Gosselin: Surprisingly, help for offensive line could already be on roster

[speedkilz88]

Rick Gosselin

http://www.***BANNED-URL***/incoming/20110906-copy-of-roster27.jpg.ece/ALTERNATES/w320/Copy+of+roster27.jpg


IRVING — The Cowboys believe they fixed the center position in the draft with the selection of Travis Frederick in the first round.

It will be up to offensive line coach Bill Callahan to fix the rest.

Help could be on the way for a blocking front that wasn’t good enough last season, and surprisingly, that help could come from within.

Specifically, David Arkin, Ronald Leary and Jermey Parnell — blockers with a combined one NFL start. Arkin has not played a snap in his first two NFL seasons, and Leary spent almost his entire rookie season in 2012 on the practice squad.

rest of article:
http://www.***BANNED-URL***/sports/...offensive-line-could-already-be-on-roster.ece

 

[Teague31]

If true this is encouraging

 

[RoboQB]

Encouraging. ..hope its not bs.

 

[NorthTexan95]

Gosselin is such a shill for the team.

 

[Idgit]

I read that as saying they really like what the have in Parnell, and that Leary's got a shot. Arkin, well, perhaps he makes an adequate backup here.

 

[SWG9]

It's May. We're entering into the "player X is in the best shape of his life!!" and "look for for player Y, the lightbulb really went on this offseason!!" portion of the calendar.

Every team has articles like this written about them right now.

 

[gimmesix]

Arkin was a small-school guard (Missouri State) who spent his first summer adjusting to NFL speed and the elevated level of competition. He spent his second summer trying to learn a new position. Because of an injury to Phil Costa, Arkin wound up taking the most snaps at center in training camp.

“His development at guard was delayed because he couldn’t focus on the position,” Callahan said. “Here’s a guy who never played center before and now we tell him, go inside and play there. He went to training camp trying to improve his skill at guard, and now he has to take over the center spot, learn all the calls and all the adjustments — with the [first team] no less — and not disrupt any continuity or timing. And he did an admirable job.

“Then Costa comes back, and we bring in Cook late. After camp, we moved him back to guard. So in fairness to him, he didn’t get the reps he needed to take at guard. I’m not making excuses. I’m just telling you the facts.”

I will agree that Arkin was put in a tough spot in just his second season in the NFL coming from a smaller school.

I still didn't see the anchor strength needed at this level, but maybe some of that was caused by being out of position with his head swimming. (He who hesitates is lost.)

Dallas needs to make sure there are no excuses in this make-or-break year for Arkin. Don't move him no matter what.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

Gosselin is such a shill for the team.

 

[Idgit]

I will agree that Arkin was put in a tough spot in just his second season in the NFL coming from a smaller school.

I still didn't see the anchor strength needed at this level, but maybe some of that was caused by being out of position with his head swimming. (He who hesitates is lost.)

Dallas needs to make sure there are no excuses in this make-or-break year for Arkin. Don't move him no matter what.

The Arkin stuff basically reads like 'we'll see.'

The Parnell stuff is more interesting to me, because it shows you where the guy was in his understanding of the offense as little as a year ago, and they were still splitting snaps with him by the end of the year. They've got to think that he's going to improve with repetition in camp.

It also puts a bit of context behind the hiring of Pollack this year. Sounds to me like they wanted to get some more coaching influence on these young OLs. Given that they didn't really add many players to the line overall, they really must have thought they had some guys they could develop already there. I'm not saying I like it, just that it might be more indication of what they've been planning to do, all along.

 

[Risen Star]

Yep. This is pretty much the story of the 2013 season, IMO. Can those guys emerge? Or at least 1 or 2 of them, to give us a real chance.

 

[Idgit]

Yep. This is pretty much the story of the 2013 season, IMO. Can those guys emerge? Or at least 1 or 2 of them, to give us a real chance.

If Parnell and Frederick both play well, we'll have done a lot to fix the problem. I know we don't see OLs the same at all, but even a middling OL would make this a much more competitive team. And with good players at LT, C, and RT, we'd probably be a middling OL overall.

 

[SportsGuru80]

Ok sounds good... We shall see!

 

[Zordon]

so no gosselin bashing? :laugh2:

 

[Bluestang]

so no gosselin bashing? :laugh2:

Maybe if you read the article you will learn that Goose pretty much just quoted Callahan almost the entire article.

He's not really telling anyone anything new or giving us the next conspiracy theory either. All he did was say that the Cowboys want to give these guys a chance to compete and quotes Callahan the whole time.

It's not the normal Goose article, but it just proves to me again that Goose had to meet another deadline and wrote something most people already know.

 

[visionary]

This can't be true
Gosselin is a know- nothing mediot
I heard it on CZ

 

[burmafrd]

almost as many excuses for Arkin as there is for Free on this board.

At least with Free we know he CAN play well.

NO EVIDENCE AT ALL WITH ARKIN.

 

[nathanlt]

Think of it this way. Imagine every team in the NFL had a horrifically bad production, where touchdowns were almost non-existent across the league all season long, and most games were won with a field goal by one team and a scoreless effort by the other.

In this scenario, one team, regardless of talent would be called the Super Bowl champs.

If all competitors are talentless, than you have a talentless winner. When it comes to the offensive line, if you are limited to substarter talent quality, your offensive line will have horrible production.

Of course, I hope that our offensive line contains twice the talent it did last year, but since offensive linemen take 3-4 years to become dominant, and we drafted only one OL in this years draft, I am not holding my breath. The odds are against having a strong offensive line this year.

 

[jnday]

so no gosselin bashing? :laugh2:

No snickering.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Of course, I hope that our offensive line contains twice the talent it did last year, but since offensive linemen take 3-4 years to become dominant, and we drafted only one OL in this years draft, I am not holding my breath. The odds are against having a strong offensive line this year.

Didn't ready the whole article did you?

 

[Idgit]

so no gosselin bashing? :laugh2:

No snickering.

You guys really think this is strange, or even worthy of commentary? Criticism is going to get challenged on a team's fan site. An article saying the Cowboys staff thinks we've got some young depth coming up is not. Except maybe by a few fans who have a problem with any article that contains insufficient criticism of their team. This is what normal fan board reaction looks like.