Admitting I've been Dead Wrong - Doug Free

[perrykemp]

I lambasted Doug Free the player, the fact the Cowboys were stupid enough even to bother resigning him, and everything about the guy over the past two years. Quite frankly, I thought he sucked. I still think he sucked.... not sure if it was technique, injury, or something else but I most definitely thought he sucked.

Where I was DEAD WRONG is I openly questioned the decision by the front-office to bring him back this year. I didn't think he was worth bringing back EVEN with the reduced salary.

It is VERY rare for a player, especially one essentially in the mid of his career, to turn himself around from sucking for multiple years and then turn himself into a serviceable (dare I say above average) player.

The front office got this one right. They made the right call. As it pertains to bringing Doug Free back this season my hat is off to Jerry and the gang.

Also kudos to Doug Free. Whether it was you, the coaching staff, or both - you are impressing me me big time this year --- steady as a rock.

 

[Rack]

Agreed. We need to give that man an extension ASAP!

 

[perrykemp]

Agreed. We need to give that man an extension ASAP!

LOL. Ok Rack, that elicited a very early morning chuckle on my part.

 

[Broges74]

Agreed. We need to give that man an extension ASAP!

I wouldn't do that. Make him prove it isn't a fluke.

 

[Rack]

LOL. Ok Rack, that elicited a very early morning chuckle on my part.

Seriously though. He has been playing great. Even better then he was before he got his big contract a few years ago. Hope he, and the rest of the OL, continue to improve.

 

[Oh_Canada]

I was a big fan of Free up until the early part of last year when even the biggest proponent of Free had to be wondering. The guy looked lost, maybe it was the money, maybe it was something else personal effecting him. Either way, we are seeing the Free who took over from Colombo and looked like a future Pro Bowler. Good on him and the team for sticking with the guy.

 

[CowboyStar88]

I think a lot of people have been dead wrong about Doug Free and I think he really took it to heart and whatever confidence he lost he used it to buy into what he was doing and become that player again

 

[ufcrules1]

I will raise my hand here too.. I was pissed off we kept Free after the way he played the year before. He has also proved me wrong.

 

[WoodysGirl]

I don't think anyone was wrong about Doug Free. He didn't play well last year. And clearly the team felt the same way when they started rotating him with Parnell and forced him to take a paycut in the offseason.

I think the right thing to admit to being is pleasantly surprised and happy with his turnaround. It's been five games, but I've got no complaints with really anyone on the OL.

 

[Doomsday101]

He is playing great right now I'm hoping for another pay cut next season so that he will play to a HOF level. lol

Really proud of how Free has responded to all the heat he was taking.

 

[visionary]

You were not the only one PK
the proof though will be in how he plays after he signs a long-term deal
I still have my doubts about that

 

[JBell]

A little birdie told me that Free was suffering from depression the last few seasons because of his balding.

Now that he's at peace with his baldness he's back to pro bowl form.

 

[Future]

I don't think anyone was wrong about Doug Free. He didn't play well last year. And clearly the team felt the same way when they started rotating him with Parnell and forced him to take a paycut in the offseason.

I think the right thing to admit to being is pleasantly surprised and happy with his turnaround. It's been five games, but I've got no complaints with really anyone on the OL.

Thank you. I'm happy he's turned it around, but I still think that, at the time, he should have just been cut.

 

[NJ22]

I lambasted Doug Free the player, the fact the Cowboys were stupid enough even to bother resigning him, and everything about the guy over the past two years. Quite frankly, I thought he sucked. I still think he sucked.... not sure if it was technique, injury, or something else but I most definitely thought he sucked.

Where I was DEAD WRONG is I openly questioned the decision by the front-office to bring him back this year. I didn't think he was worth bringing back EVEN with the reduced salary.

It is VERY rare for a player, especially one essentially in the mid of his career, to turn himself around from sucking for multiple years and then turn himself into a serviceable (dare I say above average) player.

The front office got this one right. They made the right call. As it pertains to bringing Doug Free back this season my hat is off to Jerry and the gang.

Also kudos to Doug Free. Whether it was you, the coaching staff, or both - you are impressing me me big time this year --- steady as a rock.

ditto

 

[Hoov]

Agreed. We need to give that man an extension ASAP!

Lol good one

 

[xwalker]

I lambasted Doug Free the player, the fact the Cowboys were stupid enough even to bother resigning him, and everything about the guy over the past two years. Quite frankly, I thought he sucked. I still think he sucked.... not sure if it was technique, injury, or something else but I most definitely thought he sucked.

Where I was DEAD WRONG is I openly questioned the decision by the front-office to bring him back this year. I didn't think he was worth bringing back EVEN with the reduced salary.

It is VERY rare for a player, especially one essentially in the mid of his career, to turn himself around from sucking for multiple years and then turn himself into a serviceable (dare I say above average) player.

The front office got this one right. They made the right call. As it pertains to bringing Doug Free back this season my hat is off to Jerry and the gang.

Also kudos to Doug Free. Whether it was you, the coaching staff, or both - you are impressing me me big time this year --- steady as a rock.

They have changed things in the scheme to make it easier for Free.

They often have the Center help the right Guard and have the RG keep a closer than normal spacing between himself and Free. With the close spacing, Free can over-set to the outside with less concern about protecting the inside rush. They don't run the same type of running plays on Free's side that they run on Smith's side. Most of the right side runs are either between the Center and Guard or wide to the outside both of which avoid running just inside or just outside of Free. On the left side the often run just inside or just outside of Smith.

Another thing that they do scheme wise is to use TEs on Free's side. If the TE blocks, then Free's job is more like a Guard than a Tackle. If the TE runs a pass route, it still forces the outside rusher wide and gives Free and extra split second to get in position. It also minimizes the chance of an inside rush by the outside pass rusher.

The results of the scheme changes are that the jobs of Leary and Smith are more difficult than normal.

Free has improved his technique, but they definitely help him with the scheme. It's like having a shutdown CB on one side of a defense allows the scheme to roll the Safety coverage over to the other side.

 

[Yakuza Rich]

I was more or less in the club of not believing how much he regressed after the 2010 season. We *had* to re-sign him back then, but I felt he was more than worth it. He was excellent in 2009 and 2010. I questioned if he had the pure athletic ability to keep playing at *that* level, but I thought he was an upper-tier tackle either way. Then he fell off the earth in 2011. I figured there would be some re-adjustment to RT woes, but I never saw it as bad as it got last year.

I thought the 'we must get rid of him no matter if he comes at a reduced salary' sentiment as stupid and foolish. The guy has shown in the past that he obvious could play and what did we have to lose? If we gave him a shot and he performed poorly, we could at least cut him at a cheaper salary. If he plays well, then we salvaged our O-Line.

I think he's been pretty good for the most part, but I was impressed re-watching him in the Denver game. That was one of the best games of his career.




YR

 

[03EBZ06]

Free was so bad last year, I certainly didn't him back, but he has been pleasant surprise, even though he does get help with blocking, so I agree with OP.

 

[PoetTree]

The only year Doug Free "sucked," as you put it, was last season. Prior to that he had been a solid-to-very-good player for us. I blame the organization for inappropriately moving him from right-to-left tackle (and then back again) and really interrupting his progress at the position he had shown such promise at...

 

[jobberone]

I don't think he sucked as bad as people thought last year but he definitely wasn't the same player. He was very good the last quarter of 2012 so I can't say I'm real surprised at him being average or a tad better. But I am surprised he's playing this well and I was on record as saying I didn't completely trust his play. I also thought Parnell might unseat him at some point in the year. I predicted he would be a 50-60 percentile player this year but he's ranked as the number five OT in the league. He's currently in the 92 percentile. Last year Smith was 32nd of 52 and Free 40th of 52. Last year Smith gave up 43 pressures and Free 51. There wasn't a huge difference in the play of either and both got bull rushed more than their share. People talked about how bad Free looked even when he still got the job done but most didn't even look at how often Smith got manhandled. IMO there was a gang mentality towards Free last year although he certainly deserved his share of the criticism of the OL and his play was substandard although so was Smith's. Last year our OL was 23/32 and this year 9/32.

I think we are seeing the continuance of improvement from Smith and Free from the last quarter of last year along with the better play of the interior.

I also agree that Free is benefitting from having a better guard next to him and better play in the interior that @xwalker brought up. An OL is greater than the sum of the parts and they really have got to know and trust one another. Last year both Smith and Free did ok with the outside rush. They both got hurt most with bull rushes but most particularly with stunts. Free got hurt more there as he was often caught looking inside to help Bernie and ended up not doing a very good job with his own guy.

Broaddus and another told me Free was having problems with his hands. That was his punch and his ability to keep his hands on his guy keeping him at arms' length. I haven't looked at the All 22 like last year but he's obviously improved that per his stats and the fact I just haven't seen him letting people get into him as much. This also caused him to get too straight which hurt his ability to anchor as well as keeping him off balance again disrupting his protection. Rumor is he's also bought into Callahan's methods whatever that means. I'm just guessing as I have no inside knowledge about this but I suspect we're talking mostly technique here as much as the zone blocking.

2 sacks, 4 hurries, no hits, and one penalty is very very good so far. Smith has given up 4 penalties, 1 sack, 2 hits and 10 hurries. Hopefully they'll all continue to improve and hopefully get better in run blocking. We're still running to the left too much IMO.

EDIT: BTW Free is still rated the number one OT in the league overall not just pass and Smith is at 21.