FRISCO, Texas — A rollercoaster of a fight between the ¶¶ÒõÊÓƵ and the New York Giants ended as an early candidate for NFL Game of the Week, the former defeating the latter in their home opener with a heartstopping 40-37 overtime win, but they did indeed suffer a loss of some sort on Sunday, by way of starting center Cooper Beebe.
The 24-year-old exited the game just as overtime got underway with what's being described as a high ankle sprain, per multiple reports. It's now been determined he could miss fairly significant time because of it — approximately 6-8 weeks, per head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
He has now been moved to injured reserve and will miss a minimum of four games before being allowed to return.
"We're hoping that it's on the shorter end of that," executive vice president and director of player personnel Stephen Jones told 105.3 The Fan. "But there's probably a pretty good chance that he'll end up on [injured reserve]."
Beebe, a former third-round pick of the Cowboys in 2024, transitioned magnificently from an All-American guard at Kansas State to starting center in Dallas as a rookie, delivering an exceptional second training camp this summer and getting off to a strong start to Year 2 prior to the injury bug taking a bite out of him.
His level-up was also aided by the team's decision to hire Conor Riley, Beebe's former offensive line coach and coordinator at Kansas State, now offensive line coach for the Cowboys. Riley's expertise will be leaned upon to help transition backup guard Brock Hoffman to the role of starting center going forward, Hoffman having stepped into the role in overtime against the Giants.
In the realm of being a backup guard with starter potential, Hoffman has already proven to be such, but this will be a different sort of challenge entirely. When it comes to making presnap IDs and helping to set protections, as well as making sure each and every single snap to All-Pro quarterback Dak Prescott is pristine, the more reps Hoffman can get with the first team in practice, the better.
Hoffman isn't being blindsided though, and that's credit to Riley and head coach Brian Schottenheimer, both having the foresight to plan for such a possible injury situation — having Hoffman take plenty of reps at center on the second team in training camp.
He'll simply need to parlay those into quality reps in Beebe's absence, and deploy his well-known angry demeanor and reputation as a bully in the process.
