Cowboys News: Jerry Jones Gives Injury Updates on DeMarcus Lawrence, Tyron Smith

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said Tuesday left tackle Tyron Smith was held out of Sunday's game against the Atlanta Falcons with a neck injury as part of "preparations for the future." 

"It wasn't impossible to have him out there last week," Jones said on 105.3 The Fan Radio's Shan and RJ in Dallas. "By design, we didn't do it that way because we want to look to the long term."

Jones also said defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence is "sound, in my mind, physically" after suffering a knee injury in Sunday's comeback win over the Falcons. Head coach Mike McCarthy told reporters it was an issue the team was "keeping an eye on."

Brandon Knight entered the starting lineup as part of a makeshift offensive line that's also dealing with the absences of La'el Collins and Cam Erving. The group still managed to hold up well as quarterback Dak Prescott was only sacked once and the Cowboys rushed for 125 yards.

Jones' comments make it sound like Smith could've played if it was a critical regular-season contest or a playoff game, but the Cowboys are wisely playing it safe early in the campaign.

Lawrence's inability to make a significant impact was a bigger problem for Dallas.

Falcons quarterback Matt Ryan was sacked only once. He was otherwise was given the time to stand in the pocket and pick apart the Cowboys' secondary. He completed 24 of his 36 throws for 273 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions.

It took a miracle comeback, including a rare onside kick recovery as part of 16 unanswered points over the final five minutes, to overcome the lackluster defensive performance.

Lawrence was already coming off a down year in 2019, when he recorded just five sacks after tallying 25 over the previous two seasons combined, so his slow start is even more of a concern.

"I always think I can play better, especially coming out of the game with a loss, I always try to critique myself on how I can get better," he told reporters after Week 1. "And how I can help my team get better. But overall playing a new defense, new schematics and all those things just looking back on the game I think I played decent, but like I said I always think I could get better."

Jones himself addressed concerns about the defense ahead of Week 3 when they travel to CenturyLink Field for a clash with the Seattle Seahawks. Quarterback Russell Wilson is off to an MVP-caliber start for the Seahawks with nine touchdowns and one interception through two games.

"We've got a lot of work," Jones said. "We're not taking a football team into Seattle thats hitting on all cylinders at all. We've got a lot of work to do. You saw it defensively, we've got some serious work to do. We've got alignments to work on, we've got basic defensive technique to work on. We're still working through the kinds of things you might be working through midway through training camp. Now other teams are too. And so, we've got a lot to work on, but that's the good news."

If Dallas can't generate a pass rush, it'll likely give up over 30 points for a second straight week and force the offense to win another shootout.