Let's feel a little better: Offensive Line (PFF)

[Nova]

Everything has been pretty lousy on these boards, lately. So I thought I'd inject a bit of good news into CowboysZone by reporting the grades from Pro Football Focus.

Now obviously they are not the end-all, be-all... but it's clear we've improved in this area. All results are pulled from players playing at least 25% of snaps.


C: Travis Frederick

Overall Grade: +13.5

Rank: T-4th of 36 Centers

Behind: HOU: Myers, DEN: Ramirez, CLE Mack, Tied with MIN Sulivan

Interesting!: Frederick actually grades at -3.5 in pass protection, which for reference sake is below average-- you actually don't see a grade as poorly as that until you get to his draftmate Brian Schwenke at the 22nd spot. But run block? 2nd best in the league.


LT: Tyron Smith

Overall Grade: +23.2

Rank: 6th of 78 Tackles (RT and LT both)

Behind: CLE Thomas, WAS Williams, CAR Gross, SF Staley, STL Long

Interesting!: The tackles in front of Smith are obviously the usual suspects. But everyone in front of him (except for Joe Thomas) has surrendered at least 3 or more sacks more than Smith this year; Smith has only surrendered 1, like Thomas.

Also, just a few weeks ago, Smith was in the low 20s and at the beginning of the year I think he was as low as 26th. He's made up a lot of ground by playing the best ball of all tackles the last few weeks.



RT: Doug Free

Overall Grade: +14.3

Rank: 22nd of 78 Tackles (RT and LT both included)

Behind: [Only 7 other RTs] TB Dotson, WAS Polumbus, DEN Franklin, MIN Loadholdt, NO Strief, CIN Smith Jr., NE Vollmer

Interesting!: A lot of us wanted to cut Free in the offseason, including myself. Free seems to have atoned for last year and actually held the top ranking of ALL TACKLES for a couple of weeks. He and Smith has essentially flipped in ranking since then.

Also, a lot of us wanted Eric Winston to take Free's place, including myself. Winston currently ranks 73rd of 78 tackles. For comparison sake, Free's grade in his abysmal 2012 of -10.1 is +12.6 points better than Winston's this year (-22.7).



RG: Mackenzy Bernadeau

Overall Grade: +8.6

Rank: 15th of 77 Guards (RG and LG both included)

Ahead of: Jahri Evans, Marshall Yanda, Jon Asamoah are the three RGs immediately trailing big Mack, who is only behind 7 other RGs.

Interesting!: I thought the season was done once Brian Waters went down for the year following the DET game. But since then, Mack (or Bern...? your call) has actually graded better than Waters did when he was playing. Mack is averaging a grade of +1.9 per game since the Minny game vs Waters +.41.



LG: Ronald Leary

Overall Grade: -9.3

Rank: 54th of 77 guards (RG and LG both included)

Behind: A lot of Guards...

Interesting!: It's a bummer that Leary has graded out so poorly. But as another poster mentioned before, he paves road: Running backs behind him average (or at least they did a week ago) 8.6 yards per carry. Maybe being sandwiched between our two young cornerstones is doing him wonders.

 

[AbeBeta]

What Fred is doing as a rookie is really outstanding. Rookies generally struggle and he is more than holding his own.

 

[slomoxn]

Next year if they score on one mid grade guard and go all DL after that in the draft I am happy. At least with the draft, Jerry will still be here and probably Red too so I still won't expect very much but this O-line has been a pleasant surprise later on in this year, they have played a lot better than I thought they would. I don't know Free's situation with his pay but if it is commiserate to his ability and not overpaying for him I say keep him next year and just get serviceable depth on the Oline behind our guys.

 

[Corso]

Big-time pick, that Frederick guy...

I was perplexed after the trade down, but loved the pick when it went down.

The guy has OL written all over him. BORN TO DO IT.

 

[Nova]

What Fred is doing as a rookie is really outstanding. Rookies generally struggle and he is more than holding his own.

It is. Well, he actually isn't doing that great with pass protection, but at the same time he's not god awful and he makes up for it in other areas. He'll probably get a handle on it. Smart kid, that Frederick.

 

[sideon]

Tyron is at 2nd imo and Fredricks has been a true blessing for this team, just looking at the guy you can tell he's not hesitant to mix it up with anyone on the opposing side. Now if they add 2 more slightly above average players then this can be a solid O-Line for the next 7 years.

 

[Nova]

Big-time pick, that Frederick guy...

I was perplexed after the trade down, but loved the pick when it went down.

The guy has OL written all over him. BORN TO DO IT.

I loved the pick, initially.

Sadly, I was one of those people who let others sway my opinion. All that talk about a 3rd round grade and we could've gotten him later kind of irked me. And then compounded with the Escobar in the 2nd round, it seemed like maybe everyone would be right and this would be a horrible draft.

Excited to have him on the team. Tyron, too. They are 22 and 23 respectively. OL Future looks bright with these guys.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

I think it's safe to say we potentially don't have to make any moves on offense next year from a personnel standpoint. That means every free agent and draft pick can go toward the defense. And we can also do a complete coaching overhaul. If we can improve this defense, it'll finally get to the point where Romo will have no more excuses. Speaking of Romo, if we did go offense in the draft, I wouldn't mind if it was QB.

 

[ScipioCowboy]

I wouldn't touch this line in the offseason. The hallmark of a good offensive line is chemistry, and these guys have it. We can win with this line in the future. Let's not muck it up.

 

[TTexasTT]

Little shocked that Williams is ranked over Smith. I havent watched half of the Commanders games but he seemed to be getting beat more than I had seen him in the past.
lol Look at our boy Doug, went from the laughing stock of the line to a solid RT.

 

[mahoneybill]

Everything has been pretty lousy on these boards, lately. So I thought I'd inject a bit of good news into CowboysZone by reporting the grades from Pro Football Focus.

Now obviously they are not the end-all, be-all... but it's clear we've improved in this area. All results are pulled from players playing at least 25% of snaps.


C: Travis Frederick

Overall Grade: +13.5
Rank: T-4th of 36 Centers

Behind: HOU: Myers, DEN: Ramirez, CLE Mack, Tied with MIN Sulivan

Interesting!: Frederick actually grades at -3.5 in pass protection, which for reference sake is below average-- you actually don't see a grade as poorly as that until you get to his draftmate Brian Schwenke at the 22nd spot. But run block? 2nd best in the league.


LT: Tyron Smith

Overall Grade: +23.2

Rank: 6th of 78 Tackles (RT and LT both)

Behind: CLE Thomas, WAS Williams, CAR Gross, SF Staley, STL Long

Interesting!: The tackles in front of Smith are obviously the usual suspects. But everyone in front of him (except for Joe Thomas) has surrendered at least 3 or more sacks more than Smith this year; Smith has only surrendered 1, like Thomas.
Also, just a few weeks ago, Smith was in the low 20s and at the beginning of the year I think he was as low as 26th. He's made up a lot of ground by playing the best ball of all tackles the last few weeks.



RT: Doug Free

Overall Grade: +14.3
Rank: 22nd of 78 Tackles (RT and LT both included)

Behind: [Only 7 other RTs] TB Dotson, WAS Polumbus, DEN Franklin, MIN Loadholdt, NO Strief, CIN Smith Jr., NE Vollmer

Interesting!: A lot of us wanted to cut Free in the offseason, including myself. Free seems to have atoned for last year and actually held the top ranking of ALL TACKLES for a couple of weeks. He and Smith has essentially flipped in ranking since then.

Also, a lot of us wanted Eric Winston to take Free's place, including myself. Winston currently ranks 73rd of 78 tackles. For comparison sake, Free's grade in his abysmal 2012 of -10.1 is +12.6 points better than Winston's this year (-22.7).



RG: Mackenzy Bernadeau

Overall Grade: +8.6
Rank: 15th of 77 Guards (RG and LG both included)

Ahead of: Jahri Evans, Marshall Yanda, Jon Asamoah are the three RGs immediately trailing big Mack, who is only behind 7 other RGs.

Interesting!: I thought the season was done once Brian Waters went down for the year following the DET game. But since then, Mack (or Bern...? your call) has actually graded better than Waters did when he was playing. Mack is averaging a grade of +1.9 per game since the Minny game vs Waters +.41.



LG: Ronald Leary

Overall Grade: -9.3

Rank: 54th of 77 guards (RG and LG both included)

Behind: A lot of Guards...

Interesting!: It's a bummer that Leary has graded out so poorly. But as another poster mentioned before, he paves road: Running backs behind him average (or at least they did a week ago) 8.6 yards per carry. Maybe being sandwiched between our two young cornerstones is doing him wonders.

A breath of fresh air in an otherwise putrid couple of weeks

 

[Nova]

Little shocked that Williams is ranked over Smith. I havent watched half of the Commanders games but he seemed to be getting beat more than I had seen him in the past.
lol Look at our boy Doug, went from the laughing stock of the line to a solid RT.

It's a little misleading. Where Williams destroys Smith is in run blocking and penalties... almost a 2 to 1 advantage in both categories. Smith has gotten much better in the run block department as the year has gone on, but Trent has compounded good grades week after week to get where he is.

What's weird though is that Williams grades out better in pass protection when...

Williams: 8 Sacks, 6 Hits, 20 Hurries = 34 pressures on 601 passing snaps
Tyron: 1 Sack, 4 hits, 25 hurries= 29 pressures on 553 passing snaps

By PFF's own admission, Tyron is the more efficient of the two. But I guess the difference lies in how long it took until those pressures occurred.

And Free may be a solid RT now, but I think people are still laughing.

...love him for trying though. Go Free!

 

[AbeBeta]

It is. Well, he actually isn't doing that great with pass protection, but at the same time he's not god awful and he makes up for it in other areas. He'll probably get a handle on it. Smart kid, that Frederick.

A slightly negative grade in pass protection means he's about average there. Few rookies even get there.

 

[TTexasTT]

It's a little misleading. Where Williams destroys Smith is in run blocking and penalties... almost a 2 to 1 advantage in both categories. Smith has gotten much better in the run block department as the year has gone on, but Trent has compounded good grades week after week to get where he is.

What's weird though is that Williams grades out better in pass protection when...

Williams: 8 Sacks, 6 Hits, 20 Hurries = 34 pressures on 601 passing snaps
Tyron: 1 Sack, 4 hits, 25 hurries= 29 pressures on 553 passing snaps

By PFF's own admission, Tyron is the more efficient of the two. But I guess the difference lies in how long it took until those pressures occurred.

And Free may be a solid RT now, but I think people are still laughing.

...love him for trying though. Go Free!

lol Touche'

Free gets bossed from time to time but atleast its him flopping instead of Romo... Like last year.

Anyway, I can say that the whole line has been a pleasant surpise this year for me.

 

[bark]

The ol/special teams are the best parts of this cowboys team. How long since we could say that?
Tfred was an absolute home run ... The running game had steadily improved as the yr has progressed.
Has anybody suggested we run / play action more.....
Now if only we could use that to our advantage late in games.

 

[ShiningStar]

lordy, we are about to miss the playoffs, another year wasted, another year older for the players, but we are doing okay on a useless tool that doesnt help any football team whatsoever, well im going to get on my knees and thank Jerry Jones for that because whew, im sorry guys, thats the whole season right there, thats getting this season turned around and righting a very broken ship. Kudos right there. Well i for one find this season a success than.

 

[mitchell2254]

We finally get our OL right and everything else goes wrong, go figure.

 

[bark]

lordy, we are about to miss the playoffs, another year wasted, another year older for the players, but we are doing okay on a useless tool that doesnt help any football team whatsoever, well im going to get on my knees and thank Jerry Jones for that because whew, im sorry guys, thats the whole season right there, thats getting this season turned around and righting a very broken ship. Kudos right there. Well i for one find this season a success than.

I think you missed the point of the thread there star...
No one saying the season is a success and useless tool.. Geez brother

 

[ShiningStar]

We finally get our OL right and everything else goes wrong, go figure.

THis i agree with. I was so scared the Oline would be a mess when Waters went down, but Callahan kept it going and did a great job. Sad to say everything else went kaput around it.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

It's a little misleading. Where Williams destroys Smith is in run blocking and penalties... almost a 2 to 1 advantage in both categories. Smith has gotten much better in the run block department as the year has gone on, but Trent has compounded good grades week after week to get where he is.

What's weird though is that Williams grades out better in pass protection when...

Williams: 8 Sacks, 6 Hits, 20 Hurries = 34 pressures on 601 passing snaps
Tyron: 1 Sack, 4 hits, 25 hurries= 29 pressures on 553 passing snaps

By PFF's own admission, Tyron is the more efficient of the two. But I guess the difference lies in how long it took until those pressures occurred.

And Free may be a solid RT now, but I think people are still laughing.

...love him for trying though. Go Free!

In the first gif the guy completely gives up on the rush to stop so he could pick up and throw Free. Free had been abusing him all night.

The second one saw the outside guy stand Free up so the inside guy could again pick him up.

What you aren't seeing are guys getting up into him and riding him or a failure to get his mitts on guys as they rush up the field.