Laufenberg says o-line will be much improved

[erod]

I greatly value the opinions of Babe Laughenberg. He's been right about a lot of players over the years - most notably Tony Romo when everyone else was clamoring for Drew Henson - and he's got a discerning eye for the game that most others do not in the media, even among former players and coaches.

Babe made a case today that the offensive line is going to be much better this season. Among his points:

1. Babe says that Phil Costa is a poor man's Mark Stepnoski. He calls him a "bulldog", and that it's become fashionably popular to dogpile Costa when the problem was largely with the guards and not Costa. He believes if the guards are improved, and with a year of experience under his belt, "the Cowboys can win with Phil Costa at center."

2. He also pointed out that Doug Free is a better RT than he is a LT, and that Tyron Smith will be an improvement at LT. We knew this last year, and I still thought they should have made that change a year ago.

3. He said Bill Callahan is the best offensive line coach in football, and that his offensive lines have a history of significant improvement when he arrives.

Here's hoping he's right.

 

[Hostile]

Babe clearly doesn't read this site and our OL experts.

:

 

[Rynie]

I like Babe, but he did a complete 180 on Romo after the Lions game. I mean, I was mad, but Romo's still my guy.

 

[Shinywalrus]

This all seems pretty consensus, with the exception of Costa, where I agree with Babe. I might be less excited, perhaps, but he seemed to be pretty average by the end of the season.

I'm OK with being average at some positions.

 

[CoCo]

I'm sure hoping the O-line is significantly improved. But the fact is that nobody knows. Its all speculation even with the history of all the individual parts - Tyron, Free, Costa, Livings, Bernadeau, Leary, Arkin, Nagy, Kowalski & Callahan.

 

[SilverStarCowboy]

Babe clearly doesn't read this site and our OL experts.

:

lol, experts.

 

[Stash]

1. Babe says that Phil Costa is a poor man's Mark Stepnoski. He calls him a "bulldog", and that it's become fashionably popular to dogpile Costa when the problem was largely with the guards and not Costa. He believes if the guards are improved, and with a year of experience under his belt, "the Cowboys can win with Phil Costa at center."

I'm trying to be cautiously optimistic when it comes to this area, but how is the above statement any sort of a given?

The team signed two journeyman guards this offseason, one of whom is injured and won't be available for the better portion of training camp.

I don't think it can simply be assumed that the guard play is improved.

The area I am most optimistic for is Callahan's coaching.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Meh, Babe's just standing behind one of his pet cats like he always does. He insisted Ogletree would be great, too.

 

[Stash]

lol, experts.

:slob:

 

[Cowboys&LakersFan]

It better be if we plan on winning anything.

 

[Idgit]

Re: Costa, that's pretty clearly what the team thinks. I don't think they're right, but I also know that I know very little when it comes to evaluating C play in the NFL. But, pretty obviously, the team thought the problem was at OG. We're devoting a lot of resources (not salary cap or premium picks, but two FA signings and a lot of roster spots) to filling those holes, so obviously they think there's an issue there.

 

[Stash]

Re: Costa, that's pretty clearly what the team thinks. I don't think they're right, but I also know that I know very little when it comes to evaluating C play in the NFL. But, pretty obviously, the team thought the problem was at OG. We're devoting a lot of resources (not salary cap or premium picks, but two FA signings and a lot of roster spots) to filling those holes, so obviously they think there's an issue there.

Great point.

As I'm fond of saying, actions speak louder than words.

And their actions say that they felt the bigger issue was at guard rather than center.

 

[Idgit]

Great point.

As I'm fond of saying, actions speak louder than words.

And their actions say that they felt the bigger issue was at guard rather than center.

I don't recall which poster posted it--was it xwalker, maybe--that had the roster comparison between last year and this year. But with the roster expansion it was pretty easy to see that we'd decided to go long at OL with a bunch of middling resources. That says to me that the team thinks you can find OLs in the mid rounds through UDFA and didn't want to overspend, but that they also think it's a position of need for us and so they wanted to bring in a lot of options and hope that some of them can develop. I think it's risky, but smart.

 

[Doomsday101]

I think Costa can improve how much I guess we will see. I do think some of the early problems with poor snaps really hurt his aggressiveness coming off the ball in my view because he was more concerned improving the snaps than the blocking assignment itself.

My hope is we can have some good competition for the center spot and if Costa shows improvement I have no issue of him being the starting center.

 

[Ren]

I like Babe, but he did a complete 180 on Romo after the Lions game. I mean, I was mad, but Romo's still my guy.

let it go dude, Romo is married now :laugh2:

 

[theogt]

This all seems pretty consensus, with the exception of Costa, where I agree with Babe. I might be less excited, perhaps, but he seemed to be pretty average by the end of the season.

I'm OK with being average at some positions.

Same here on Costa. If you go back and watch the last 6 games of 2011, you'll come away pleased with Costa, thinking he's a solid player. I expect him to continue improving off that stretch of performance.

 

[theogt]

I like Babe, but he did a complete 180 on Romo after the Lions game. I mean, I was mad, but Romo's still my guy.

I'm not going to lie -- it was very difficult not to dog Romo after that Lions game. I'm pretty sure Babe did an apology a few games later too. We're all wrong on occasion. The true test is recognizing it and acknowledging it.

 

[AbeBeta]

Same here on Costa. If you go back and watch the last 6 games of 2011, you'll come away pleased with Costa, thinking he's a solid player. I expect him to continue improving off that stretch of performance.

Wait. You mean a first time starter sucked then got better?

That just does not happen. Either you come out of the gate awesome and never look back or you suck.

 

[Apollo Creed]

Lost all respect for Babe when he turned on Romo to protect his boy.

And it's not hard to upgrade from awful to below average.

 

[Gemini Dolly]

Costa at center gets me nervous. Imagine how Romo feels.