3 Cowboys in Grantland's Top 10 Offensive Linemen in the NFL

[waving monkey]

There are one hundred and sixty starting offensive lineman in the NFL.
Dallas carries 3 of the top ten of those one hundred and sixty.
That is dominance

 

[waving monkey]

The amazing thing is just the good fortune. Most teams if they spent three 1st rounders on OL would get a solid starter, an average player, and a bust. Frederick was obviously a great pick but the other two fell in their lap (they still deserve credit for taking them though). They're all great... and there's some luck in that. Which is why I've always been skeptical of the "Jerry decided to build a line" stuff.

I never understand why its so hard to understand that letting the draft fall to you
is considered what the good teams do except when it comes to Jerry Jones.
And that why I am always skeptical of the skeptics .

 

[ActualCowboysFan]

Is Collins potential really a top 10 linemen in the league?

Too early to tell. But at guard with the guys who he'd be lined up next to, I don't think it's too much of a stretch.

 

[Avery]

Now we just need to turn the accolades into a championship.

 

[Kaiser]

The part people always miss when discussing the merits of good centers is how they make everyone else that plays with them better. Their true value is a lot like a point guard in that regard.

The first second Fredrick put on a Cowboy uniform the offensive line went from horrible to middle of the road and it had very little to do with his skills as an individual blocker. He is the field general that allows the offensive line to play like one cohesive unit instead of 5 individual entities as it had played for years before he showed up. It's because of him that the the whole is greater than the sum of the parts as far as the line is concerned.

Frederick had a 3.9 GPA in Computer Science at Wisconsin, which is a good school. I remember reading that in his first training camp after being drafted the coaches were quizzing him on defensive alignments and the line adjustments that had to be made. Frederick not only got all of those right as a rookie - which no rookie does - he would call the defensive backfield alignments. They said the coaches had never seen a rookie do that before either.

 

[guag]

1. Marshal Yanda (RG, Ravens)
I’d be willing to argue that aside from J.J. Watt and Aaron Rodgers, no one in the league had a more comfortable margin as the best player at his position than Yanda.

I concede that Aaron Rogers is the best QB in the game right now, but he's that much better than Brady, Brees, Romo, Peyton, Roethlisberger? I don't know, I'm not convinced.

 

[theogt]

That gif of Yanda in the article is pretty crazy.

 

[Nova]

Smith should not be top 2- this list seems pretty reasonable.

Smith is great, but his numbers would look worse were it not for Romo dodging sacks. He seems about right where he is.

His sack numbers may look better because of Romo, but Romo doesn't mask Tyron's overall pass blocking efficiency which includes hurries and hits as well. Tyron was the most efficient pass blocker in the league in 2013, and he was once again top 5 last year.

But yeah, top 2 is probably a little high. But he's surely fringe top 3.

 

[JoeBoBBY]

This offensive line is the heart and soul of this team. And they are young. Gives me hope for years and years to come!

 

[xwalker]

it always amazed me that Jerruh Jones refused to use #1 picks on the O line. Coming from an ALL AMERICAN OLINEMAN FROM ARKANSAS.

And yet once he did it took only 4 years really to assemble a top line.

He talking about that in an interview a couple of years ago. He said that they built the dominant OLines of the early nineties without any 1st round picks and that heavily influenced his thought process on OLinemen in the 1st round.

I assume that it's not a coincidence that Garrett took over mid-2010 and they started the process of drafting 3 first round OL by picking Tyron in 2011.

 

[xwalker]

Is Collins potential really a top 10 linemen in the league?

It is difficult to know about his pass blocking because his team rarely threw the ball in college. His run blocking definitely has potential to be right there with Martin's IMO. He is not as well developed as Martin, so don't expect him to have a rookie season like Martin had, but his potential is really high, IMO.