Derek Eagleton On Zeke/O-Line

[Hawkeye0202]

Eagleton's explanation of the reasoning behind it doesn't make it any better. The fact is that it was a stupid decision in the first place, and that no running game in NFL history could ever produce at the level required to justify that level of investment.

That was the problem!

True but remember drafting Zeke was all about extending Romo's career. They were trying to reset 2014 when Romo had his best career year with DeMarco Murray leading the league in rushing. So I guess you can say drafting Zeke was part of Romo's value ......

 

[Stash]

I agree somewhat but how many of those plays were because of Zeke though?

I just saw where he's leading the league in several negative categories for running backs.

I just never looked at him like a guy who can run away from the defense. I haven’t seen it in 4 years.....maybe his rookie season was the anomaly and not the bad.....

He did it in college. He was running away from people for huge gains all the time. And he also did it as a rookie and during his sophomore season as well. Look it up, his dropoff is well charted and documented.

 

[G2]

Zip it Derek.

 

[Stash]

True but remember drafting Zeke was all about extending Romo's career. They were trying to reset 2014 when Romo had his best career year with DeMarco Murray leading the league in rushing. So I guess you can say drafting Zeke was part of Romo's value ......

They can try to say that, I don't buy it. I didn't then when they did it, and I sure don't know after seeing the actual results, and a return on investment that NEVER happened.

Do you remember Stephen saying when trying to justify not paying Murray that with the offensive line that they had they didn't need to make such a big investment at the running back position? If you don't you can easily find it. McFadden's 2015 season proved that theory right. But what do the Cowboys do? The exact opposite of that.

 

[Hawkeye0202]

They can try to say that, I don't buy it. I didn't then when they did it, and I sure don't know after seeing the actual results, and a return on investment that NEVER happened.

Do you remember Stephen saying when trying to justify not paying Murray that with the offensive line that they had they didn't need to make such a big investment at the running back position? If you don't you can easily find it. McFadden's 2015 season proved that theory right. But what do the Cowboys do? The exact opposite of that.

Yea I remember but they also tried to bring Murray back 2016 offseason after he was released by the Eagles but the Titans jump at the last min and offered him a better deal. In fact, Murray says he was set to fly to Dallas and sign the contract until his agent called him with a better offer.

 

[Adreme]

There's no disputing that first part.I was with him until he said Barry Sanders had a bad O-line. That line was nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be.

Honestly Adrian Peterson also had a pretty terrible OLine for most of his career in Minnesota. He outright carried a pretty bad run blocking unit and got yards in spite of them. Outside of those two though it just does not happen.

 

[RonnieT24]

There's no disputing that first part.I was with him until he said Barry Sanders had a bad O-line. That line was nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be.

Yeah the Lions had three first round picks and 3 high seconds during Barry's time there.. But it's one of those narratives that took on a life of its own and people have been parroting it for 20 years.

 

[BBGTYCOON]

Eagleton's explanation of the reasoning behind it doesn't make it any better. The fact is that it was a stupid decision in the first place, and that no running game in NFL history could ever produce at the level required to justify that level of investment.

That was the problem!

 

[RonnieT24]

Eagleton's explanation of the reasoning behind it doesn't make it any better. The fact is that it was a stupid decision in the first place, and that no running game in NFL history could ever produce at the level required to justify that level of investment.

That was the problem!

This is a silly statement.. Had the line remained healthy and Zeke kept putting up 1500 yard 12-15 TD seasons while the team made the playoffs every year it would have been worth every penny. That dominant line allowed us to get a lot of wins despite very mediocre defense because they, along with Zeke could bludgeon the opposing defense into submission. Now that our defense has dropped from mediocre to "these guys don't belong in the NFL" level and the offensive line is hurt you can't get any return on your investment. However given that none of the core guys is 30 yet ( I think Tyron turns 30 next spring) I think you roll with it at least one more year to find out if the surgeries fixed him and Collins. If they did and Dak is healthy you immediately return to being the best offense in football .. and if you handle your business on the defensive side and get them into the upper third of the league you have yourself a contender. You also get back the ability to use Zeke in the second half of games. If any of the three guys coming off surgery looks like they didn't make it back you act accordingly.

 

[aria]

That line wasn’t as bad as this one. Plus Barkley ain’t no Barry.

So far you are incorrect and it’s not even close, no surprise there. I also doubt it will ever be as bad as Barkley’s rookie year.

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/nfl/offensive-line/2020

https://www.footballoutsiders.com/stats/nfl/offensive-line/2018

As far as Barry vs Barkley, Barry never had as bad as an O line as Barkley had his first 2 years and it remains to be seen how Barkley holds up for the rest of his career. I’m not saying Barkley will be better than Sanders, especially after his injury, but Barkley broke several records his rookie year than Barry never did and shares some some of the same records as Barry and only a couple other backs.

 

[RonnieT24]

He had some Pro-Bowlers on his line too.

Yeah people often diss Brown and Glover but them dudes could ball. Both made multiple pro bowls in their careers. In fact if I am not mistaken Brown made the pro bowl back when he was blocking for Billy Sims.. even before Barry showed up.

 

[aria]

This is a silly statement.. Had the line remained healthy and Zeke kept putting up 1500 yard 12-15 TD seasons while the team made the playoffs every year it would have been worth every penny. That dominant line allowed us to get a lot of wins despite very mediocre defense because they, along with Zeke could bludgeon the opposing defense into submission. Now that our defense has dropped from mediocre to "these guys don't belong in the NFL" level and the offensive line is hurt you can't get any return on your investment. However given that none of the core guys is 30 yet ( I think Tyron turns 30 next spring) I think you roll with it at least one more year to find out if the surgeries fixed him and Collins. If they did and Dak is healthy you immediately return to being the best offense in football .. and if you handle your business on the defensive side and get them into the upper third of the league you have yourself a contender. You also get back the ability to use Zeke in the second half of games. If any of the three guys coming off surgery looks like they didn't make it back you act accordingly.

Had the line remained healthy several other RB’s would have had as much, if not more success, than zeke. Do you realize how many individual statistics zeke is mediocre poor at and that was with a top 5-10 O line. There are plenty of other RB’s that would have taken more advantage with the room he had to run and could have been had much cheaper.

Hell, we could have given CJ Anderson a call. When the Rams had a great O line and Gurley went down CJ came in off the couch and they didn’t miss a beat. The Eagles did with Ajayi and won the SB. Championship teams don’t give RB’s huge contracts or draft them in the top 10, that’s for fools like Jacksonville, Dallas, and the Giants.

 

[RonnieT24]

Lol, yes there were several pro bowlers on those lines for Sanders. Easy to forget when you see a player frequently run backwards that you have an oline that's blocking in front of you. He probably drove his blockers crazy that they had to try to run all over.

The blockers probably never even noticed.. but I guarantee you it made the coaches pull their hair out. That's why he was frequently sent to the sidelines in the red zone. He lost some 3000 yards during his career. THREE THOUSAND!!! That's a lot of 2nd and 15s he put his team in. Barry was very exciting to watch but that style had to drive his coaches nuts.

 

[Stash]

Yea I remember but they also tried to bring Murray back 2016 offseason after he was released by the Eagles but the Titans jump at the last min and offered him a better deal. In fact, Murray says he was set to fly to Dallas and sign the contract until his agent called him with a better offer.

You're misremembering the events:

https://bleacherreport.com/articles...'s new deal with the,would ever trade to us."

 

[RonnieT24]

Had the line remained healthy several other RB’s would have had as much, if not more success, than zeke. Do you realize how many individual statistics zeke is mediocre poor at and that was with a top 5-10 O line. There are plenty of other RB’s that would have taken more advantage with the room he had to run and could have been had much cheaper.

Hell, we could have given CJ Anderson a call. When the Rams had a great O line and Gurley went down CJ came in off the couch and they didn’t miss a beat. The Eagles did with Ajayi and won the SB. Championship teams don’t give RB’s huge contracts or draft them in the top 10, that’s for fools like Jacksonville, Dallas, and the Giants.

Yeah the Rams didn't miss a beat when Gurley got hurt.. CJ was amazing in leading them to that Super Bowl win.... oh.. wait..
.
.
Zeke has been in the top 10 in just about every meaningful rushing stat every year he's been in the league.. but because YOU want it to be mediocre we can just ignore that.. You cannot use "mediocre" and top 10 in the same sentence. Total yards, yards per carry, touchdowns, carries.. he's been among the tops in the league his entire career .. He led the league in rushing twice when he had a good line.. I'd love to hear how that rates as "mediocre." Even this year when he is stinking it up by his standards he's still at or near the top 10 in all the production categories. He's 7th in carries, 7th in yards, 6th in TDs, 8th in yards after contact, 10th in broken tackles. That should tell you just how great this guy is.. He's having far and away the worst year of his career.. and still sits in the top 10 in all these rankings. And I think we can all agree that the line has been garbage for him all season. Zeke's only problem this year has been the fumbling and the inexplicable pass drops. Well some of it can indeed be explained.. He's getting crappy blocking and is trying to compensate by playing differently and has gotten caught up trying to do too much. If Zeke is top 10 while having the worst year of his life, what does that say about the 40-50 backs ranked below him in all these categories?

 

[Stash]

This is a silly statement..

Sorry that the truth clearly hurts you.

Had the line remained healthy and Zeke kept putting up 1500 yard 12-15 TD seasons while the team made the playoffs every year it would have been worth every penny.

Which never happened. Therefore, it was never worth it.

And the fact that other teams repeated not only "made the playoffs", but won big, history has proven that to be true.

That dominant line allowed us to get a lot of wins despite very mediocre defense because they, along with Zeke could bludgeon the opposing defense into submission. Now that our defense has dropped from mediocre to "these guys don't belong in the NFL" level and the offensive line is hurt you can't get any return on your investment. However given that none of the core guys is 30 yet ( I think Tyron turns 30 next spring) I think you roll with it at least one more year to find out if the surgeries fixed him and Collins. If they did and Dak is healthy you immediately return to being the best offense in football .. and if you handle your business on the defensive side and get them into the upper third of the league you have yourself a contender. You also get back the ability to use Zeke in the second half of games. If any of the three guys coming off surgery looks like they didn't make it back you act accordingly.

This isn't simply a recent criticism based on current events and injuries, that would be ignorant and inaccurate. This is about a long term investment that never materialized. One of many for these Cowboys, right along with drafting that #2 TE in the second round for years and years, for a two-TE offense that also never materialized.

When you invest this much draft capital in an offensive line and running game, being good isn't close to good enough.

 

[MikeB80]

Derek Eagleton is a know nothing when it comes to football. His opinion that Sanders is the only good running back to ever run behind a bad line and be successful is beyond ignorant and typical.

When I used to listen to those shows on the site it was painfully obvious Eagleton didn't know anything about the nfl.

 

[jazzcat22]

There's no disputing that first part.I was with him until he said Barry Sanders had a bad O-line. That line was nowhere near as bad as people made it out to be.

Yes, Eagleton is full of crap, loses a lot of respect on this one.
If anything Emmitt had a worse OL to start.

Barry had 2 all pro OL when he was drafted, and they drafted one in the 1st round I believe to make it 3 all pro OL.

not a one of Emmitt's were all pro or pro bowlers, as Nate Newton even said.they were no body's until Emmitt came along.

But yet there are those that will not understand that.

 

[Iago33]

Derek - the adjective is "dominant" not "dominate"

My goodness! I was hoping I wasn’t the only one bothered by this.

 

[DuncanIso]

Get some leads in games and Zeke will shine as long as he doesn’t fumble..

If we’re constantly down 3 scores he has no chance.

Zeke has 20 career fumbles in 1504 touches.

it happens.

honestly, we have bigger problems.