Pass pro still Cowboys main concern after Rams practice, especially RT

The Dallas Cowboys traveled to Los Angeles on Tuesday hoping to learn something about their offensive line.

They did. Sort of.

Dallas’ joint practice against the Rams produced plenty of good news. Justin Barron picked off three passes, the defense created disruption, Dak Prescott threw four red-zone touchdowns, and the Cowboys came away feeling good about how they compete when they get to "hit a different color jersey."

The practice was also supposed to offer a meaningful look at the Cowboys’ tackles, but the football gods delivered the Cowboys a complicated answer.

Myles Garrett did not practice for the Rams, removing the headliner from what could have been a major measuring-stick opportunity for Tyler Guyton and Terence Steele. That alone means Dallas did not get the full test it might have expected.

Yet, the replacement test was not exactly easy on Steele.

Multiple Rams-side accounts described Byron Young as having a strong day against Dallas’ right tackle, with Young reportedly forcing Prescott from the pocket and repeatedly winning off the edge. There is no practice film publicly available to turn every rep into a courtroom exhibit, but the consistency of those reports makes the Steele-Young matchup hard to dismiss as one bad rep that got overexaggerated in the group chat.

This was not supposed to be a referendum on the Cowboys’ offensive line in mid-August. It was supposed to be a useful checkpoint. There is a difference.

Joint practices are more valuable than normal camp work because the players are not facing teammates who have spent weeks memorizing every protection call, cadence and favorite counter move. The Rams offered Dallas a different front, different pressure looks and different problems to solve.

Garrett’s absence, though, changed the assignment.

Dallas got a Rams pass rush that still had juice. Young made sure of that. But it did not get to see how its tackles would hold up against the marquee individual matchup on the other sideline. For a Cowboys line with legitimate questions at tackle, that matters.

Guyton reportedly received positive reviews from the session, including one account that praised his hand placement and overall work. Steele, meanwhile, appeared to have had the shakier afternoon against Young.

That is not a clean, “Guyton good, Steele bad” conclusion. It is one practice, with no publicly available tape and the usual joint-practice mix of situational periods, controlled contact and different personnel packages. Without public film or a documented rep-by-rep matchup chart, the practice does not provide an apples-to-apples comparison of the two tackles.

But it is fair to say this: Tuesday did not settle the Cowboys’ tackle conversation. If anything, it gave new life to the discourse around Dallas' pass protection.

Prescott threw four touchdowns in the red-zone period: two to CeeDee Lamb, plus one each to KaVontae Turpin and Brevyn Spann-Ford. The Cowboys also believed they moved the line of scrimmage well, and Brian Schottenheimer called the overall offensive work positive even with the play-calling kept relatively vanilla. Those things count.

Dallas needed to see its offense finish drives more consistently in tight spaces, and Prescott finding multiple targets against the Rams is a far more useful signal than another pretty Oxnard completion against players who know the offense as well as he does.

Still, red-zone periods and full-field offensive football are not the same thing.

In the red zone, the field is compressed, the quarterback can get the ball out quickly, and route concepts often have to develop in a smaller area. The bigger protection question is what happens when Dallas wants to take a deeper shot, lean into play action or give Prescott time for longer-developing concepts.

That is where a tackle matchup becomes more than an August footnote.

The Cowboys have the receiver talent to make defenses pay. Lamb has a history of being a problem. George Pickens remains a difficult assignment. Turpin can change the shape of a play in a hurry. But none of those shiny toys matter quite as much if Prescott is being introduced to an edge rusher before the route has a chance to breathe.

Dallas’ defense winning headlines Tuesday is understandable; Barron’s three interceptions will do that. The defensive front reportedly created pressure of its own, and the group looked much more competitive against the Rams than it did in last year’s joint-practice setting.

That type of progress is a welcomed change for a defense that finished 2025 last in both points allowed and passing yards allowed, while ranking 30th in total defense.

But the offensive line still has questions that need answers. And the story is not about whether Dallas or Steele "failed." It is whether the Cowboys got the evaluation they needed.

Garrett’s absence took away the marquee test. Young’s reported success against Steele added a new concern. Guyton’s positive day offered a counterpoint. And the lack of public practice film means everyone should resist pretending this was the offensive-line equivalent of the Zapruder film.

The upcoming preseason game against the Seahawks can provide another data point, even though Prescott will not play. Watch for pressure allowed, how Dallas handles twists and blitzes, short-yardage push and whether the right side of the line becomes a recurring source of trouble.

For now, the Rams practice gave the Cowboys some evidence. It just did not give them a verdict.

This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Pass pro still Cowboys main concern after Rams practice, especially RT