Free to stay at Guard

[JoeyBoy718]

Im ok with free at guard. After a year at it he should be pretty good. He looked good the last game at guard. But now we moved tyron for no reason lol

We drafted Smith to be the LT for the next 15 years, regardless of Free.

That said, I'm fine with moving Free to guard. If he pans out, that'll be a good move. We overpaid for a bad tackle. But after the negotiated revised contract, we may have paid well for a good guard. We'll see.

Only problem now is Parnell. If he's good, he's still young and we can have our tackles settled for the next 5-6 years. If he's not good, we need to spend a 1st or 2nd round pick next year on a RT.

 

[Pottsville Maroons]

What's funny is just yesterday JJ said the complete opposite. WHO'S PLAYING WITH WHO? Someone either told JJ to shut up or something had to happen....I posted the quote yesterday where he said FREE WILL NOT PLAY GUARD!!! FUNNY CRAP

If nothing else, I like that Jason is contradicting Jerry and backing it up (even though its really early) on the field.

 

[RS12]

I'm warming up to the idea.

I'm not.

 

[NorthwestDallas40]

Initially, I hated this move. It wreaked of desperation. But I just re-watched the Bengals game. And I actually think this gets the best 5 on the field. What's more, it plays to Free's strengths. He is good at short-area blocking, not so good in space. What I saw on the tape was a guy who pass blocked like a tackle, but at guard (a good thing). No one is getting around him on the inside and he's big enough to punch and anchor. In the running game, he was made for this zone system. He does not need to be that strong at the point of attack (like in our past power-based systems). He just needs to shield and move. Which he did well in this game. Certainly better than Berny. So long as Parnell has continued his development and can pass block well enough against guys like Justin Tuck, Ryan Kerrigan, etc., I think this line of Smith-Leary-Fred-Free-Parnell has some potential.

 

[links18]

This can't be happening. We were assured on here last week that Free at guard was a temporary emergency experiment.

 

[Pessimist_cowboy]

I'm not.

Tooo bad

 

[Echo9]

• I think this clearly shows desperation. They claim they thought about this in the offseason but they didn't try it until they failed to sign two old players. Free's problem has always been his strength.
  
• 
  
• I hope it works out but my guess is after a few regular season games people who like it will change their minds.

They didn't try it until Parnell was healthy enough to play, so they'd have a RT who might be able to start.

 

[CowboyStar88]

They switched sides because they didnt want free guarding romos blind side. Like 2 seasons ago

I know that... But from your original post it made it seem like we just moved Tyron. But he was drafted to play LT anyways.

 

[Deep_South]

Bigg moved from tackle at Arizona to guard for us in 2007 and we went 13-3. Maybe Free moving to guard will help us capture a little magic once again.

 

[Sasquatch]

If this had been their thought process all along, why wait until the last preseason game to try it out? I'm confused by that apparent contradiction.

 

[Deep_South]

If this had been their thought process all along, why wait until the last preseason game to try it out? I'm confused by that apparent contradiction.

Maybe it came down to giving Waters 4 million dollars or more to get off of his couch, so there was nothing to lose by giving Free a shot at playing guard, which would have the added benefit of no incremental cost if he could play the position. It could very well be that simple.

 

[Kaiser]

They didn't try it until Parnell was healthy enough to play, so they'd have a RT who might be able to start.

Dumb question but related to your comment, does this make Demetress Bell the swing tackle? You would have to think so at this point. Also not that I put a ton of stock into what Broaddus says but I remember someone asking him about Bell on Twitter and he replied that "the team has a plan for him". That would fit into the overall scheme that they have obviously been planning for a while - Free to OG, Parnell starting and Bell having time to get back into playing shape to fill a backup role.

 

[CooterBrown]

I find it both humorous and baffling that some people decide not to like a player and then bad mouth everything he does. This does not just apply to Free, I see lots of negative predictions about almost any of them.

These players are all on the Cowboys roster, we should want all of them to do well. Instead, we get a bunch of posters that predict failure and then try hard to find evidence of it and when it isn't there, the response is, "trust me, I know what I saw." As near as I can tell most of that is just so that if their hated player does get cut or benched they can say, "I told you so."

Some of the same posters that say Free can't handle power rushers at guard are the same people that previously said he was okay with power rushers but couldn't play tackle because he couldn't handle speed rushers to the outside. He can't win for losing.

I understand that the fun of these boards is the discussions of the team, the players, and the games, but people should at least try to be objective. I'm not saying that it is all peaches and cream on the roster, but the negativity of some posters is really amazing. If the Cowboys won four Superbowls in a row, some people on here would spend hours complaining that the deep snapper isn't putting enough spin on the ball and he is a scrub that no other team would want.

Doug Free is a good team player that works hard, keeps his mouth shut, and does whatever they ask of him. He is the kind of player we should be rooting for instead of against.

And, just as another view of things, I think the plan is to eventually (when he is in game shape) put Bell at RT and use Parnell as the swing.

 

[AbeBeta]

Bigg moved from tackle at Arizona to guard for us in 2007 and we went 13-3. Maybe Free moving to guard will help us capture a little magic once again.

Umm, Bigg played a ton of G for Az. in fact, at his signing press conference he said he was most comfortable at G. #factcheck

 

[Deep_South]

Umm, Bigg played a ton of G for Az. in fact, at his signing press conference he said he was most comfortable at G. #factcheck

Bigg played LT for 3 seasons in Arizona prior to coming to Dallas; I didn't say anything about Bigg never playing guard or whether or not he liked to play guard, so calling me out for it is silly.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

Bigg played LT for 3 seasons in Arizona prior to coming to Dallas; I didn't say anything about Bigg never playing guard or whether or not he liked to play guard, so calling me out for it is silly.

Yeah, he was drafted #2 or 3 overall to be an elite LT. He was pretty much a bust. I guess he showed some potential as a OG in Arizona before Dallas took a huge risk by giving him a massive contract. I wouldn't say it was a horrible signing because Bigg had a few really good years here.

 

[SilverStarCowboy]

Some are worried that Parnell is an epic reach as a starting RT, you might .agree sooner than later....best case, maybe he will learn as the season goes.

 

[reddyuta]

I still dont like this idea,he will get run over by DTs.

 

[TheRomoSexual]

If this had been their thought process all along, why wait until the last preseason game to try it out? I'm confused by that apparent contradiction.

Probably because Parnell has been hurt, so the switch hasn't been possible.

 

[Fredd]

A) looking at this from a negative perspective: this reeks of desperation; Free was looking pretty good @ RT and Berny was serviceable, albeit, injury-prone at RG
B) looking at this from a positive perspective: moving Free to the inside plays more to his strengths, although, the irony is that strength is not a "strength"; but, he struggled on speed guys and getting bull-rushed; Parnell, with lack of experience, likely has the same issue; but he is pretty athletic; thus, as far as blocking the DE, it is a wash between Free and Parnell at the moment any way

IMO, option B is much better for the Cowboys in getting the best 5 on the field Parnell+Free > Free+Berny; I think that they put the idea of RG into Free's head when t hey were negotiating the terms of his deal, so this is likely something that he has been playing out in his mind all along; Parnell didn't look great in his first action since he is learning; he is a few weeks behind the others so he will need to catch up in a hurry

If we aren't brining anyone in on the line after week #1, then Smith, Leary, Fred, Free, Parnell gives us the best chance to be successful; plus, you stack Witten on the side of Parnell to chip away at the DE. The team will be OK with this arrangement