Late in the fourth quarter of the win over Cleveland, Dallas decided they were going to rest their starters. After Alfred Morris converted a fourth and short, the Browns challenged the spot as Dallas came up to the line of scrimmage with 3:14 remaining on the clock. Head coach Jason Garrett took the opportunity to take out his starting quarterback and his franchise left tackle. Mark Sanchez replaced Dak Prescott while Emmett Clearly, who had entered the game the prior play as a sixth lineman, moved into Smith’s spot.

Easily dismissed as just trying to get the young player some experience with swing tackle Chaz Green still on the mend, not much was made of it. Is it possible there should’ve been?

It could be just precautionary, but Smith has missed both practices thus far this week, being listed as DNP both on Wednesday and Thursday. It’s well known Smith has been dealing with a back injury sustained against Washington since Week 2 that caused him to miss the next two games. Upon his return Week 5 against the Bengals, he’s had a day of light work or complete rest either Wednesday or Thursday of each practice week. This seems different.

Prior to the Browns game, Smith was listed as Limited on both Wednesday and Thursday and then upgraded to Full Participant on Friday with a Questionable designation for the game.

The prior week leading to the Eagles game, coming off a bye no less, Smith was listed as Limited all three days of practice, Wednesday through Friday before being listed as Questionable.

Before the bye in Week 6 against the Packers, Smith was limited on Wednesday before having the day off on Thursday and returning Friday to once again be Limited and marked as questionable. Even for the Bengals game when he returned from missing two weeks, Smith was listed as Limited each day of practice.

There may be nothing there. The club could be trying to fool the Steelers into thinking Smith isn’t going to be available to make ridiculous blocks like the ones below. Yet, for whatever it’s worth, this club is fundamentally handling Smith’s practice schedule differently than any time this year when he’s been available for that week’s game. Friday will be the determining factor.

And now, this.