Derek Eagleton On Zeke/O-Line

[Vanilla2]

He had some Pro-Bowlers on his line too.

Im with you on this subject.

 

[JeffInDC]

Zeke also needs to take one positive thing from LeVeon Bell (since dude is a absolute idiot) - DROP SOME WEIGHT!!!!! Zeke needs to get to OR below 220...maybe he'll get his quickness back.

 

[Aven8]

It seems that all the contracts outside of Jaylons were a needs basis at the time. What I mean by that is we HAD to have those players at that particular time as we had no other options. I’m not sure I blame them really.

When Dlaw’s contract came due he was coming off a monster year and we had NO other pass rushers.

When Zeke held out JG was trying to save his job and he knew he needed him badly to play his type of football.

And last season we signed Coop. We had NO idea CeeDee would land in our laps and had to have him as we only had Gallup.

It’s all unfortunate timing really.

 

[Ring6]

Derek - the adjective is "dominant" not "dominate"

 

[Hawkeye19]

Get some leads in games and Zeke will shine as long as he doesn’t fumble..

If we’re constantly down 3 scores he has no chance.

Truth.

But it would help immensely if his fumbles did not always contribute to being down by 14+ points every game lol

 

[aria]

Zeke is in a funk right now. I don’t think he’s fell off I think he’s the same back. I think what we need to dial back is what type of back he was to begin with.

His funk is he was always over rated because the O line. Unfortunately Jerry never realized it and most people here didn’t either.

 

[aria]

Surprised he didn’t mention Barkley who broke several records his rookie year behind one of the worst O lines in the league.

 

[CATCH17]

Our chance to get leads in games went down the toilet when Dak went down.

Dak gave the ball away early in games too. But he was the reason the Cowboys had a chance at the end. Zeke makes very little positive impact in this offense.

True but Dak was also not making comebacks on decent defenses..

Those defenses he Came back on are not good enough to hold passing offenses.


People forget Dalton was 9 of 11 for 111 yards against NYG..

Against AZ and WSH we couldn’t protect him and Zeke contributed to the chaos.

 

[Kingofholland]

There's no disputing that first part.I was with him until he said Barry Sanders had a bad O-line. That line was nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be.

Lol, yes there were several pro bowlers on those lines for Sanders. Easy to forget when you see a player frequently run backwards that you have an oline that's blocking in front of you. He probably drove his blockers crazy that they had to try to run all over.

 

[Londonboy]

Isn't this the guy who shut down the official Team forum?

 

[Stash]

Our chance to get leads in games went down the toilet when Dak went down.

Dak gave the ball away early in games too. But he was the reason the Cowboys had a chance at the end. Zeke makes very little positive impact in this offense.

And he sure as hell isn't a leader.

 

[Flamma]

Sanders OL was not exactly great, or even good, either.

How good did his OL need to be? He was a space runner. He ran out of a single set back spread formation and no TE. All the OL had to do is put a hat on a guy and let Barry wiggle his way to daylight.

 

[Stash]

Zeke is in a funk right now. I don’t think he’s fell off I think he’s the same back. I think what we need to dial back is what type of back he was to begin with.

I disagree, his explosive plays have dropped off precipitously, and that's well documented. He's not the same back that this team drafted in 2016.

 

[morasp]

I haven't been watching the games too closely but fumbles and dropped passes aren't an O-Line problem.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Surprised he didn’t mention Barkley who broke several records his rookie year behind one of the worst O lines in the league.

That line wasn’t as bad as this one. Plus Barkley ain’t no Barry.

 

[jwooten15]

Eagleton does make a valid point - it's hard for any RB to be great behind a bad line.

But Zeke is not absolved from blame. His fumbling/drop issues aside, the guy is not the same back he once was.

He's now a glorified power back, and even if we had the 2014 line, Zeke wouldn't be breaking long runs like he used to.

I always go back to that Detroit game in 2016. Zeke was literally shot out of a cannon on that 55 yard TD. In 2020, that DB would angle him for the tackle around the Detroit 30.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

I disagree, his explosive plays have dropped off precipitously, and that's well documented. He's not the same back that this team drafted in 2016.

I agree somewhat but how many of those plays were because of Zeke though? I just never looked at him like a guy who can run away from the defense. I haven’t seen it in 4 years.....maybe his rookie season was the anomaly and not the bad.....

 

[McKDaddy]

Zeke is in a funk right now. I don’t think he’s fell off I think he’s the same back. I think what we need to dial back is what type of back he was to begin with.

he is taking a beating in pass protection because the line is crap. he takes a beating when they hand him the ball because the line is crap. he takes a beating when they throw it to him in the flat because the line is crap (defense isn't threatened anywhere else).

they really need to put someone else in there to take some of the pass pro beating.

 

[McKDaddy]

It seems that all the contracts outside of Jaylons were a needs basis at the time. What I mean by that is we HAD to have those players at that particular time as we had no other options. I’m not sure I blame them really.

When Dlaw’s contract came due he was coming off a monster year and we had NO other pass rushers.

When Zeke held out JG was trying to save his job and he knew he needed him badly to play his type of football.

And last season we signed Coop. We had NO idea CeeDee would land in our laps and had to have him as we only had Gallup.

It’s all unfortunate timing really.

i get where you are coming from but where i have issue with these two
Dlaw - when he put off surgery as a negotiation ploy. that was a huge red flag.
Zeke - it just didn't have to happen. I would have played hardball and forced his hand while sending a message to the team.

 

[Whyjerry]

7 games in. 450 yards. No 100 yard games. Soft as tissue. Cowboys fans need to understand we have already seen the best of Zeke. This is a declining player.