IRVING, Texas – The Cowboys waived injured linebacker Alex Albright, who needs season-ending surgery on his back.
Albright is scheduled to have a discectomy this week. If he clears waivers, he will be placed on injured reserve.
Defensive linemen Travis Chappelear and Toby Jackson also were waived. Chappelear was hurt in pregame warm-ups at Arizona and did not play. He was on crutches Monday. Jackson suffered a hamstring injury last week in Oxnard.
Albright has been a core special-teamer since joining the Cowboys in 2011 as an undrafted free agent. He made 17 special-teams tackles last year and started two games on defense, finishing with 16 tackles and a tackle for loss. He had sports-hernia surgery after the season but had recovered, and he was slowed some in the spring by the back injury.
“An expression we use a lot with him is ugly production,” coach Jason Garrett said “Sometimes it doesn’t always look great, but he seems to make a lot of tackles. He’s around the ball on defense and in the kicking game. … Disappointing for him not to be able to show us he can play again like he’d done all throughout his career, and disappointing for us because of the role he plays for us.”
The Cowboys have 87 players on the roster and are unlikely to fill the three open spots since the first round of cuts to 75 comes on Aug. 27.
