Our Biggest weakness is still our O line!

CCBoy said:

With the current group, and his third year in the Dallas training facilities...oh, Biadasz with get stronger and better.

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Redline360 said:

People act like the OL is trash tier. From a passing standpoint they were great compared to most OL's. From a rushing stand point...completely different story though. Reason why we have incredible passing numbers. Still most site matrixes have the OL in the top 10 even despite the rush blocking severely lacking.

Pressure(hurries, hits, sacked) 18th overall
Times pressured per drop back: 26th
Blitzed: 1st
sacked: tied for 20th
Seconds to throw the ball before pressure: 11th +....like 10+ quarterbacks in the 11th - 21st range with 2.4
Most penalized team in football....cowboys

Yes the OL play degraded as the season went on however no one watches every OL in football. No website matrix has the cowboys OL ranked outside of the top 10(pff 1st, most in the 5-7 range). Dak was the most blitzed quarterback in the league and the OL managed to place him tied for 20th in sacks and 18th overall in pressures, 26th in times pressured per dropback and was right in the middle of the pack for time to throw. THATS INCREDIBLE with the injuries we had. Just shows you how bad most quarterbacks have it.

Williams was just a hot mess and the OL was terrible in the post season however that is no excuse. Mahomes and Burrow overcame damn near the same horrible OL play the first game. Discipline/ stupid penalties were the killers

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Tussinman said:

That game won't really change his mind in regards to d-line. The D-line allowed 170 yards of rushing, had zero sacks, and had 5 penalties.

Both o-line and d-line were awful that game if were being honest

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Redline360 said:

People act like the OL is trash tier. From a passing standpoint they were great compared to most OL's. From a rushing stand point...completely different story though. Reason why we have incredible passing numbers. Still most site matrixes have the OL in the top 10 even despite the rush blocking severely lacking.

Pressure(hurries, hits, sacked) 18th overall
Times pressured per drop back: 26th
Blitzed: 1st
sacked: tied for 20th
Seconds to throw the ball before pressure: 11th +....like 10+ quarterbacks in the 11th - 21st range with 2.4
Most penalized team in football....cowboys

Yes the OL play degraded as the season went on however no one watches every OL in football. No website matrix has the cowboys OL ranked outside of the top 10(pff 1st, most in the 5-7 range). Dak was the most blitzed quarterback in the league and the OL managed to place him tied for 20th in sacks and 18th overall in pressures, 26th in times pressured per dropback and was right in the middle of the pack for time to throw. THATS INCREDIBLE with the injuries we had. Just shows you how bad most quarterbacks have it.

Williams was just a hot mess and the OL was terrible in the post season however that is no excuse. Mahomes and Burrow overcame damn near the same horrible OL play the first game. Discipline/ stupid penalties were the killers

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CCBoy said:

5. The Battle at Center
Tyler Biadasz vs. Matt Farniok vs. Alec Lindstrom

You wouldn’t think that this would be a position that could see a change to begin the season, but the comments from Stephen Jones leading up to the 2022 NFL Draft put Matt Farniok’s name out there as competition to Tyler Biadasz going into camp.

We know that at the end of the season, we saw better play out of Biadasz than how his season began, but it seems like the damage was done in the minds of upper management. The Cowboys even went so far as to take time to look at centers in the draft and signed undrafted free agent Alec Lindstrom out of Boston College.

This was seen as a good pick-up by many around the league who thought Lindstrom had the ability to be drafted in the later rounds. By adding Lindstrom, Dallas now has three players who have the ability to play center. Biadasz has the experience after starting the past two seasons. Farniok has a season under his belt but will have to show blocking improvement in order to beat out Biadasz. And, Lindstrom is the wildcard who could surprise all of us and win the job on Week 1.

Top 5 Cowboys' position battles heading into OTAs/training camp (thelandryhat.com)

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• Biadasz had the 2nd best game of the 5 OL in the playoff loss to the Niners.
  • Tyron's ankle was far from 100% and he had multiple fails because his change of direction was limited.
  • La'el had a few wow plays but far more that were sub-par.
  • Connor Williams had the expected handful of terrible plays.
  • Zack Martin was the best; although, he had a couple of mistakes because he seemed overly concerned about helping La'el.
  • Biadasz had 1 major fail but overall was 'good enough'.
    • His blocking often looks ugly, getting pushed back repeatedly, but he generally stayed between the pass rusher and Dak.

• Run blocking was difficult to evaluate because they didn't really try to run.
  • 12 attempts for Zeke and 4 for Pollard.
  • Many of those were on short yardage plays where they just wanted to get the 1st down.

• Farniok was better than expected for a late round pick in his rookie season.
  • He played OC, OG and RT in college.
  • He had good size when drafted at 311 pounds (6-5, 311).
  • Good arm length for an interior player (33-1/4").
  • His 3-cone was significantly better than average.
  • 28 bench reps.

quickccc said:

Replacing two vet starters and having to depend upon rookie backup starters at the swing OT roles is gonna make this an OL in transition.
I expect a lot of speed bumps along the way. It's not gonna be the Great Wall of Dallas 2.0

The big key is their immediate development and the quality of depth available.
It's strange that Conner McGovern's name just doesn't come up at all, even as a hopeful reliable backup.

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Captain43Crash said:

Even when we were winning consistently during the 1st half of the season, many fans, me included, could see obvious problems with our O line. Williams and Biadaz were getting pushed around and penalized. Dak was playing well in spite of the poor O line play.

It was no surprise at all, the O line got dominated in the playoffs, to the fans, that actually watch the O line play with their eyes.

Fans that say this was a top 10 O line, don’t trust their own eyes!

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JoeyBoy718 said:

There are a lot of unknowns. The only thing known is we’re not gonna be elite like we were in past years. If all the unknowns work in our favor, we’ll be solid. If a few unknowns don’t work out, we’ll be average at best. If none of the unknowns work out, we could be terrible.

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Captain43Crash said:

McGovern was given his opportunity to start and played worse than Conner Williams. I hope one of the new guys beat him out for a spot on the roster.

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xwalker said:

Yes, it is easy to see what the Cowboys need to improve to make it further in the playoffs.

Improvement #1: Reduce penalties.
Improvement #2: Run the ball.
Improvement #3: Stop the Run.

They were the most penalized offense and 2nd most penalized defense in the league for 2021.

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xwalker said:

• Biadasz had the 2nd best game of the 5 OL in the playoff loss to the Niners.
  • Tyron's ankle was far from 100% and he had multiple fails because his change of direction was limited.
  • La'el had a few wow plays but far more that were sub-par.
  • Connor Williams had the expected handful of terrible plays.
  • Zack Martin was the best; although, he had a couple of mistakes because he seemed overly concerned about helping La'el.
  • Biadasz had 1 major fail but overall was 'good enough'.
    • His blocking often looks ugly, getting pushed back repeatedly, but he generally stayed between the pass rusher and Dak.

• Run blocking was difficult to evaluate because they didn't really try to run.
  • 12 attempts for Zeke and 4 for Pollard.
  • Many of those were on short yardage plays where they just wanted to get the 1st down.

• Farniok was better than expected for a late round pick in his rookie season.
  • He played OC, OG and RT in college.
  • He had good size when drafted at 311 pounds (6-5, 311).
  • Good arm length for an interior player (33-1/4").
  • His 3-cone was significantly better than average.
  • 28 bench reps.

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Verdict said:

In fairness, it really is hard to predict how our OL will perform, this season. I can see a scenario of anywhere from poor to outstanding.

The first round rookie might come out of the gate slow, or blazing. But as a "mauler" type of player, I actually expect him to play pretty well at G. I see him as a significant upgrade over Williams. How he plays will have a great affect on the line as a whole.

The biggest question mark in my mind is really going to be at CENTER. Biadsz really underwhelmed last year, and I am not hopeful he will have a stellar year this year. I do think Farniok is a bit of an X-Factor at center. If the staff will give him a legitimate shot of winning the center position, and let him weather the initial growing pains, I think he will be a much more consistent center in terms of blocking than Biadsz.

I don't expect Smith to play every game all year, and even if he does, I'm not expecting him to play at a top 10 level. That's probably not realistic. But what might be a pleasant surprise might be Ball or the later round monster of a rookie OT really coming on and making an adequate out replacement for Smith.

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quickccc said:

Could be ..but i'd wonder who else is there as a backup candidate ? Matt Farniok ?

There's only so many game active OL backups we can carry on gameday- and it has to be someone that's versatile enuff' to fill in at center in a blink.
And by all counts, the OL coach wasn't too fond of McGovern at center as equal as he wasn't fond of him at OG..

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Captain43Crash said:

In my opinion the O line was awful, while the D line was okay with a bunch of young guys that should improve.

The O line was dominated throughout the game while the D line was not. They actually made a few key stops to keep us in the game in the 4th quarter.

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doomsday9084 said:

I agree. Its funny how good the O line looks when Pollard runs. As far as pass blocking, Dak was above average in time to throw. His sacks were coverage sacks. The O line certainly isn't as dominant as it was a few years ago but people need to watch around the league and see other teams. There are certainly a lot of lines worse.

The D line though? Can't stop the run and can't get pressure up the middle. Maybe Gallimore improves things but for the most part, the D line was pretty terrible. DT is easily Dallas' worst position.

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Verdict said:

In fairness, it really is hard to predict how our OL will perform, this season. I can see a scenario of anywhere from poor to outstanding.

The first round rookie might come out of the gate slow, or blazing. But as a "mauler" type of player, I actually expect him to play pretty well at G. I see him as a significant upgrade over Williams. How he plays will have a great affect on the line as a whole.

The biggest question mark in my mind is really going to be at CENTER. Biadsz really underwhelmed last year, and I am not hopeful he will have a stellar year this year. I do think Farniok is a bit of an X-Factor at center. If the staff will give him a legitimate shot of winning the center position, and let him weather the initial growing pains, I think he will be a much more consistent center in terms of blocking than Biadsz.

I don't expect Smith to play every game all year, and even if he does, I'm not expecting him to play at a top 10 level. That's probably not realistic. But what might be a pleasant surprise might be Ball or the later round monster of a rookie OT really coming on and making an adequate replacement for Smith.

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Captain43Crash said:

Our O line got manhandled vs the Whiners.

Going into that game, our O line vs the Whiners D line, was my biggest concern. Most of us knew Conner Williams and Biadaz would struggle. We knew if not 100%, Tyron Smith might struggle. We thought Collins and Martin would play well. Martin was good, but Collins was not!

I am glad we got rid of Williams and Collins, and picked up a 1st round O lineman, but we still need to upgrade at Center and possibly LT. Tyron cannot stay healthy and has lost a step when healthy.

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