At the start of Dallas Cowboys training camp, Tyler Booker was trailing veteran Rob Jones in the battle for the starting right guard job. Now, after an injury to Jones and weeks of reps with the ones, the former Alabama star left guard impressed in his preseason debut on Saturday.
Booker, the 12th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft, played 29 snaps against the Baltimore Ravens in Preseason Week 2, his first action, and did not allow a single quarterback pressure. Not just a bright spot as a pass-blocker, Booker opened lanes in the run game and caught the attention of the NFL media’s preeminent offensive line play analyst, Brian Baldinger.
Brian Baldinger impressed by Tyler Booker’s performance for the Cowboys
.@dallascowboys @iamtylerbooker played 29 snaps; into the opening drive of the 3rd Q and was solid solid. #BaldysBreakdowns pic.twitter.com/qwCFwgXU0G
— Brian Baldinger (@BaldyNFL) August 17, 2025
Booker was a star at Alabama, so it shouldn’t be a surprise that he’s thriving in the NFL preseason, but possibly the most exciting sign is how naturally he has shifted from left to right guard. Booker last played right guard as a freshman in 2022, taking 167 snaps on the right side of the center compared to 1,763 left guard snaps throughout his three-year career with the Tide.
The transition is one of the reasons that Jones, a veteran on a one-year contract with the Cowboys, had the upper hand in the preseason before suffering a neck injury that forced him to go on season-ending injury reserve. With Jones gone, Booker will need to be solid from Day 1 for Dallas, on a line with two other former first-round picks, Tyler Smith and Tyler Guyton.
The Cowboys will lean heavily on their offensive line to keep Dak Prescott healthy, after he played just eight games last season before suffering a season-ending injury, and to produce an effective rushing attack. Dallas struggled to run the ball last season, and Booker is the only real upgrade in that area because the franchise opted to sign multiple retread running backs in free agency, Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders.
With that stable of backs, the Cowboys will need the offensive line to be great if they want to have an improved run game, and for the offensive line to be great, Booker must be a star from Year 1. According to Baldinger, the rookie appears to be on the trajectory after his stellar preseason debut. Now, he just needs to do it against starting NFL defensive linemen when the games matter.