Offensive line shuffle

Ranched

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Playoff games aren’t won on reputation, & the Cowboys realized this against the 49ers when their once star-studded offensive line gave them little chance to put up the points they did previously this season.

Only the Eagles, Rams, Jaguars, & Falcons scored less than 17 on the 49ers this season. And to think, the Rams play the 49ers again. o_O
 

Stak78

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I think Collins played better at guard than he did at RT. He and Tyron were pretty solid on that side in his rookie season. If I’m not mistaken.
Collins was a beast at guard. As a rookie he was a road grader in the run game. We kick him out to tackle and he’s been ok, but nothing like he was as a guard.
 

DuncanIso

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At Guard I think he’d be close to being worth it.

He’s never had a Pro Bowl on his resume.

bad hip, drug problem, and high base salary.

and missed a ton of football games.

a March cut is possible.
 

buddahjoe445

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Is Collins worth his 10 million base salary?
I think Collins get degraded more than he deserves. Most of oline issues and breakdown occur at left guard and center. Thats where most of the pressure comes from and unfortunately, Dak cant handle pressure from middle and panics.
 

Ranched

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I think our offensive line is much better than most of the other playoff teams.
I beg to differ being they've only played 3x's together the entire season. The 3rd time was vs. 49ers. What's that tell you?!
 

OmerV

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For the life of me I cannot understand why our offensive line wasn’t as follows. Tyron Smith (LT) L. Collins (LG) Biadash (C) Martin (RG) and T. Steele (RT) those were the best 5 Linemen and would’ve had much better success in my opinion. What do you guys think?
I think a lot of people liked the idea of this lineup. I did too. As I recall they worked Collins at both RT & LG when he came back from injury, but ended up putting him back at RT.

Of course, as much as Smith missed it wouldn't have lasted anyway. Smith missed 6 of the last 10 games, so Collins would have had to move back to OT anyway
 

fivetwos

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Biadasz was the main problem.

Once he suddenly forgot how to block, the OL and entire offense went down with him and never recovered.
 

RonWashington

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For the life of me I cannot understand why our offensive line wasn’t as follows. Tyron Smith (LT) L. Collins (LG) Biadash (C) Martin (RG) and T. Steele (RT) those were the best 5 Linemen and would’ve had much better success in my opinion. What do you guys think?


I agree 100 percent . You pay Collins salary say big fella our best Oline is or was with Collins at guard since Steele seemed to progress every week he started at RT . He’s earned the right to compete at starting RT in July at training camp.
 

RonWashington

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I personally think a viable replacement for the center and long term at LT needs to come from this draft .
 

ColoradoCowboy

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Agreed with everyone, except for the Center. I would have benched Biadasz and tried out Farniok. I truly believe Farniok could have played better.

Watch the 4th quarter and watch Farniok #68 compared to Biadasz #63 (the first 3 quarters):


I watched, carefully, every play of that vid. I was actually surprised at how well Tyler played. He is pretty good as long as neither of two things happened:
1. He was alone against a strong DT. He just isn't strong enough.
2. There was a scrum of bodies in one spot. He gets completely lost and doesn't know what to do.

OK, having said that, and feeling pretty good about Tyler, I was shocked at how much better Farniok played. He is MUCH stronger than Tyler. Hardy's TD run was two guys against the defense. Hardy made a great run, but Farniok sprung him. Twice.
 

fairviewfarmer

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For the life of me I cannot understand why our offensive line wasn’t as follows. Tyron Smith (LT) L. Collins (LG) Biadash (C) Martin (RG) and T. Steele (RT) those were the best 5 Linemen and would’ve had much better success in my opinion. What do you guys think?
Injuries are the reason why not.
 

xwalker

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For the life of me I cannot understand why our offensive line wasn’t as follows. Tyron Smith (LT) L. Collins (LG) Biadash (C) Martin (RG) and T. Steele (RT) those were the best 5 Linemen and would’ve had much better success in my opinion. What do you guys think?
In 2021 they had too many issues at OT to considering moving their 2nd best OT to OG.
Tyron injuries.
La'el Suspension.
Steele's lack of experience.
The veteran swing Tackle being 36 years old.

In 2022 they have to consider it if the top 3 OTs are healthy in training camp.
Hopefully Josh Ball is at least as good as Steele at OT.
 

Dak_Attack_09

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I think you are misunderstanding what we are talking about.

I am not referring to occasional plays where a linemen may line up at the end and once every few dozen plays get a ball throw to them in the end zone (most teams do this at least once every year or two) nor am I referring to the occasional fullback role.

We are talking about every down positions such as Offensive Tackle, Offensive Guard, Center, etc.

The Cowboys coaches always seems to lock-in on positions. For example, "This player is a tackle" or "that player is a guard". Left/right is not important, it's the position itself that is the problem.

Collins may be better than Steele, but Collins played guard earlier in his career and Collins at left guard and Steele at right tackle would likely produce better overall results than Collins at right tackle and Williams at left guard. Steele may not play as well as Collins at right tackle but the focus should be on overall line performance, not just one position.

Can no other player play center? Biadasz struggled at times both in blocking and with snapping, so maybe Williams or McGregor could do better than him. Maybe they cannot, but at least find out some of these things and maybe make that a factor in the lineman drafting and/or signing process.

Of course this team has a lot of issues that go beyond this topic, but this is the topic of this thread which is why I will not mention the other problems.

In baseball, you may have two great shortstops on your team, but only one of them can play and you do not want the other one sitting on the bench when they are better than the second or third basemen.

The solution is simple .. best 5 offensive linemen should be on the field even if it means downgrading one of the positions because the upgrade they provide at their new position may more than make up from any downgrade from their move.

Issac Alarcon has potential to be a starting guard. Need to trade one of the tackles and move on a year early than year too late.

Draft a Center or Tackle with either first or second pick. Use the extra pick from the trade to beef up the interior DL or move up.
 

keysersoze

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I think a lot of people liked the idea of this lineup. I did too. As I recall they worked Collins at both RT & LG when he came back from injury, but ended up putting him back at RT.

Of course, as much as Smith missed it wouldn't have lasted anyway. Smith missed 6 of the last 10 games, so Collins would have had to move back to OT anyway
This is true.
 
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