I’d like to think that I direct an appropriate amount of criticism toward the front office when it is justified. I have bashed them pretty hard over keeping Witten too long, overpaying for marginal talent in free agency and missing a sure thing in Creed Humphrey for a rapping CB who seems to be a total bust. There are countless other examples of my angst of the failings of the current Cowboys administration.
Having said the foregoing, I really don’t get the current level of criticism being thrown at the Cowboys right now over Tyron Smith (regarding a failure to plan for Tyron’s injury). They drafted an OG/OT combination player in the first round.
He will be young, he will take his lumps and he will get beaten some, but a team is going to pay handsomely (overpay) for marginal talent at OT, that may not play any better than the rookie.
If I were going to criticize this move, it would have been due to the team not trading Tyron, getting some salvage value out of his contract. I think he is closer to done than most think.
I wouldn’t have counted on Tyron at all this year and would heave moved on from him in the offseason. But I can’t say that it’s outside the realm of possibility that Tyron will give us more out of his contract than a replacement level player for similar money. Tyron’s contract is a bargain by current NFL standards, provided he can still play.
The Cowboys may have gambled wrong on this, but I can’t say that the gamble made was outside of reasonability.