Changes on offense going unnoticed

[Galian Beast]

What I am saying, is that it doesn't really matter who your position coaches are, it is what is being taught. You still have a coach, who doesn't know how to make adjustments, so unless someone is calling the plays, I can't say the Offense is going to be soo much different.

I don't think that is true at all. I think you can look around the league and look at quite a few position coaches who are probably getting the best out of players. It's simply hard to discern why a player has developed. Is it due to their own ability and worth ethic, or does the coach get some credit there?

 

[Thatkidbob]

I'd like to clone what they do. It's working and i'd like to see our offense put the foot on the gas pedal.

We have guys that are more suited for a fast break / street ball style attack.

We are way to coventional on offense for the type of players we have.

I'd love to see something like what you've described. I like the way the team has drafted under Garrett, and I actually like him as a coach, but at this point in his career he does have a major shortcoming when it comes to his understanding of rhythm and tempo and their impact on the game.

The elite offenses in the league get into rhythm and then dictate the tempo of the game to the defense. Too often I've seen this team get into rhythm, but not press their advantage when they have the defense off balance by going up tempo in their attack.

My hope is that, with Romo more involved in the planning of the offense as a whole, and play calling specifically, that they'll begin to put more pressure on opposing defenses this coming season.

 

[honyock]

I think the bigger thing that is about to happen is that two OL who we have developed will start to flourish and this will help out the offense more than anyone can conceive right now. The two players I'm talking about are Tyron Smith and Jeremy Parnell.

Tyron is still only 22 years old which is a fairly typical age for an NFL rookie. We already saw him put up a Pro Bowl quality year at RT as a 20 year old rookie which is pretty remarkable. I think the move to LT has taken him longer to make than anyone anticipated partly because of how green/inexperienced he was and partly because of how long he had been a RT. I thought the second half of the year was considerably better than the first half and look for him to put up a better year at LT than he did at RT as a rookie. He has the entire tool kit to the extreme that you want at LT but just needs to get his footwork better and he will dominate with his length, strength and athleticism. We already know he is an elite run blocker which we have had trouble captializing on because of how weak OL play has been in general.

The other guy is now entering only his 3rd year as an OL. He played only one year of college ball mostly as a DE and then spent most of his rookie year ater being an UDFA as a TE on the Saints PS before we grabbed him late in the year in 2010 when we were not contending and tried to figure out how we could use him. We had him at OT in 2011. This was a guy who weighed only 245 pounds in his Junior year at college spent playing PF in basketball. He was extremely raw going through 3 different positions in his first 2 years of football experience before finally coming to the OL after he had bulked up considerably (245 in college, 290 when we grabbed him from the Saints, probably about 320 pounds right now). He can move his feet well from years playing basketball but had to learn football footwork and then OL footwork and that has taken time learning those things which most OL come into the league already knowing. He has elite arm length and apparenlty the strongest punch that Woicik has ever seen from an OL so that presumably includes guys like Erik Williams, Larry Allen, Flo and Logan Mankins. He looked pretty strong on the field and don't remember many people being able to bullrush him much and he's going to be much better this year. Last year he looked like a good 2nd year developmental OT when he saw snaps at LT for a couple of games when Tyron was hurt and then for 3 games splitting snaps with Free. The fact that he was not looking lost out there against top NFL competition speaks volumes about his future potential. I really think he can solidify us at RT next year and give us two athletic bookends.

Now you can add back in a vastly improved Phil Costa who is going into his fourth year who showed major improvement in the second half of his first starting year in 2011 and who looked very good when he saw the field in 2012. Now we aren't sure where he is going to play but I have a suspicion he is going to play Center for us next year and hopefully pick up right where he left off.

Now we can again Travis Frederick who will probably play at around 6-4 320 pounds for us. I suspect they may stick him at LG in his rookie year before moving him to Center later. He gives us something we have lacked for awhile although Costa showed some hints of it in the second half of 2011 and 2012. He gives us an interior OL who can get push in the running game at the point of attack. You can clearly see his immense power at the point of attack as he not only engages the DL so they can only attempt an arm tackle. He actually drives the DL off the line and turns him so he can seal him off to create the hole repeatedly. You can see Wisconsin running behind him over and over again in 2011 and 2012 even when they had both Konz and Zeitler in there as well. The part that I'm less convinced about is how well he can pull and that is why I'm unsure if they'll start him at RG or LG before eventually sticking him at Center.

I think if those 3 chips hit the ground running this year then the averagish OGs that we stick out there with them, assuming they are healthy this year, should be passable. This will hopefully give us an above average OL who can allow us to be balanced offensively between passing and running. This way we can protect Romo better, control the clock, use play action pass to better effect and open up the deep passing game. I think we may be getting close to where we were in 2006 when Romo came up as a rookie and made the Pro Bowl in a partial year starting. I think we'll be better in 2014 hopefully after adding in another cog from a high pick or a developmental OG but right now I think we could have at least league average play all the way across the OL this year and maybe even above average in 2-3 spots. This will be world's better when only Livings played well and only for part of the year.

Of course, this could all fall apart and that is what we're used to. I think this year will be far better than last year, though. I do think most of the parts are there now and the fanbase will have to accept that very few OL are ever elite across the board. Most make do with a couple of premium players and maybe a solid vet and a young developmental type or two. With two first round picks we probably have more there right now than most of the league, it is just that they are both young and still in their developmental phases right now so we haven't yet gotten the fruits from the investment - heck TFred hasn't even yet seen a snap.

I think everyone will be pleasantly surprised by what the group does this year.

Nice write up. I can't wait for mini camps and training camp. There are so many storylines to watch just on the OL...iit can't get here fast enough.

 

[slomoxn]

With all the talk about Kiffin and the Tampa 2, I think the offensive overhaul has really been overlooked.

New Coaches
Gary Brown - New Running backs coach
Derek Dooley - New Wide Receiver coach
Wes Phillips* - New Tight Ends coach (fmr assistant offensive line coach)
Frank Pollack - New Assistant offensive line coach

New Players
Travis Frederick - Center
Gavin Escobar - Tight End
Terrance Williams - Wide Receiver
Joseph Randle - Running Back

All of this combined with the reports of Tony Romo being more involved with play calling and game planning, the possibility of Bill Callahan being the play caller, the enhanced emphasis on the 12 personnel group, the addition of Terrance Williams and what that means for Austin as a slot receiver. And also the ability to lighten DeMarco Murray's load by using Joseph Randle.

Perhaps not as dramatic as our shift on defense, but certainly expect more emphasis to be placed on TE2. Expect more production (not necessarily in yards, but in the role) for WR3. Terrance Williams should be a huge upgrade over Dwayne Harris (and that's isn't a slight on him). I don't think we've ever been so loaded with talent on offense since the Romo era began.

A lot of comparisons are drawn with the Patriots, perhaps to some cynics dismay, but I definitely think we're planning to do a lot of similar things. They have tried to put together a specific set in their wide receiver group that allowed Welker to excel in the slot. I think we'll use Austin similarly. That being said I think we want to have more production out of our outside receivers, and we're certainly more talented than New England in that respect. Our tight ends don't need to match up with New England's in order for us to match up with their offensive production.

The biggest question people probably have in the comparison is the offensive line. And I'll be the first to admit that I think even with the addition of Frederick that I think the offensive line may still be somewhat suspect. That being said I think with the weapons we have it'll certainly take some pressure off the line in terms of the blitzes we faced. Getting the ball out quicker helps the line.

The only comparison to The Patriots that would make me feel good is the front office being as good or efficient as theirs. That's not going to happen anytime soon but I'm happy with the team changes and influx of youth.

 

[Vintage]

The Cowboys really never had a 2nd TE who was a very legitimate receiving option, which is why the 2 TE offense has never really taken off in the passing game.

When the decision to trade Fasano occurred, I forgot which coach it was... but something was said about trying to find players who didn't make the same mistakes over and over.

This draft, Jerry made a reference to Bennett, saying something to the effect of how the offense was never able to run it like they wanted due to limitation at the 2nd TE position.

In not so many words, both Fasano and Bennett were thrown under the bus for not having the skillset and/or intelligence to make it work.

Hopefully, they found something different in Escobar.

 

[Beast_from_East]

and by the word clone, you mean what any other team that runs the same system?

If every team runs the same system, why are we using the Pats as our role model?

Clearly the Pats are doing something different than what we have done in the past, hence Jerry saying they are our role model.

 

[Eskimo]

If every team runs the same system, why are we using the Pats as our role model?

Clearly the Pats are doing something different than what we have done in the past, hence Jerry saying they are our role model.

We had mostly used it as a running formation. Or when we used it as a passing formation we mostly kept one of the TEs in to assist as a blocker. So we were rarely using the TEs in various patterns down the field to try and create mismatches against defenders who could not counter against that kind of size and speed effectively down the field. The hope is now with Escobar at 6-6 and 260 pounds with elite ball skills and hands that we have another elite threat who can be a matchup nightmare.

I know people have wondered about the drafting of Escobar when we had Hanna but we can't run the offense we want to without 3 TEs and with Phillips leaving we only had two. I also wonder if we now have 3 TEs who can be good targets but each with a slighly different skill set. Witten is the master or zones and body positioning underneath, Escobar using elite length and ball skills to threaten down the seam and Hanna using elite speed and good size to create major headaches for LBs and Safeties. If you can get all 3 of them out there as competent blockers and put Dez out there at WR you create problems because the defense will double Dez and might have to bring in bigger players to match up against the 3 TEs. But now the 3 TEs can break out into a 3 WR formation maybe leaving Witten inline. This will create a headache for DCs so long as we can take advantage of TE against little guy blocking mismatches that it presents if teams don't match up against that size.

It'll be interesting to see what happens but I imagine it will look considerably different than the 2011 offense with MartyB.

 

[ringmaster]

We had mostly used it as a running formation. Or when we used it as a passing formation we mostly kept one of the TEs in to assist as a blocker. So we were rarely using the TEs in various patterns down the field to try and create mismatches against defenders who could not counter against that kind of size and speed effectively down the field. The hope is now with Escobar at 6-6 and 260 pounds with elite ball skills and hands that we have another elite threat who can be a matchup nightmare.

I know people have wondered about the drafting of Escobar when we had Hanna but we can't run the offense we want to without 3 TEs and with Phillips leaving we only had two. I also wonder if we now have 3 TEs who can be good targets but each with a slighly different skill set. Witten is the master or zones and body positioning underneath, Escobar using elite length and ball skills to threaten down the seam and Hanna using elite speed and good size to create major headaches for LBs and Safeties. If you can get all 3 of them out there as competent blockers and put Dez out there at WR you create problems because the defense will double Dez and might have to bring in bigger players to match up against the 3 TEs. But now the 3 TEs can break out into a 3 WR formation maybe leaving Witten inline. This will create a headache for DCs so long as we can take advantage of TE against little guy blocking mismatches that it presents if teams don't match up against that size.

It'll be interesting to see what happens but I imagine it will look considerably different than the 2011 offense with MartyB.

I bet they're thinking the same thing you're saying here and as we know it can all work if the O-line get it together and if so I wish any defense they face this coming season good luck in stopping this offense.

 

[Beast_from_East]

We had mostly used it as a running formation. Or when we used it as a passing formation we mostly kept one of the TEs in to assist as a blocker. So we were rarely using the TEs in various patterns down the field to try and create mismatches against defenders who could not counter against that kind of size and speed effectively down the field. The hope is now with Escobar at 6-6 and 260 pounds with elite ball skills and hands that we have another elite threat who can be a matchup nightmare.

I know people have wondered about the drafting of Escobar when we had Hanna but we can't run the offense we want to without 3 TEs and with Phillips leaving we only had two. I also wonder if we now have 3 TEs who can be good targets but each with a slighly different skill set. Witten is the master or zones and body positioning underneath, Escobar using elite length and ball skills to threaten down the seam and Hanna using elite speed and good size to create major headaches for LBs and Safeties. If you can get all 3 of them out there as competent blockers and put Dez out there at WR you create problems because the defense will double Dez and might have to bring in bigger players to match up against the 3 TEs. But now the 3 TEs can break out into a 3 WR formation maybe leaving Witten inline. This will create a headache for DCs so long as we can take advantage of TE against little guy blocking mismatches that it presents if teams don't match up against that size.

It'll be interesting to see what happens but I imagine it will look considerably different than the 2011 offense with MartyB.

Good analysis.


My fear is that our genius head coach is not going to use all these weapons correctly. When it comes to designing plays to exploit mismatches, Garrett gets an F.

I would really love to see an up-tempo, multiple TE formation offense that exploits mismatches and causes confusion among the defense. That would be a welcome change than opposing players saying after the game that they knew what every play was before we ran it.

 

[CyberB0b]

We had mostly used it as a running formation. Or when we used it as a passing formation we mostly kept one of the TEs in to assist as a blocker. So we were rarely using the TEs in various patterns down the field to try and create mismatches against defenders who could not counter against that kind of size and speed effectively down the field. The hope is now with Escobar at 6-6 and 260 pounds with elite ball skills and hands that we have another elite threat who can be a matchup nightmare.

I know people have wondered about the drafting of Escobar when we had Hanna but we can't run the offense we want to without 3 TEs and with Phillips leaving we only had two. I also wonder if we now have 3 TEs who can be good targets but each with a slighly different skill set. Witten is the master or zones and body positioning underneath, Escobar using elite length and ball skills to threaten down the seam and Hanna using elite speed and good size to create major headaches for LBs and Safeties. If you can get all 3 of them out there as competent blockers and put Dez out there at WR you create problems because the defense will double Dez and might have to bring in bigger players to match up against the 3 TEs. But now the 3 TEs can break out into a 3 WR formation maybe leaving Witten inline. This will create a headache for DCs so long as we can take advantage of TE against little guy blocking mismatches that it presents if teams don't match up against that size.

It'll be interesting to see what happens but I imagine it will look considerably different than the 2011 offense with MartyB.

I would tap the brakes on all that elite talk. Escobar is a small school prospect who wasn't really challenged. The only elite TE on this team is Witten. Period.

 

[Idgit]

I would tap the brakes on all that elite talk. Escobar is a small school prospect who wasn't really challenged. The only elite TE on this team is Witten. Period.

Nothing wrong with noting that a college player has elite ball skills. It takes more than ball skills to be an elite TE in the NFL.