[Idgit]

Originally Posted by CoCo

When cooler heads prevail (agendas absent) the bold is a pretty commonly held belief. Yet it's rarely discussed in the Cowboys recent year struggles. The 2012 O-line had exactly ZERO continuity with its predominant starters (Tyron, Livings, Cook, Bernadeau, Free) from the previous year. The interior players weren't on the team in 2011. The tackles, flipped sides.

Somewhere I suspect that this made the group less effective than they'd otherwise have been in 2012. Not suggesting it was the primary factor at all - but it likely was a factor.

Yep. I think it was a *huge* issue for the OL. Especially because the problems at C exacerbated all of the miscommunication. Early on, it was the cause of the false starts and a lot of the blown protections. It's also the reason why Mack looked so bad early--his surgery and limited reps right before being elevated into the starter's role. I think the team's counting on at least having continuity with most of its starters at least competing for snaps. We should cut Free and pickup a VFA RT (not sure we're going to do that, but we should). Then draft an OG relatively high, move Mack to C to compete directly with Costa for the starting job. Let Leary push Livings and the VFA fight Parnell for that job. That way, if we end up changing personnel, it'll be because we think it represents a legitimate upgrade. In all likelihood, we'll just end up with Costa back in the lineup (I consider that continuity, of sorts), Parnell at RT, and one new player starting at OG. If that new player is, say, Jonathan Cooper, I think that's an OL that can be effective for us almost immediately. And there'd be depth across the board. On game days, you'd have the option of only activating 7 OLs if you wanted/needed to.