Jerry Jones held out hope for quite some time, but Michael Gallup will not make it back to the field in time for Week 1.

Gallup will sit out of Dallas’ Sunday night season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Cowboys announced Friday.

Gallup continues to work toward returning from an ACL tear that ended his 2021 season, and for a period of time last month, Jones expressed optimism Gallup might be able to play earlier than anticipated, perhaps as soon as Week 1. The Cowboys indicated this could be a possibility by avoiding placing Gallup on the reserve/physically unable to perform list, but the receiver’s late-July prediction — in which he told reporters it was “not a reasonable possibility” that he’d be ready for Week 1 — ended up proving to be correct.

Instead, the Cowboys will proceed with a receiving corps headlined by third-year receiver CeeDee Lamb that also includes the likes of Noah Brown, rookie Jalen Tolbert, Simi Fehoko and former USFL MVP KaVontae Turpin.

It’s far from the group Dallas rolled out last season. Gone are Cedrick Wilson and Amari Cooper, and in their place is a group of unproven players who will accept the challenge of producing for a Dallas team that again carries high expectations into the start of the season.

Reinforcement could be on the way in the form of Gallup, a receiver who caught 160 passes for 2,395 yards and 13 touchdowns combined between 2019 and 2021. He just won’t rejoin them for Week 1.