5 Cowboys Most Likely to Be Inactive vs 49ers on Sunday Night Football
![Trey Lance will likely be inactive when the Cowboys face his former team on Sunday Night Football. Trey Lance will likely be inactive when the Cowboys face his former team on Sunday Night Football.](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,w_3212,h_1806,x_0,y_106/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/181/01hbyffsby3ztvp4gmzr.jpg)
Three blowout victories in four weeks is a pretty good way to start the season. But now the real tests begin.
After getting a bunch of easy matchups in September, the Dallas Cowboys open Octobert with one of the toughest games they'll play all year — a potential NFC Championship preview against the San Francisco 49ers.
Dallas' depth and injury situations have been in flux so far, leaving plenty of question marks around who will be on the gameday roster in any given week. That's no different with Week 5's tough test ahead.
Here are the five Cowboys most likely to be inactive for this one.
Cowboys Predictions: Week 5 Inactives vs. 49ers
1. Brock Hoffman
This is my way of saying "the offensive line is finally healthy."
Brock Hoffman was signed to the 53-man roster and was active last week even after Tyler Biadasz returned, because having Tyron Smith on the shelf left a spot on the gameday roster. But I think we finally get the full starting o-line back in place on Sunday night.
Check out the injury report from Wednesday's practice:
#DallasCowboys Practice Injury Report for Wed ahead of #49ers pic.twitter.com/ckb7tO4A27
— fishsports ✭ (@fishsports) October 4, 2023
It was a rest day for a bunch of veterans and banged up players, so not practice doesn't mean all that much for Smith. What is noteworthy is that his designation included "Rest" and his knee injury, which is something that Zack Martin and CeeDee Lamb both got too.
That signals that he's probably getting pretty close here, and with so much at stake in a matchup against the 49ers, I'm expecting to see Smith out there if it's even remotely feasible.
That means we won't have roster room for all the linemen we suited up last week.
Hoffman was signed to the 53-man roster last week because he ran out of practice squad elevations (players can only be elevated three times before needing to be signed to the 53-man to make another game appearance). But considering he wasn't active before Martin and Biadasz went down, he's probably still the low man on this offensive line depth chart.
Yes, Smith is a tackle and Hoffman is a center, but the Dallas line has enough versatility that some of those depth spots are pretty interchangeable. Look for Hoffman to be watching this one in street clothes.