Cowboys Injury Report: Michael Gallup Expectations in 2022

Sports Injury Central is the home of Pro Football Doc - the FanDuel Official Injury Expert - and a leading panel of Former Head Team Physicians from the NFL, NBA, and MLB. The team analyzes all of the injuries from the NBA, MLB, and NFL with in-depth injury analysis to give you an edge with your betting and fantasy sports plays.

Dallas Cowboys WR Michael Gallup will have a tough road ahead of him if he wants to suit up for Week 1 of the 2022 NFL season and holds a low SIC score of 53 heading into his 5th year. 

On January 2nd, Gallup tore his left ACL in Week 17 of the 2021 NFL season and did not have surgery until February. Our Pro Football Docs believe this delay in getting surgery to repair the ligament could indicate an MCL sprain occurred in addition to the ACL tear. 

Dallas re-signed Michael Gallup to a big-time 5-year $57 million extension directly after his subsequent surgery. The speedy wideout has been in Dallas rehabbing his injury and the Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said that Gallup is doing well, but the expectation is that he will not be ready to play in Week 1 one of the 2022 season.

It’s also worth noting that the ACL wasn’t the only injury that Gallup suffered in 2021. Gallup incurred a left calf strain Week 1 that resulted in him being placed on the injured reserve list that caused him to miss 7 games. 

Before last season, Gallup had only missed 3 games to injury in his career. The Colorado State alum has proven to be a consistent WR2 on the field, and his role only projects to increase with the departure of the team’s former WR1 Amari Cooper. Gallup will likely slot back into his old role as WR2 in the Cowboys offense alongside 3rd year WR Ceedee Lamb, and slot WR James Washington who came over from the Steelers in the offseason. 

The Pro Football Docs believe we should temper expectations for Gallup for the first half of the season, as he may not be fully recovered from his injury immediately upon his return to the field. Expect to see about half of the normal regular-season production out of Gallup as he may struggle early in the year with a possible improvement to come as the season goes on.