ESPN: Waters performing like six-time Pro Bowler

[JoeyBoy718]

Well its simple, Waters is a much better pass blocker than run blocker. Not saying his run blocking is horrible or anything cause its not, but his pass blocking has been far superior throughout his career.

Pretty much the same with Smith and Free too. I think Costa was one of our best run blockers too. Maybe it's scheme too. I don't really know. Maybe Murray is overrated.

 

[big dog cowboy]

We already have an elite TE and we've been trying the two-TE offense for years, only to realize time and time again that we never give the 2nd TE enough opportunities. Why would this time be any different?

Why would you expect it to be the same?

 

[Hoofbite]

My guess, Witten can't possibly last forever. I'd like to think that they are grooming his replacement.

Grooming a replacement TE at the expense of a 2nd round pick?

I'd like to think the team was a little more wise than that. The TE position doesn't make or break a team and you certainly don't need to use a 2nd round pick to groom for for the day when he's in his contract year and is finally taking over.

 

[Hoofbite]

Can we really say after a few games that Escobar was a bad pick?? They did go BPA according to their board, and drafting someone else cause of need is just a flawed strategy.

Give the kid a chance instead of assuming it will turn out like Fasano and Bennett.

They passed on Williams in the 2nd round and he was BPA, wasn't he?

The assumption that it will turn out like Fasano and Bennett is a pretty safe bet considering the circumstances. Both were capable guys, they've produced outside of Dallas to show that much. The reason it didn't work out is because they were never given an opportunity. Bennett sat on TV after second year (maybe first but I do believe 2nd) and said that all he was ever asked to do was block. Bennett is pretty close to being on pace to surpass his receiving yardage as a Dallas Cowboy in his first season with the Bears. They only threw like 2 passer game in his direction, most of which were probably check downs over the middle. 60% of the time Bennett was blocking. If all you ask him to do is block and he does a damn good job at it, how can you actually say he's not living up to his expectations. Send him on a route every now and then. I can remember like 1 play where he was running down the middle and it was in the Commanders game his rookie season. Completely misused and so far it doesn't look like a single thing has changed.

Is Escobar a bad player? Too early to tell.

Was Escobar a bad pick? As long as Dallas continues to run their 2TE offense like they have for the past 5 years.....absolutely.

He has received 28 snaps over the past 3 games.

 

[Ender]

He s been great so far. The o line had be pretty good the last two weeks.

 

[Deep_Freeze]

They passed on Williams in the 2nd round and he was BPA, wasn't he?

The assumption that it will turn out like Fasano and Bennett is a pretty safe bet considering the circumstances. Both were capable guys, they've produced outside of Dallas to show that much. The reason it didn't work out is because they were never given an opportunity. Bennett sat on TV after second year (maybe first but I do believe 2nd) and said that all he was ever asked to do was block. Bennett is pretty close to being on pace to surpass his receiving yardage as a Dallas Cowboy in his first season with the Bears. They only threw like 2 passer game in his direction, most of which were probably check downs over the middle. 60% of the time Bennett was blocking. If all you ask him to do is block and he does a damn good job at it, how can you actually say he's not living up to his expectations. Send him on a route every now and then. I can remember like 1 play where he was running down the middle and it was in the Commanders game his rookie season. Completely misused and so far it doesn't look like a single thing has changed.

Is Escobar a bad player? Too early to tell.

Was Escobar a bad pick? As long as Dallas continues to run their 2TE offense like they have for the past 5 years.....absolutely.

He has received 28 snaps over the past 3 games.

Well its basically up to Escobar to earn more snaps, and like you said, its too early to say if he will earn them or not. They won't just throw him out there to satisfy all the 'why a 2nd round TE' posts, he has to earn it and right now he hasn't warranted the snaps.

Bottomline, it will be up to Escobar to change what they have done the last 5 years. Bennett was underused, and every time he was brought up while here I made that point. But just cause we didn't use Bennett effectively doesn't automatically mean we will never use Escobar correctly. One defining point is that they used Bennett's best feature though, his blocking.....Escobar's best feature is his pass catching, so we would have to hope they eventually are able to use that.

 

[CowboyMcCoy]

I don't think that he will be a "bad pick" because he's a bad player. I think he will be a bad pick because like Martellus Bennett, he simply won't get the opportunity to prove just how good he is. Not his fault, it's all on the staff.

I don't think this is true. I think the truth is look at how many professional games he has played. And it's not that many. He's still finding his role here. I think he will. He looks sharp on a lot of things, particularly for red zone potential. Anyway, he'll take some time. But he is good. I like the pick there. He's a good number two tight end. We need that too.

 

[CowboyMcCoy]

Pretty much the same with Smith and Free too. I think Costa was one of our best run blockers too. Maybe it's scheme too. I don't really know. Maybe Murray is overrated.

It's really Garrett not giving them the most out of a consistent running game. DeMarco would benefit greatly from that. I would love it, personally. And we have the line to do it.

I really think Tanner can come up big, This is his chance. I believe he has something good people are going to like too.

 

[jobberone]

You cannot judge the Escobar pick this early. The offense failed last year and we are seeing it score 30+ ppg now. I wouldn't attribute that all to Escobar by any means but some for certain to the 4 receiver spread shotgun offense of which he has been a part and Hanna as well. We can run that offense because teams have to watch Hanna/Escobar out there. Even if they don't catch a pass (which they have) then they have affected the offense. I admit its not a huge story but dismissing the other two TEs is not reasonable either.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I know a lot of people liked Warford in the 2nd or 3rd round if we couldn't get Warmack or Cooper. I know a lot of people also liked tackles like Watson and Armstead in the 4th or 5th because they figured Free would never recover.

I know in his redraft thread he chose the OL that most draft services had rated higher ie those two tackles. Essentially he took an amalgam of draft sites to make his order he just added about half a round to OL and some DL at the expense of skill and perimeter players. It was comical really.

I mean no doubt that he 'wanted' Warford; he was rated a third rounder by most and thus he had him in the second. It's just his methodology that is amusing.

 

[jobberone]

Not sure why people are upset that much over the Escobar pick. They act as if any player but him would have been better in any terms. You can't evaluate that pick or any other in this or last year's draft in toto. Yes, the Frederick and Williams look like very good picks. So much could go wrong to railroad that. And we don't even have even one year for the entire class.

 

[OhSnap]

By Tim MacMahon | ESPNDallas.com

IRVING, Texas -- There was plenty of doubt about whether six-time Pro Bowl guard Brian Waterscould play to the standard he set for himself throughout his career after sitting out a season.

Just not in the mind of the 36-year-old guard.

“I wouldn’t have played if I didn’t think I could, honestly,” said Waters, who signed with theDallas Cowboys the week of the season opener and was in the starting lineup at right guard by the fourth game. “I had to be honest with myself. If I didn’t think I could play at that level, I wouldn’t have come back and played football.

“If I would have been dishonest with myself, I would have been dishonest with this team. I felt coming into this situation that it wouldn’t take me long to get at least back to the level that I played in New England for sure.”

http://espn.go.com/blog/dallas/cowboys/post/_/id/4717482/waters-performing-like-six-time-pro-bowler

Its nice to see guys like this that play because they want to where they want to and live up to the optimism everyone had when his name came up. The Giants would kill to be able to find a guy like this right now. Same goes for Ronald Leary.

 

[OhSnap]

Not sure why people are upset that much over the Escobar pick. They act as if any player but him would have been better in any terms. You can't evaluate that pick or any other in this or last year's draft in toto. Yes, the Frederick and Williams look like very good picks. So much could go wrong to railroad that. And we don't even have even one year for the entire class.

Very true.Theys a manny a slip twince the cup and the lip. Felix Jones looked like a future star his first 2 years. It wasn't that crazy to pick Escobar when you look at how Wittens season started last year and falls right in with picking Crawford and Wilbur to be behind the other veterans Ware and Spencer. Wilbur has paid off and if it weren't for the injuries Crawford was ahead of his time too.

 

[Hoofbite]

Well its basically up to Escobar to earn more snaps, and like you said, its too early to say if he will earn them or not. They won't just throw him out there to satisfy all the 'why a 2nd round TE' posts, he has to earn it and right now he hasn't warranted the snaps.

Bottomline, it will be up to Escobar to change what they have done the last 5 years. Bennett was underused, and every time he was brought up while here I made that point. But just cause we didn't use Bennett effectively doesn't automatically mean we will never use Escobar correctly. One defining point is that they used Bennett's best feature though, his blocking.....Escobar's best feature is his pass catching, so we would have to hope they eventually are able to use that.

I'm not sure how he's supposed to earn snaps. Hannah gets about 20 per game himself, blocking about 70% of the time. Cole and Harris have seen their snaps increase. He's only going to take snaps from Hannah and that will only happen if he can block. Otherwise they might as well put a sign up on the video board. telling the opposition when the team is going to run and when the team is going to pass. Escobar pretty much counters Hannah's 70% blocking by going out on routes 70% of the time.

Both players had 20+ snaps in 2 of the first 3 games, only Hannah has broken 20 snaps in one of those games since. I'm not sure how he's going to earn snaps. The team isn't going to take Williams off the field any more than they have to and I doubt they're comfortable with Miles sitting out more snaps than his body requires of him. The team is better served with 3 and 4 WRs on the field so I'm not sure where these snaps would come from.

Even still though that doesn't change the fact that they've mis-utilized him. If his best asset is size and catching ability, he should be a staple in the redzone but he sure wasn't in there at the end of the San Diego game when all these supposed mismatches would have been of great use.

Dallas used Bennett's best ability as a blocker but his blocking ability in Dallas was superb. He graded out as the 5th best run blocker in 2009, 4th best in 2010 and 2nd best in 2011. That doesn't mean he was deficient in being a receiver. He made mistakes in Dallas no doubt but mistakes haven't deterred the team from giving other players more chances. He had 600 yards and 5TDs last year and he has 350 yards and 3 TDs this year. He had ability as a receiver and Dallas never really tapped into in beyond his first season.

The entire point of utilizing 2TE packages is flexibility. If you remove that aspect by typecasting a specific player into a blocking only role or a "receiving only role" you've reduced your ability to create the mismatches because the defense will just watch which player comes onto the field and counter accordingly.

If Escobar's best asset is pass catching, he needs to have opportunities to do it. There's no debate about his lack of blocking ability so if he isn't ready to contribute in the passing game then what exactly is he ready to do? Develop for years down the road? Ridiculous.

 

[Ren]

I remember quite a few here said he was no better then Bernadeau when he didn't sign right away, he'd be a backup at best and a waste of money

 

[waving monkey]

Well, yea. But we don't NEED his replacement now. Plus, Witten is 31 and has never been injured. We had no guards even after the Frederick pick. Jerry gambled on the idea of Leary being healthy and productive and Waters singing with us. It was a gamble but he won. However, he gambled on the DL and lost big. Ratliff is 32 with an injury history and the organization had to have some idea that he might not ever play again. We just lost Brent after his manslaughter charge. Spencer and Ware are getting up there in age and Spencer is on a one year deal. A TE replacement was not a premium need.

ther's only so many picks and there was the safety problem, the interior line problem,the defensive line problem,the TE problem.you get the point. They felt like Escobar had value and thats the way the draft fell plus they didn't like Warfords character.

 

[burmafrd]

have to laugh at those that keep claiming Bennett was misused, etc. Must be why he is on his third team so far. He was the starter for the Giants and after the first few games disappeared because he was not producing. Eli gave him chances and he blew them. Which is why the Giants let him go.

We will see if he lasts in Chicago. But for so called Boys fans to whine about not using him right- BS. That was on him.

 

[bayeslife]

Playing like a 6 time pro bowler? I don't think so.

 

[diehard2294]

I would love to keep him one more year, but I don't believe he wants to go through the rigors of training camp. I don't know how they can get around that

 

[Section446]

I would love to keep him one more year, but I don't believe he wants to go through the rigors of training camp. I don't know how they can get around that

Probably just do what he did this year, sign another contract late into the process.