Despite Jerry Jones' confidence and near guarantee that both tackle Marc Colombo and guard Kyle Kosier will be back from their injuries in time for the Sept. 12 season opener against the Redskins, the Cowboys owner can't beat science.
While Colombo will likely be ready to go following arthroscopic surgery to remove five particles from his right knee, Kosier could miss the first two games and might be out till the bye week with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee.
A magnetic resonance imaging exam confirmed the injury on Kosier, who went down in practice on Wednesday while taking reps at center. A Cowboys source said there is little chance he will be ready for the opener and they were preparing for him to miss at least two games.
This comes one day after Jones offered this response on Wednesday not long after Kosier went down.
"I'm concerned, but the good news is they will be back for the season opener," Jones said. "Four to six weeks is being conservative. We will get them back for the season opener. That is not looking through rose-colored glasses. That is fact."
The good news for the Cowboys is they do have confidence that veteran Montrae Holland can step in and handle the job in Kosier's absence. Holland is an eight-year veteran with 48 career starts, although he was made inactive for all 16 games last season because he didn't give the Cowboys the game-day flexibilty of being able to play more than one position.
"We have a lot of confidence – I do – in Holland," Jones said. " We thought Holland last year, of course he was our insurance policy, but Holland would have been dressed out for all the games had he been able to play center last year. So I’ve got a lot of confidence in him. That’s why he is here."
While Colombo will likely be ready to go following arthroscopic surgery to remove five particles from his right knee, Kosier could miss the first two games and might be out till the bye week with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his right knee.
A magnetic resonance imaging exam confirmed the injury on Kosier, who went down in practice on Wednesday while taking reps at center. A Cowboys source said there is little chance he will be ready for the opener and they were preparing for him to miss at least two games.
This comes one day after Jones offered this response on Wednesday not long after Kosier went down.
"I'm concerned, but the good news is they will be back for the season opener," Jones said. "Four to six weeks is being conservative. We will get them back for the season opener. That is not looking through rose-colored glasses. That is fact."
The good news for the Cowboys is they do have confidence that veteran Montrae Holland can step in and handle the job in Kosier's absence. Holland is an eight-year veteran with 48 career starts, although he was made inactive for all 16 games last season because he didn't give the Cowboys the game-day flexibilty of being able to play more than one position.
"We have a lot of confidence – I do – in Holland," Jones said. " We thought Holland last year, of course he was our insurance policy, but Holland would have been dressed out for all the games had he been able to play center last year. So I’ve got a lot of confidence in him. That’s why he is here."
