Cowboys’ Michael Gallup Placed on PUP List amid Knee Injury Rehab

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Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Gallup is starting training camp on the physically unable to perform list.

The team announced the roster move on Wednesday. Gallup is prevented from practicing while on the PUP list, but he is allowed to participate in meetings and use the team facilities.

The Cowboys can activate Gallup at any point during the preseason. If he has to begin the regular season on the PUP list, he won’t be eligible to play or practice for at least the first four weeks.

Gallup was limited to nine appearances in 2021. He missed a stretch of eight weeks with a calf strain before suffering a season-ending torn ACL in the Cowboys’ penultimate game of the regular season.

The latter injury didn’t stop the Cowboys from handing Gallup a five-year, $57.5 million contract in the offseason. Keeping the 26-year-old also effectively signaled the end of Amari Cooper in Dallas, as he was traded to the Cleveland Browns.

Still, Gallup’s status for the 2022 season remained unclear. Team vice president Stephen Jones cautioned that the veteran pass-catcher could be out for the start of the campaign and miss two to three games.

Dallas still has CeeDee Lamb and Dalton Schultz coming back from last year’s squad. The front office supplemented the passing game by signing James Washington and selecting South Alabama’s Jalen Tolbert in the 2022 NFL draft.

Dak Prescott has plenty of options through the air when taking Gallup out of the mix.

But the Cowboys clearly envisioned Gallup as a key part of the offense when they re-signed him, and they’ll want to see a return on their investment starting this year.

Dallas opens the regular season on Sept. 11 against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at AT&T Stadium.