When it comes to their defensive line, the Dallas Cowboys haven't received much good news this offseason, but that might have finally changed on Tuesday.
According to the team's website, Tyrone Crawford avoided serious injury after being carted off the field during practice. Crawford sprained his right ankle after getting tangled up with running back Ezekiel Elliott, which you can see below.
Video of Tyrone Crawford's ankle injury, and his emotional reaction afterward (at 1:35 mark of the video).#CowboysCamp#DallasCowboyspic.twitter.com/8Oj0xlXXNN
— Mike Leslie (@MikeLeslieWFAA) August 9, 2017
When Crawford left the field, he was in tears, and the initial reaction in Dallas was that he might have suffered a bone fracture, which would have caused him to miss a substantial part of the season. Instead, Crawford is only expected to miss a few weeks -- which likely means he'll be out the rest of the preseason -- and the team is hoping he'll be ready for Week 1, according to NFL.com.
As you can see below, Crawford was in some serious pain when he was taken off the field.
A few hours after the injury, Crawford tweeted that he'll be back "soon."
I want to thank everyone for the prayers🙏🏾! I'll bounce back from this and will be out there putting in #WorkK soon!
— Tyrone Crawford 🇨🇦 (@TCrawford98) August 9, 2017
The fact that Crawford likely won't miss any regular season games is huge news for a Cowboys team that can't really afford to lose any more defensive linemen right now.
Depth at the position was already thin thanks to the fact that the team has been hit with three suspensions. Randy Gregory (season-long suspension) and David Irving (four-game suspension) and newly signed defensive lineman Damontre Moore (two-game suspension) will all be missing some time in 2017.
Losing Crawford for any significant amount of time would've been devastating for the Cowboys, and that's mainly because he's one of their most versatile defensive linemen. Crawford is currently penciled in as the team's starting right defensive end, but the Cowboys basically use him wherever they need him. In 2016, Crawford saw time at left end and as a defensive tackle, and started a total of 13 games for the Cowboys.