La’el Collins’ five-game suspension for violating the NFL’s substance abuse policy has come to an end, but he isn’t going back to the starting right tackle spot on the Cowboys offensive line he occupied before the ban was put in place.
Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said that Terence Steele will continue to start at right tackle and that they’ll try to work Collins in “as much as possible” during the practice week. McCarthy said that Collins will also see work at guard in his return to the active roster.
“I just want him to get back out there and get back in a routine of everything,” McCarthy said, via David Moore of the Dallas Morning News. “I think it’s like anything, there’s a reason why we practice. There’s a reason why those O-lineman spend so much time together, just the way they go about their business. I just want to see him go back in rhythm.”
Collins played left guard early in his time with the Cowboys and started 47 games at right tackle between 2017 and 2019 before missing all of the 2020 season with a hip injury.
