Andre Gurode's future with the Dallas Cowboys is up in the air.
The five-time Pro Bowl center was on the inactive list for Saturday night's preseason game at Minnesota, despite the fact that he has been healthy during training camp and backup Phil Costa has a knee injury that will keep him out 2 to 4 weeks. Undrafted rookie Kevin Kowalski started at center against the Vikings instead.
Gurode started camp on the physically unable to perform list after telling the team upon his arrival that he had arthroscopic knee surgery in June.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said on the team's pregame TV show that Gurode's status on the roster is under scrutiny for salary-cap reasons, so he was held out of the game to avoid injury. Coach Jason Garrett said on the show that the Cowboys would evaluate Gurode's situation Sunday.
"He's certainly a player that's done some outstanding things for the Cowboys in his career but has had really exciting competition this camp and is still having it, so we're going to go back and have a business talk," Jones said. "There's certainly no discipline involved here. It's just a cap thing. We need to look at it from the standpoint of where he is, what we pay him, what we're going to be doing in the future."
Costa has been pushing Gurode for the starting job this month, and the Cowboys already cut veteran offensive linemen Leonard Davis and Marc Colombo before camp began. The Cowboys, who used three of their eight draft picks this year on offensive linemen, clearly have been tilting toward youth at those critical positions.
Running back Marion Barber and wide receiver Roy Williams were two other veterans let go by the Cowboys before the season.
"There are a lot of issues we've had with some of our veteran players in this salary-cap situation we're in," Garrett said after the Cowboys beat the Vikings 23-17. "Some of those moves were made prior to training camp, and a lot of discussions to try and make those situations work happened prior to training camp. This (Gurode situation) probably falls into that same category."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
