he could further close the gap that Smith’s absence has opened, especially when you look at his experience, having started 162 games out of 173 he has played in.

Being picked No. 28 overall in the 2015 NFL Draft by the Detroit Lions, he started 24 games for them in two years before being traded for a 2019 fifth-round pick to the San Francisco 49ers. He earned the Pro Bowl honor there, playing for five years before having a two-year stint with the New York Jets and playing for the Seattle Seahawks in 2024.

But he wasn’t the first man who came to Schottenheimer’s mind when addressing the gap Smith’s injury created. He also named T.J. Bass as the one who would replace Smith, after admitting that he “played a lot of really good football.”

But with Tomlinson now added to the practice squad following Schottenheimer’s last-minute decision ahead of their first matchup on September 13, things might take a turn.

Laken Tomlinson gives Dallas Cowboys the required experience for the season

While Schottenheimer first looked at Bass as a replacement for Smith, which seemed like a huge mismatch considering that Bass has only started 10 games in three seasons for the Cowboys, signing Tomlinson surely gives a sigh of relief for the Cowboys.

Before him, though, owner and general manager Jerry Jones pointed out an eccentric possibility of interchanging offensive line positions, while naming tackle Broderick Jones as one of those potential stars to do the job, saying that “guards can move to tackle and tackles can move internally.”

But now that Tomlinson is one of the most experienced players on the team, the lack of depth shouldn’t be a problem, considering Smith returns in a month or so. Schottenheimer, though, didn’t take the risk to test him straight on the practice day, stating that he can “still blend” and has “got tremendous length,” rather focusing on his lower body knock and waiting for him to fully recover.

He also mentioned that he is a “fan” of his and wants to “get him ready to go” before the season opener on September 13 against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium.