Cowboys safety Malik Hooker fractured a bone in his forearm; timeline rests with specialists

The Dallas secondary took its first real hit of the season on Sunday night, and the news could have been worse — or could get worse.

Tests confirmed what coach Brian Schottenheimer suspected after the game: safety Malik Hooker fractured a bone in his forearm in the loss to the Giants, and he is consulting with a hand specialist to learn his recovery time, per Ian Rapoport. The six-week scenario is real — some forearm breaks cost players a month and a half — but the hope, based on the specific bone and the specific break, is a quicker return.

Hooker left the loss in the first half and did not return. In his absence, Dallas turned to Jalen Thompson, Caleb Downs and P.J. Locke at safety against a Giants offense that controlled the game on the ground and through the air.

The timing compounds the problem for an 0-1 Dallas team with the Ravens coming to town in Week 2. Hooker is a veteran communicator at the back end of a defense that got pushed around for long stretches on Sunday night, and losing him even for the short version of the timeline means more snaps for players the Cowboys were counting on developing slowly behind him.

The next step is the specialist's verdict, which will determine whether Dallas is managing an absence of weeks or half a season. In either case, the Cowboys' already-thin margin in the NFC East just got thinner.