Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Miles Austin (19) runs with the ball after catching a pass against the Cincinnati Bengals in the second quarter at AT

Dallas Cowboys WR Miles Austin missed last week’s game with a hamstring injury, and it is possible Austin’s fantasy owners and the Cowboys will be missing Austin for this week’s big game against the Denver Broncos. Miles Austin, per ESPN Dallas’s Calvin Watkins, is not expected to practice today, and he didn’t practice yesterday either. He suffered the hamstring injury in Week 3 against the St. Louis Rams, and it seems like a more serious injury than we thought. Austin has always had hamstring issues in his career, so I though the Cowboys were simply holding him out as a precaution. If he doesn’t practice for the first two days of a fresh game week, it would seem like this latest hamstring issue could also sideline Austin for a pair of games.

It’s still too early to write off Austin, but his chances of playing this week will look bleak if the 29-year-old cannot practice today. Rookie deep threat Terrance Williams, who doesn’t do much else besides run fast, would start for Miles Austin again in that case, and that would be a huge downgrade against the Broncos. Their Week 5 opponents not only have a high-powered offense that the Cowboys will need to keep up with, but the Broncos also have a terrific group of cornerbacks. They took DeSean Jackson out of the game last week and shut down the rest of the Philadelphia Eagles receivers with ease. Dez Bryant is a better player than DeSean Jackson and Jason Witten is better than any No. 2 option the Eagles have, but the Cowboys could potentially meet the same fate as their NFC East rivals with Austin out.

Miles Austin has been a key possession receiver in the Cowboys offense this year with 15 receptions for 125 yards, and his presence forces teams to lay off of Bryant a little bit. If they don’t respect Austin, as the New York Giants did in the opener, then he will make them pay by catching a high volume of passes.

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