The Cowboys will be without guard Ron Leary for a couple of weeks, but his injury isn’t doing anything to increase the likelihood that Brian Waters will resume his NFL career with the Cowboys this season.
Leary will have arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Friday, a procedure that usually comes with a two-to-four week recovery time. David Moore of the Dallas Morning News reports that the Cowboys expect it to be closer to two weeks unless doctors find more damage than anticipated during the surgery. So, for now, owner Jerry Jones says that nothing’s changed in terms of the team’s interest, i.e. the amount they’re willing to pay, in bringing Waters on board.
“Again, in my mind because of the nature of Leary’s injury, it hasn’t changed any urgency we might have had with our situation with Waters one way of another,” Jones said. “It’s not that we didn’t have a feel that we had interest in him or with Brandon [Moore]. We did. So I wouldn’t say it’s changed.”
The Cowboys also expect to get Nate Livings back in time for the start of the season, which would leave them with the offensive line they expected to have when camp got underway. There were questions about how capable that line would be at that time, however, and they haven’t gone away as a result of the injuries this summer.