Cowboys News: Latest Injury Updates on Amari Cooper, Xavier Woods, More

The Dallas Cowboys received some good injury news Wednesday.

Star wideout Amari Cooper, safety Xavier Woods and cornerback Chidobe Awuzie all practiced, per Rob Phillips of the team's website. Cooper has been dealing with a hamstring injury but practiced fully, while Woods has been working through a groin injury and Awuzie has been dealing with a knee issue.

"They've had a good weekend of rehab," head coach Mike McCarthy said of Woods and Awuzie. "I know strength and conditioning (staff) and the trainers feel good, so we'll watch their workload today and obviously evaluate them again in the morning."

It wasn't all good news, however, as corner Jourdan Lewis remains out with an ankle injury.

Cooper is the headliner of that group. The 26-year-old wideout has thrived since being traded to the Cowboys in 2018, catching 132 passes for 1,914 yards and 14 touchdowns in 25 games. That earned him a five-year, $100 million extension with $60 million guaranteed.

For Cooper, shaking opposing cornerbacks and getting open is a strategic exercise not that dissimilar from another passion of his: playing chess.

"You don't want to let the person you're playing against know what moves that you're going to do next," he told Tory Z. Roy of ESPN in late August. "You have to think three moves ahead. It's one of the biggest sayings in chess."

"You have to make the guy who's guarding you think that you're doing something different than what you're actually doing," he added. "I'm always trying to make it to where he thinks he knows what I want to do, but he doesn't. You have to be deceptive. And creative."

Assuming Cooper plays in Week 1, he'll need that toolset against the Los Angeles Rams and one of the best cornerbacks in football, Jalen Ramsey, who just inked a lucrative contract extension of his own (five years and $105 million).

The Cowboys offense would lose a lot of bite without Cooper for the opener, while the defense would have its hands full against Cooper Kupp, Robert Woods and Tyler Higbee without Woods and Awuzie. It sounds as though all three players are trending in the right direction ahead of Sunday.