Marc Colombo's Knee Injury: How It Affects the Dallas Cowboys

Cowboys starting right tackle Marc Colombo left Sunday's practice early, citing pain in his knee. It was later reported that Colombo would require arthroscopic surgery on his knee to clean out debris.

Last season, in a November 15th game against the Green Bay Packers, Colombo broke his left fibula when a defensive player rolled onto his leg. While he was originally expected to be out for the season, he returned for the Cowboys' two playoff games against the Eagles and Vikings.

Colombo is the leader of the Cowboys offensive line, and while Doug Free played well enough last year to give the Cowboys the confidence to release Flozell Adams this past offseason, the effect of Colombo not being at full health in the playoffs reared its ugly head in the Divisional Round. The Minnesota defensive line, and in particular Vikings defensive end Ray Edwards, manhandled the Cowboys offensive line and Dallas was embarrassed by the Vikings, 34-3.

For this recent injury, it was originally expected that Colombo would be out two to four weeks, but after his surgery, it was diagnosed that he would likely only be out 10-14 days, in time to play the final preseason game against the Dolphins. However, in his tenure with the Cowboys, head coach Wade Phillips has traditionally not played his starters in the last week of the preseason.

With this in mind, the Cowboys will likely hold Colombo out until the season opener on September 12th at the Washington Redskins, to ensure he is in full health at the start of the season. In fact, Colombo will likely be feeling much better than he has in training camp and the early parts of the preseason, where he has been bothered by his knee injury.

The injury made itself apparent in last week's game against the Oakland Raiders, as the Cowboys starting offensive line surrendered four sacks in only three drives.

While the Cowboys would likely want to get new acquisition Alex Barron some reps at right tackle now that Colombo is likely out for the remainder of the preseason, Barron has been sidelined since the Hall of Fame game due to a sprained ankle.

Therefore, in Colombo's absence, second year man Robert Brewster, who missed the entire season last year due to a torn pectoral muscle, and rookie Sam Young will get the majority of the game and practice reps for the last three exhibition games.

Colombo is a very important part of the Cowboys offensive line, and he should make a full recovery in order to return to Dallas by the first real game of their season.