A knee bruise that’s recently reemerged has limited Cowboys defensive end Anthony Spencer early in training camp, but head coach Jason Garrett indicated Monday that the injury is not a significant worry.
“We don’t think it’s severe,” Garrett said Monday, according to Todd Archer of ESPNDallas.com. “We’ll just come up with what we think is the best option here in the next few days.”
Spencer told reporters Monday that the injury, originally sustained in June, flared up while running on Saturday.
“It was just the banging on it, just running the conditioning test,” Spencer said. He said he would “see how it feels tomorrow.”
Asked if it was “concerning” that it occurred during training and not on the field, Spencer said: “It’s concerning to me. It’s bothering me right now. I really don’t know what else to do, so I’m just taking it day by day.”
The 29-year-old Spencer notched a career-best 11 sacks in 2012 for Dallas. He has missed just six games in six NFL seasons, including two last year.
Pro Football Focus graded Spencer as the top 3-4 outside linebacker in 2012, and he averaged 62.3 snaps for Dallas, per PFF"s snap-count data. He will play defensive end in the Cowboys’ new 4-3 scheme, and there’s no doubting his importance to the defense. Even before Tyrone Crawford suffered a potentially season-ending injury Sunday, the Cowboys’ defensive line depth was not a club strength, as we noted in PFT’s preseason analysis of the club.
“It’s a major blow to this defensive line,” Spencer said of Crawford’s injury. “He was going to be a big part of this defensive line this year.”
UPDATE 10:55 p.m. ET: Per ESPNDallas.com, Spencer said surgery that would require a 2-3 week recovery time is a “possibility.”