DMN Blog: James Marten on switching positions/Romo on the US Open

[WoodysGirl]

11:13 AM Thu, Jun 12, 2008 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
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Second-year offensive lineman James Marten is working at left guard during the organized team activities but he's not sure it's a permanent move. He's backing up Kyle Kosier for now with Doug Free and Pat McQuistan manning the left and right tackle spots on the second-team line.

Marten, who had a red-shirt type of rookie year after being picked in the third round, played guard for two years at Boston College before moving to tackle.

"It's an adjustment going from right tackle to guard, but it's coming back to me," Marten said. "[Line coach Hudson Houck] is real good at technique. That's his emphasis. The biggest adjustment is everything happens quicker. Youv'e got Jay Ratliff and Tank [Johnson] in there just right away. But I think it's working out OK. I think I've improved."

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The entry "James Marten on switching positions" is tagged: Hudson Houck , James Marten , Jay Ratliff , Tank Johnson

Categories: offensive line

Tony Romo on the U.S. Open

11:07 AM Thu, Jun 12, 2008 | Permalink | Yahoo! Buzz
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As we all know Tony Romo shot an 84 in his round at Torrey Pines last week as part of a made-for-TV round that will air Sunday on NBC. Now that the U.S. Open has started at Torrey Pines today, what does Romo think the winning score will be?

"I think 5 under, 4 under," Romo said.

The U.S. Open traditionally has the toughest set-up of any major but the early first-round scores might show the scoring could be pretty good. Here's what Romo had to say about the course:

"Real tough. It was definitely the hardest course I ever played. The length, the rough, how firm the greens were, the tightness of the fairways, a little bit of wind, so the combination of all of them together, it was hard."

PGA Tour vet Fred Couples had kind words for Romo's golf swing, saying he would not look out of place on driving range with the pros.

"That's awfully nice of Freddie," Romo said. "He's cool. He was out there. I met him. He was pretty cool to talk to, one of those guys you watched and looked up to a little bit."

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[speedkilz88]

Looks like Houck like the youngs guys situated at

LT Free, LG Marten, RT McQuistan.

 

[Eddie]

Looks like Houck like the youngs guys situated at

LT Free, LG Marten, RT McQuistan.

That's a good looking set up to me.

I want to see more of the young guns. Free and Marten have a year under their belts. Time to bust the move. Marten to replace Kosier in 09.

 

[AbeBeta]

I still have high hopes for Marten -- he projected as a guard in most draft guides. we had the luxury of being deep enough last year to give him a look-see at tackle. Look-see over.

 

[Disturbed]

I have a feeling we are going to need these young guys this year. The line play in our playoff game still bothers me.

I hope Houck has them ready to go by the start of the season.

 

[dcfanatic]

Still confused as to why we drafted Marten so high. He is now being put into the right spot though because I think his feet weren't quick enough to play either Right or Left Tackle.

If McQuistan looks like he can man the Right Tackle spot then I could see the Cowboys letting Colombo test the FA market next year.

I know we just resigned Flo to a three year deal, but if he shows signs of slowing up this year then I could see that Left Tackle job being up for grabs in 2009 to a training camp battle between him and Free.

 

[InmanRoshi]

I think it's just a case that we have a log jam of tackles, more than an indictment of Marten. When Marten was drafted we didn't know Flozell's longterm future with the Cowboys. At this time last year it was was completely plausable, if not probable, that we were going to need to replace both of our starting tackles within the next two years. Now that Flozell is locked up longterm, we've got 3 of the 5 OL positions locked up for the foreseeable future. The only two positions that could possibly open up for the for the remainder of his rookie contract are LG and RT. We have Free and McQuinstan to compete for RT. If Marten has experience playing left guard, that's his best chance of ever seeing the field for this franchise.

Frankly, I think the whole overemphasis on "foot speed" is way overplayed. Who exactly is the ballerena on our team between Flozell and Colombo? You take the biggest OL busts in recent memory and they're typically guys like Robert Gallery (converted college TE) and D'Brickshaw who wow'ed people with their feet but couldn't win the battle at the point of attack, and offensive tackle will always be a position that's won and lost at the point of attack first and foremost.

 

[Manster68]

No problems from me in the move from tackle to guard for James Marten.

Reports said he struggled some. Hopefully, Hudson sees something and thought it would be best for him to play guard.

Best of luck to him - and the rest of the linemen.