Forget Winston or Clabo

[dantheman41]

Just a few days ago, I was all excited about Winston possibly coming in. But to be honest the more I thought about it, the less excited I feel about it.

Unless you can get him or Clabo to take the the bare minimum deal, I think there is better options.

Shouldn't we give Parnell a shot? Personally if this guy has something, I would rather a 25 year old be starting then an older veteran. We could use that money toward getting extensions done with Dez or Sean Lee.

If Free agrees to a pay cut, we could let the two of them battle it out. If you watch the last several games when the two of them were competing, you rarely see a bad play from the RT.

If Free doesn't agree to a pay cut, either draft a tackle in later rounds to compete with Parnell or sign another veteran. A guy like Sean Locklear can come in for dirt cheap to start if Parnell can't handle it. He played excellent for the Giants in replacement of David Diehl last season.

Just my two sense. Save the money...

 

[tm1119]

Parnell is soon to be 27 in July and Eric Winston is 29....

And I'm just tired of the uncertainty of the o line. We are never going to be a serious contender if we don't sure up the line and protect the QB. COULD Parnell be as good as Winston or Clabo next year? Sure. But its still a big question mark. We are talking about 3 or 4 million on a 1 or 2 year deal, not exactly breaking the bank there. I want as few question marks on the line as possible next year and I think Winston or Clabo provide much more assurance and stability to the RT position than what we currently have.

 

[CyberB0b]

JMO, but you can't put Parnell in there unless you get a real RG and C.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

Just a few days ago, I was all excited about Winston possibly coming in. But to be honest the more I thought about it, the less excited I feel about it.

Unless you can get him or Clabo to take the the bare minimum deal, I think there is better options.

Shouldn't we give Parnell a shot? Personally if this guy has something, I would rather a 25 year old be starting then an older veteran. We could use that money toward getting extensions done with Dez or Sean Lee.

If Free agrees to a pay cut, we could let the two of them battle it out. If you watch the last several games when the two of them were competing, you rarely see a bad play from the RT.

If Free doesn't agree to a pay cut, either draft a tackle in later rounds to compete with Parnell or sign another veteran. A guy like Sean Locklear can come in for dirt cheap to start if Parnell can't handle it. He played excellent for the Giants in replacement of David Diehl last season.

Just my two sense. Save the money...

I'm not sure what part of the season you're talking about with Free but the rarity in Free's play was seeing him have a play where he wasn't getting killed.

 

[dantheman41]

I'm not sure what part of the season you're talking about with Free but the rarity in Free's play was seeing him have a play where he wasn't getting killed.

Huh? Did u watch any of the games at the end of the season? He wasn't bad at all

 

[CowboysLegend365]

Last year when Free was pulled, Parnell was horrible too. Thats the reason Free kept starting even when he sucked. IMO if we are going to give Parnell a shot to save money, we might as well let him battle it out with Free again LOL. I just want to at least have hope that we got better before the season starts. Sign/ draft an upgrade.

 

[gimmesix]

Shouldn't we give Parnell a shot? Personally if this guy has something, I would rather a 25 year old be starting then an older veteran. We could use that money toward getting extensions done with Dez or Sean Lee.

If Free agrees to a pay cut, we could let the two of them battle it out. If you watch the last several games when the two of them were competing, you rarely see a bad play from the RT.

If Free doesn't agree to a pay cut, either draft a tackle in later rounds to compete with Parnell or sign another veteran. A guy like Sean Locklear can come in for dirt cheap to start if Parnell can't handle it. He played excellent for the Giants in replacement of David Diehl last season.

Dallas tried to fix its line last year by bringing in two very questionable free agents. The Cowboys also hoped switching sides with fix Free.

Those things didn't happen, and I would rather Dallas not try a similar approach this season. Get some vets who have proven themselves on two- to three-year deals and force the younger guys to actually beat them out for starting jobs.

I'd bring in Clabo and Moore, cut Livings and Free (unless he takes a major pay cut), then draft Cooper if he's available in the first. (There are other options to consider in the second if we don't get Cooper, but I'll use him for example purposes).

Then you have Clabo competing with Parnell at RT.

Clabo and Moore competing with Cooper, Bernadeau and Leary at RG and LG.

Cooper competing with Bernadeau, Costa and Kowalski at C.

The more quality competition we have, the better the line will be.

 

[gimmesix]

Last year when Free was pulled, Parnell was horrible too. Thats the reason Free kept starting even when he sucked. IMO if we are going to give Parnell a shot to save money, we might as well let him battle it out with Free again LOL. I just want to at least have hope that we got better before the season starts. Sign/ draft an upgrade.

I disagree that Parnell was horrible. He did well enough to deserve a shot at winning the starting job.

 

[CaptainMorgan]

With the problems we had at RT last season do you really not want to explore every possible opportunity at the position?

Im not totally comfortable with just Parnell there, I havent seen enough.

 

[CowboysLegend365]

I disagree that Parnell was horrible. He did well enough to deserve a shot at winning the starting job.

Maybe I'm wrong in saying that he was horrible...i didnt think he was good enough to be a starter. If he was clear cut better than Free we wouldn't be having this discussion or in the market for a RT.

 

[gimmesix]

Maybe I'm wrong in saying that he was horrible...i didnt think he was good enough to be a starter. If he was clear cut better than Free we wouldn't be having this discussion or in the market for a RT.

He was better than Free, especially the Free we saw before the two started splitting snaps. Parnell made few mistakes in his time as a starter, and also handled left tackle well when he had to step in temporarily for Smith.

The "clear cut" issue has more to do with the fact that we haven't seen enough of him to know if he's the answer at RT. We don't need to just count on that.

 

[SportsGuru80]

I didn't know Parnell was already 26

 

[jrumann59]

Parnell and Free if merged at the molecular level would make one NFL ready OL. Parnell gets beat on speed rushes and Free gets man handled and both are average at best int he run game.

 

[CowboysLegend365]

He was better than Free, especially the Free we saw before the two started splitting snaps. Parnell made few mistakes in his time as a starter, and also handled left tackle well when he had to step in temporarily for Smith.

The "clear cut" issue has more to do with the fact that we haven't seen enough of him to know if he's the answer at RT. We don't need to just count on that.

I agree that he was pretty good at LT when Smith went down and better than Free when they split snaps, but IMO that was because at that point Free was so bad, that any body was an upgrade at that point. I just thought Parnell was suspect when we ran. Even when we brought him in at TE in the heavy package. He was worst than Free when we ran. But if we want to run the ball more effectively and win then I'd rather explore other options. Thought 78 was serviceable when we passed it and weak when we ran it. Hoping I'm wrong but that's just my opinion.

 

[BAT]

Forget both of them and sign Waters. Waters is probably more economical and has been more productive than either.

And Waters would shore up a more critical weakness on the OL, OG.

 

[DeaconBlues]

JMO, but you can't put Parnell in there unless you get a real RG and C.

Yeah, like last year . . .

 

[Chuck 54]

I don't buy the JJ smokescreens.

Free will definitely be cut come June. A cheap insurance veteran will be signed, and we will be looking for a RT in the draft as well.

I don't buy the guard hype either; I think we hope a guard is there so we can trade down. We need help at RT much moreso than OG.

 

[gimmesix]

I agree that he was pretty good at LT when Smith went down and better than Free when they split snaps, but IMO that was because at that point Free was so bad, that any body was an upgrade at that point. I just thought Parnell was suspect when we ran. Even when we brought him in at TE in the heavy package. He was worst than Free when we ran. But if we want to run the ball more effectively and win then I'd rather explore other options. Thought 78 was serviceable when we passed it and weak when we ran it. Hoping I'm wrong but that's just my opinion.

Here's one man's (Jonathan Bales) breakdown of the tackles:

The Numbers

While Smith allowed three sacks and pressure on 6.0 percent of his snaps in pass protection, Free yielded seven sacks and a 6.2 percent pressure rate. Perhaps more concerning is that Free didn’t really improve as the year progressed; in addition to struggling badly in pass protection, Free also committed 13 penalties on the season, eventually splitting time with Parnell.

Parnell is certainly more athletic and possesses greater upside than Free, but he’s also raw as a right tackle. In just 267 snaps, Parnell allowed five sacks. However, Parnell yielded pressure on 4.2 percent of his pass snaps; that’s not an elite rate, but it was the best of any offensive tackle on the team. Thus, Parnell’s somewhat-low pressure rate suggests he simply got unlucky in allowing five sacks.

In the running game, Parnell really outperformed Free by a wide margin. Parnell was at the point-of-attack on 18 plays and Cowboys running backs gained 91 yards on those plays—good for 5.06 YPC. That’s a limited sample size, but Parnell also appeared to be far stronger at the point than Free on film.

In comparison, the Cowboys totaled all of 2.58 YPC on 78 runs with Free at the point. On top of that, Free was at the point but didn’t execute his block on a sensational 48-yard DeMarco Murray run in Week 1. Other than that single carry, the Cowboys totaled 1.99 YPC behind Free all year.

The five sacks would be the primary concern IMO, and why I believe we need competition at the position.

 

[honyock]

I agree that he was pretty good at LT when Smith went down and better than Free when they split snaps, but IMO that was because at that point Free was so bad, that any body was an upgrade at that point. I just thought Parnell was suspect when we ran. Even when we brought him in at TE in the heavy package. He was worst than Free when we ran. But if we want to run the ball more effectively and win then I'd rather explore other options. Thought 78 was serviceable when we passed it and weak when we ran it. Hoping I'm wrong but that's just my opinion.

The problem with judging Parnell in the run game, especially in the last four games where he alternated series with Free, was that his series were very pass-heavy. I watched every play several times in those games and kept track, and the pass/run ratio of plays with Parnell in vs with Free in, was very heavily skewed to passing. I've got the exact percentages somewhere if I can dig them up...I may have posted them to a thread at the end of the season.

I didn't get the impression that this was intentional on the team's part, just more related to game situations. But it made it hard for me to get much of a sense of his effectiveness in run blocking. I thought he looked very good in pass protection - I didn't see him being really susceptible to the speed rush like someone else mentioned in this thread.

I didn't re-watch the games that he subbed in when Smith was injured...wish now that I would have, but I can't say much about his performance at LT in those games. Others have said he looked better in those games than he did at RT while rotating with Free. If that's the case, that's encouraging, because I came away from the final four games really encouraged about his chances to be a solid starter.

 

[honyock]

Here's one man's (Jonathan Bales) breakdown of the tackles:



The five sacks would be the primary concern IMO, and why I believe we need competition at the position.

I remember him allowing one sack during the four game final stretch. I can't promise that's accurate, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't more than that. If so, that means he allowed four sacks at LT while Smith was injured? That doesn't sound right. It doesn't jibe with the reviews he got that he played solidly while Smith was out.

There's always the chance that my memory is failing me. But Parnell allowing five sacks sounds off, way too high.