As far as injuries go, Jeff Heath’s has gone a little but under the radar after leaving the game early last week against the New York Giants. In that contest he sustained not one, but two injuries. He is currently nursing a shoulder injury and a knee laceration that required 12 stitches, leaving his availability for Week 10 up in the air.
Of the two injuries, I believe the knee laceration is of the biggest concern. I’ve had my fair share of stitches in my lifetime and I have a hard time believing that it will heal enough before Sunday night’s game against the Minnesota Vikings. It’s not completely impossible, but the location of the stitches suggests otherwise in my opinion.
That’s just my opinion though. I could be completely wrong. In fact, if you want to believe Jason Garrett, then Jeff Heath has a real shot at playing against the Vikings.
“We felt like he’s going to be OK,” Garrett said Tuesday. “I think they (medical staff) feel like it’s going to be OK as the week goes on. They’re confident he’ll heal up and be ready to go.”
For the fun of it though, let’s pretend Jeff Heath has to miss the Week 10 matchup against the Vikings. Who would replace him at strong safety? Darian Thompson? Donovan Wilson?
Well, based on what the Dallas Cowboys did last week after Jeff Heath exited game against the Giants, they’d probably go with Darian Thompson once again. He played a total of 40 defensive snaps (56.3%) last week filling in for No. 38, playing admirably and even recovered a fumble.
Thompson however has mostly been a free safety his entire career. That’s not to say he’s not capable of playing SS, but Dallas does have another option on the roster a lot of Cowboys Nation has been anxious to see play opposite Xavier Woods… Donovan Wilson.
Cowboys fans have been enamored with the former Texas A&M safety after the way he played in preseason. There is a large majority of fans who actually wanted the rookie to replace Jeff Heath before the 2019 season even started. Maybe, just maybe, that time is now.
I wouldn’t hold your breath on seeing Donovan Wilson with the Cowboys starting defense just yet though. As much as a lot of us would like to see that happen, it’s really looking as if Jeff Heath will be able to go Sunday night against the Vikings.
Cowboys S Jeff Heath looks in line to play Sunday despite suffering a shoulder injury in Monday’s first half and knee laceration requiring 12 stitches early in second.
— Michael Gehlken (@GehlkenNFL) November 7, 2019
I guess the best we can hope for is for Donovan Wilson to be the next man up if Jeff Heath had some kind of setback before or during the game instead of Darian Thompson. Maybe with an entire week to prepare for such an eventuality the coaching staff would feel more comfortable making that move. Who knows though? We will just have to wait and see.
