My prediction: Barring injuries we will have a serviceable OL.

[Eskimo]

Another good post, and I don't really disagree with it. You're higher on Weems than I am, and I hope you're right. I should clarify, that there really wasn't a guy who fit for us at OT in the first or second rounds and that I'm only saying I'd be happier with the three we've got and a young developing player we were grooming for a starting role of his own. If Weems or Edawn Coughman ends up being that player, I'm thrilled. I haven't seen enough of either to have a strong opinion one way or another. Only saying that I wish we the prospects we had there weren't relative long shots.

Part of the problem IMO is just our lack of familiarity with Weems. They saw enough of him at the end of the year to get a feel for what his capabilities were. I saw a bit of college game film on him and thought he looked decent. He played at an elite level there with a top 10 team and was with an offensive powerhouse. He has 2nd to 3rd round metrics at the Combine. It was a bit puzzling to me why he went undrafted and I thought it might be on the basis of his unconventional offensive system and lack of experience with blocking for a pro set offense. But that can be taught IMO if the fundamental building blocks are there - anchor, upper body strength, arm length, hand size and strength, foot movement, balance, lateral agility, lower extremity explosiveness......

I'm excited to see him. The successful conversion of Parnell which I never dreamed would be successful has gotten me excited about what Callahan is doing. Last year we saw what a big jump Costa had made before he got hurt. Now this season the initial word is that Leary has made the leap and is threatening to put one of the vets on the street. Killer is looking better after basically missing a year with injury. So there is room for optimism IMO - they are doing a better job of recognizing talent and then developing them. The old regime was always looking for sloths with long arms and big butts and for the most part it wasn't working. The successive busts of Al Johnson, Stephen Peterman, Jacob Rogers, Marten and Brewster really set us back. We should have found 3 quality players with those picks which were 2nd and 3rd round guys. The old regime wasn't drafting enough players but they also weren't hitting for the most part when they did draft. Then they seemed to decide they would just buy vets in FA instead of wasting time and resources to invest in kids. That was okay in 2006-7 but when Kosier got hurt in 2008 no one could step up and then in 2009 they all started to fall apart.

The new approach is different. They are looking for guys who are good athletes, who play through the whistle and have good motors. They are doing well and I think they have deserve some credit.

 

[burmafrd]

IDK, Free is a proven starter and the one we have decided to keep. We could have signed someone else and let Free go at only a minor increment in cost that has more to do with accounting than actual overall costs over the next 3 years of Cap space. That is the FO's opinion on the matter and I don't know what happened behind closed doors when Callahan assayed the tape and the improvement in Free's play late in the year with the split snaps.

The other possibiity is they just wanted to buy a bit of time for Parnell and have a fall back option they were comfortable with in case he failed. Parnell looked okay late last year when inserted in the lineup. We really didn't have a shot at one of the top OTs in the draft and the guy who was left over, Menelik Watson, arguably is far less ready than Parnell right now to play. The coaches see what he can do in practice and have probably dissected all his snaps to study his performance and look for in-game weaknesses and any adustments he was making to them. I honestly think the fan base would be somewhat assuaged if they did a "Pro Day" for Parnell who wasn't invited to the Combine and didn't even really have a defined position when he was a UDFA and went through about 4 different positions in 2009-2010 in his Sr. season with Mississipppi State and then the Saints before we plucked him and stuck him at OT and kept him there. So he really only has 2 years of experience at any level and very little game experience to fall back upon. My guess is he would "shoot up the boards" in fans opinion if they found out about him, saw his numbers and had scouts talk about his potential in the media. He may even be a more prototypical specimen than Tyron - 6-6, 312 pounds, 37 inch arms, big hands, immense power with the strongest punch by an OL that Woicik has ever seen. Remember this guy was around with Flo, Larry Allen, Logan Mankins, Sebastian Vollmer and Erik Williams and hey he's saying Parnell has more functional upper body strength to push back on DL than any of those guys. This guy was a basketball player just 3 yeas ago with no football experience and weighed 250 pounds. What's he going to be like after a couple more years of lifting weights? He appears to have good feet and even if he didn't he still has those long and strong arms. I know xwalker looked at his snaps from the past year and great detail and said that teams quickly found they couldn't go around him and they coudln't go through him so they resorted to trying to trick him but he was picking things up there quite quickly too. He also has a nasty streak and appears to have a protective streak in him for our players which seems to be something we have been lacking around here for awhile and hopefully things stop now with TFred and Parnell protecting Romo and the skilled players from defenders who want to take "cheap shots" against us and that will be a welcom change. The only thing he doesn't really have is live game experience which he can only get through being put out there. I know in a recent article saying he was initially quite shocked to see firsthand how violent true game snaps are compared to just practice and preseason. I think we have found our next UDFA "diamond" and just need to polish it up a bit with some snaps.

Given this backdrop I think Callahan and the FO like what Parnell represents for our future and just wanted Free for depth purposes and a fallback option in case Parnell fails when put into full-time duty and that is fine by me. I really think any 2nd or 3rd round pick we threw out there would be far inferior to Parnell so I don't see the point in reaching in the draft.

Behind our top 3 I am actually quite excited to see what we have in Darrion Weems. The FO has seen him for a couple of weeks before the end of the season and again in mini-camps and they may be high on him. He played for one of the top offenses in college football but in an atypical scheme at Oregon so he was hard to assesss. He seems to have okay measurables and did okay in the last preseason. The opinion may be that he was as good as any of the guys available from the 3rd round on. If you remember our board, we didn't really think much of most of the OL after TFred in this past draft with a huge gap before the next guy. Rightly or wrongly that was the scouts' opinion.

They also seem to like this Coughman fellow. Who knows what happens with Arkin. They may just decide that he is an OT after all and move him back out there. His biggest issue seems to be anchor and that is a bigger issue at OG than OT since you face much bigger and often shorter DL on the inside than the outside and he had decent feet, decent athleticism and had 34 inch arms with 25 bench presses with a 4.63 shuttle with decent explosion in a 29 inch vertical and 8-7 broad jump. Finally even Leary could be considered in a position switch although I think they are happy with him at OG and there aren't any concerns about his functional strength there inside.

The cupboard may not be bare as we think. I know it is also popular groupthink here to believe the FO, scouts and OL coaches have no idea what they are doing and going by their record since 2001 there is reason for skepticism for lack of OL development. The only real quality starters developed in house have been Gurode, Free and pulling Colombo, a former first rounder with a bad leg injury, off of the scrap heap. But that is the old regime who were looking for a different kind of player to play a different scheme. There just hasn't been enough time to assess Callahan who comes with a proven track record of success over many years. We also look to really by going more full bore with the zone blocking and running all those stretch plays based on the hire of Pollack and some of the info from scouts who watched mini-camp and OTAs. This scheme shift should really help take pressure off the OL and Romo as we saw firsthand how much better the Commanders looked after implementing the scheme more fully this past season without much investment in top quality vets or high draft picks.

I think there is some reason for cautious optimism but we won't know until we see some proof of improvement in at least the preseason OL performance with the first stringers although the real litmus test will be the regular season. I don't think it is likely we'll see any more OL investment unless we are stealing someone's developmental project off of the PS again.

Until they show they can develope real good starters they have no cred. Hope is nothing.

They have proven themselves a disaster at developing O line players. Until they do they get the raspberry they have earned.

After drafting Gurode in 2002 this team has not developed ONE SINGLE CONSISTENT STARTER.

 

[Verdict]

From reading Eskimo's post on Parnell, he sounds a lot like Lane Johnson, who went in the top 10 of this year's draft.

 

[Verdict]

Until they show they can develope real good starters they have no cred. Hope is nothing.

They have proven themselves a disaster at developing O line players. Until they do they get the raspberry they have earned.

After drafting Gurode in 2002 this team has not developed ONE SINGLE CONSISTENT STARTER.

Maybe they have been developing starters but it takes a while for them to become elite. We have a lot of young OL guys on the roster who just might come into their own this year or next. Time will tell.

 

[Eskimo]

From reading Eskimo's post on Parnell, he sounds a lot like Lane Johnson, who went in the top 10 of this year's draft.

I don't think Parnell has Johnson's foot speed which is around 4.7 in the 40 yard dash. I actually have no idea how fast Parnell is although he was once fast enough for the Saints to try and develop him as a DE and a TE. Now that was probably about 25 pounds a go so it is hard to say. I can't say I've ever seen Parnell run so I don't know what he's got.

What he has:

Ideal height
Ideal arm length
Ideal power
good anchor
good enough footwork to play NFL OT
physical
nasty

He has all the check marks except he lacks game experience and we don't know how he would hold up over a year of play against NFL type pounding. That's really something we won't know about Parnell until he does it but that is also true of Lane. Of course, Lane has shown he can do it in college which is more time length than Parnell has shown. Conversely, Parnell has shown he can hold up against NFL quality DEs without being overpowered or run around.

After what Parnell showed in the last preseason and during the regular season he is at least as accomplished as any OT that went after the first round was over.

 

[Vanilla2]

Serviceable?

Way to step out on a limb.

I'm gonna make a bold prediction and say if he has the ball thrown to him Dez may score some tds.

 

[noshame]

I think part of the reason they kept Free is if Smith goes down, Free is the ONLY other option at LT, for now.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

I think part of the reason they kept Free is if Smith goes down, Free is the ONLY other option at LT, for now.

Parnell played nearly 2 full games at LT last season after Smith was injured... and did reasonably well.

 

[jnday]

Until they show they can develope real good starters they have no cred. Hope is nothing.

They have proven themselves a disaster at developing O line players. Until they do they get the raspberry they have earned.

After drafting Gurode in 2002 this team has not developed ONE SINGLE CONSISTENT STARTER.

Agree. This is just like every offseason. Hopes are high and many fans think this is the year that some of these problems will be fixed. Not to dash any hopes, but Callahan wasn't the saviour for the line that many expected. Many of his duties will be taken care by a new asst coach this year, and that could be a good or bad thing. Nobody knows. These coaching moves and depending on many players that are unproven or have never been that good to start with, leaves me thinking that much will stay the same. It is a simple case of proving themselves. I am not going to give them credit for anything unless they earn it. The team hasn't done the first thing that deserves praise and this offseason sounds like a replay of last offseason and the offseason before etc. Fans and the team are betting on many long shots to pan out. That is hope not real results. Show some good, positive results on the field and I will give them credit. Until then, it.is the same stuff, different year.

 

[jnday]

Parnell played nearly 2 full games at LT last season after Smith was injured... and did reasonably well.

He did very well considering the situation. It made me question the team media members that laughed last year when it was suggested that Parnell could start.

 

[jobberone]

Agree. This is just like every offseason. Hopes are high and many fans think this is the year that some of these problems will be fixed. Not to dash any hopes, but Callahan wasn't the saviour for the line that many expected. Many of his duties will be taken care by a new asst coach this year, and that could be a good or bad thing. Nobody knows. These coaching moves and depending on many players that are unproven or have never been that good to start with, leaves me thinking that much will stay the same. It is a simple case of proving themselves. I am not going to give them credit for anything unless they earn it. The team hasn't done the first thing that deserves praise and this offseason sounds like a replay of last offseason and the offseason before etc. Fans and the team are betting on many long shots to pan out. That is hope not real results. Show some good, positive results on the field and I will give them credit. Until then, it.is the same stuff, different year.

I understand where you're coming from, don't blame you for feeling that way and you may be right. But I'm more optimistic and it's not blind faith. Not going to repeat my reasons as I've stated them before. But again there are question marks. The other reason I'm optimistic is we were 3rd in offense and middling in scoring. There are decent odds we will improve our scoring to match our yardage IMO. So despite all the wailing about the OL they still managed to do well in the passing game. It's the running game and RZ scoring that needs improvement and a fair amount of that is on the OL. So not all rosy and not all despair and hopeless either.

 

[Cowboy06]

We have 2 first rounders in our o-line.

We are not just throwing out jags anymore.

That's one and half down (Don't know if Frederick will pan out), and three to go. We need two guards, perhaps three, a tackle and a good backup. This is because for years we neglected the position, much like we did and are still doing the QB position. Heaven help us if Romo gets hurt or decides he's done.

 

[xwalker]

Part of the problem IMO is just our lack of familiarity with Weems. They saw enough of him at the end of the year to get a feel for what his capabilities were. I saw a bit of college game film on him and thought he looked decent. He played at an elite level there with a top 10 team and was with an offensive powerhouse. He has 2nd to 3rd round metrics at the Combine. It was a bit puzzling to me why he went undrafted and I thought it might be on the basis of his unconventional offensive system and lack of experience with blocking for a pro set offense. But that can be taught IMO if the fundamental building blocks are there - anchor, upper body strength, arm length, hand size and strength, foot movement, balance, lateral agility, lower extremity explosiveness......

I'm excited to see him. The successful conversion of Parnell which I never dreamed would be successful has gotten me excited about what Callahan is doing. Last year we saw what a big jump Costa had made before he got hurt. Now this season the initial word is that Leary has made the leap and is threatening to put one of the vets on the street. Killer is looking better after basically missing a year with injury. So there is room for optimism IMO - they are doing a better job of recognizing talent and then developing them. The old regime was always looking for sloths with long arms and big butts and for the most part it wasn't working. The successive busts of Al Johnson, Stephen Peterman, Jacob Rogers, Marten and Brewster really set us back. We should have found 3 quality players with those picks which were 2nd and 3rd round guys. The old regime wasn't drafting enough players but they also weren't hitting for the most part when they did draft. Then they seemed to decide they would just buy vets in FA instead of wasting time and resources to invest in kids. That was okay in 2006-7 but when Kosier got hurt in 2008 no one could step up and then in 2009 they all started to fall apart.

The new approach is different. They are looking for guys who are good athletes, who play through the whistle and have good motors. They are doing well and I think they have deserve some credit.

Good post.

I also don't know why Weems didn't get drafted. He didn't have a complete Pro Day workout due to a hamstring injury; however, in game footage he appears to be both quick and strong. He looked better than many college players that I've studied that did get drafted.

I'm not clear on the reasons for the following: Recipient of the Bob Officer Award (2011), presented to the player who excels in spite of physical adversity.

Under Garrett the team is clearly trying to develop OL players without just spending extreme money on Free Agents like they did in the past. Livings and Bernadeau were clearly stopgap signings. Bernadeau is getting paid less than what they paid Montrae Holland in the years when he was a backup.

I'm pleased that they drafted a powerful Center over a Guard only player. Good Guards are available every year in Free Agency, but quality Centers are rarely if ever available.

They have options this year that they didn't have last year due to injuries and the addition of Frederick. They just have to find 2 players out of Livings, Bernadeau, Kowalski, Costa, Leary, and Arkin. Last year Costa and Kowalski were injured, Leary was too raw which limited the options to Livings who was injured mid-season, Bernadeau with multiple injuries, Arkin and Dockery. The limited options at Guard were exacerbated by having Cook as the primary starter at Center. Frederick was probably stronger in the 8th grade than Cook is now.

Summary: If all players stay healthy, I believe that they will have a drastically better OLine by the end of the 2013 season than what they had at anytime during the 2012 season. The problem is that it could be ugly early in the season. Leary and Parnell might be significantly better physically than Livings/Bernadeau and Free; however, they have significantly less experience. They have to play real games to get the experience.

 

[Rockport]

Good post.

Summary: If all players stay healthy, I believe that they will have a drastically better OLine by the end of the 2013 season than what they had at anytime during the 2012 season. The problem is that it could be ugly early in the season. Leary and Parnell might be significantly better physically than Livings/Bernadeau and Free; however, they have significantly less experience. They have to play real games to get the experience.

I don't see how you could say the OL will be drastically better if they stay healthy. We've only added one new player who is a rookie and will struggle as all rookies do. The other starters were not very good when healthy, including Smith. I hope you're right, but just don't see it. My hope is that Leary and Parnell progressed enough to start. If we're stuck with Livings, Bernadeau and Free as starters, the running game will again suffer and Romo may get sacked more than the 36 sacks he had last year.

 

[burmafrd]

D

Good post.

I also don't know why Weems didn't get drafted. He didn't have a complete Pro Day workout due to a hamstring injury; however, in game footage he appears to be both quick and strong. He looked better than many college players that I've studied that did get drafted.

I'm not clear on the reasons for the following: Recipient of the Bob Officer Award (2011), presented to the player who excels in spite of physical adversity.

Under Garrett the team is clearly trying to develop OL players without just spending extreme money on Free Agents like they did in the past. Livings and Bernadeau were clearly stopgap signings. Bernadeau is getting paid less than what they paid Montrae Holland in the years when he was a backup.

I'm pleased that they drafted a powerful Center over a Guard only player. Good Guards are available every year in Free Agency, but quality Centers are rarely if ever available.

They have options this year that they didn't have last year due to injuries and the addition of Frederick. They just have to find 2 players out of Livings, Bernadeau, Kowalski, Costa, Leary, and Arkin. Last year Costa and Kowalski were injured, Leary was too raw which limited the options to Livings who was injured mid-season, Bernadeau with multiple injuries, Arkin and Dockery. The limited options at Guard were exacerbated by having Cook as the primary starter at Center. Frederick was probably stronger in the 8th grade than Cook is now.

Summary: If all players stay healthy, I believe that they will have a drastically better OLine by the end of the 2013 season than what they had at anytime during the 2012 season. The problem is that it could be ugly early in the season. Leary and Parnell might be significantly better physically than Livings/Bernadeau and Free; however, they have significantly less experience. They have to play real games to get the experience.

DRASTICALLY BETTER? put down the kool aid

 

[Iago33]

I don't see how you could say the OL will be drastically better if they stay healthy. We've only added one new player who is a rookie and will struggle as all rookies do. The other starters were not very good when healthy, including Smith. I hope you're right, but just don't see it. My hope is that Leary and Parnell progressed enough to start. If we're stuck with Livings, Bernadeau and Free as starters, the running game will again suffer and Romo may get sacked more than the 36 sacks he had last year.

I really don't know how well they'll do, but if they start healthy we will have at least three more healthy players on o line than we had last year.

 

[Eskimo]

I don't see how you could say the OL will be drastically better if they stay healthy. We've only added one new player who is a rookie and will struggle as all rookies do. The other starters were not very good when healthy, including Smith. I hope you're right, but just don't see it. My hope is that Leary and Parnell progressed enough to start. If we're stuck with Livings, Bernadeau and Free as starters, the running game will again suffer and Romo may get sacked more than the 36 sacks he had last year.

The reason he projects they will be better is he sees Smith playing much better at LT because that is what happens to 22 year olds - they get better. It is also what happens with guys who play a new position for the first time - they get better the next year. It is what usually happens to OL going into their 3rd year, they get better. If you watched his play last year he was markedly better in the second half of the year than the first half which suggests he was improving throughout the year.

The other reason I expect things to be better is the Center position will be much better. At the very worst, we can go back to Costa who is much better than Cook was last year. If Travis Frederick is holding us back because he isn't ready to play Center we move him over to OG which is much easier to pick up and where he was great as a Junior next to Konz in 2011. The most important part of subbing out Cook is that we can re-establish an interior running game where we were the worst in the league.

As for RT, Free was better down the stretch. If he reverts to his early 2012 form we can fall back on Parnell who showed that he is ready to start last year. I think this position should be markedly better this year than it was during most of the year in 2012.

Now finally OG. I don't know what to expect here. I have no idea who the starters will be or even who the backups will be. What I do know is the competition will be much better this year because the young players have one more year of experience and the vets will hopefully be a bit healthier. I have a strong suspicion that Livings may be done. I have a strong suspicion that Livings may be ready to play. I am also hopeful that Killer, Arkin or Costa can challenge for the other spot but have a suspicion that Bernadeau will take on of the spots since he improved markedly through the year and is a young player from a very small school with good physical skills who needed a chance to play to improve.

I do like what we are doing on the OL and I think this year we start to see the improvements. I know it is hard to accept this given how bad we have been from 2010-12 but Callahan has a track record and I think we brought in the players we need to run his system. Everyone needed a year to adapt but I think we're ready now to play better.

 

[xwalker]

I don't see how you could say the OL will be drastically better if they stay healthy. We've only added one new player who is a rookie and will struggle as all rookies do. The other starters were not very good when healthy, including Smith. I hope you're right, but just don't see it. My hope is that Leary and Parnell progressed enough to start. If we're stuck with Livings, Bernadeau and Free as starters, the running game will again suffer and Romo may get sacked more than the 36 sacks he had last year.

Drastically better than the 2012 Cowboys OLine is not that big of a compliment.

Cook was the worst run blocking OL that they've had in a long time. Maybe the worst since Cory Proctor was forced into action several years ago. Frederick, Costa, Kowalski or even Bernadeau could be drastically better than Cook and still be below the NFL average.

The Free/Parnell combo was drastically better than Free was early in the season.

Tyron Smith should be somewhat better after a year of experience on the Left side.

With the above improvements, they only need to be at least as good at the Guards spot as last year which is not a high bar.

I've spent a significant amount of time reviewing the 2012 season using the coaches film from nfl.com. My primary focus was on the OLine. I don't think a lot of people realize just how bad Cook was at run blocking. He is not strong enough to overcome his leverage disadvantage due to being 6-6. He is too slow footed to properly execute the Zone Stretch type plays. I think many people didn't notice his issues because he was a decent pass blocker due to his well above average length (height, arm length) for the Center position. Also, he didn't have any obvious problems snapping the ball. I say obvious because in reality his delayed snaps were the primary reason for many of the false starts early in the season by other players, especially Tyron Smith. I find it funny that there is so much hate for Costa but not for Cook. I believe the reason is that watching the games in real-time with minimal review, Cook looks OK and Costa has looked terrible at times with some snapping gaffes and pass blocking gaffes; however, when studying the recorded games and coaches film, Cook is the one that looks terrible while Costa does some really good things, especially in run blocking. Costa is good at both power run blocking against DLinemen and at being quick/agile enough to get out and make quality blocks on the 2nd level.

At Left Tackle Tyron Smith was good enough for the team to win with.

At Center, Costa and Bernadeau were good enough for the team to win with.

At RT, Parnell and Free were good enough in the last 4 games for the team to win with.

At Guard, Livings and Bernadeau were good enough in some games for the team to win with. I'm not certain how much injures to both players affected their consistency.

 

[iceman117]

Smith-Livings-Fredricks-Leary-Free

Parnell as the swing Tackle
Berny,Costa, Arkin as the back up interior guys is a decent line, they improved as the year went on and I expect them to pick up where they left off, also it would be nice if we could pick up a guy like Eric Winston who is still available as an insurance policy but if not I think the OL is decent and has a little depth

 

[Rockport]

Drastically better than the 2012 Cowboys OLine is not that big of a compliment.

Cook was the worst run blocking OL that they've had in a long time. Maybe the worst since Cory Proctor was forced into action several years ago. Frederick, Costa, Kowalski or even Bernadeau could be drastically better than Cook and still be below the NFL average.

The Free/Parnell combo was drastically better than Free was early in the season.

Tyron Smith should be somewhat better after a year of experience on the Left side.

With the above improvements, they only need to be at least as good at the Guards spot as last year which is not a high bar.

I've spent a significant amount of time reviewing the 2012 season using the coaches film from nfl.com. My primary focus was on the OLine. I don't think a lot of people realize just how bad Cook was at run blocking. He is not strong enough to overcome his leverage disadvantage due to being 6-6. He is too slow footed to properly execute the Zone Stretch type plays. I think many people didn't notice his issues because he was a decent pass blocker due to his well above average length (height, arm length) for the Center position. Also, he didn't have any obvious problems snapping the ball. I say obvious because in reality his delayed snaps were the primary reason for many of the false starts early in the season by other players, especially Tyron Smith. I find it funny that there is so much hate for Costa but not for Cook. I believe the reason is that watching the games in real-time with minimal review, Cook looks OK and Costa has looked terrible at times with some snapping gaffes and pass blocking gaffes; however, when studying the recorded games and coaches film, Cook is the one that looks terrible while Costa does some really good things, especially in run blocking. Costa is good at both power run blocking against DLinemen and at being quick/agile enough to get out and make quality blocks on the 2nd level.

At Left Tackle Tyron Smith was good enough for the team to win with.

At Center, Costa and Bernadeau were good enough for the team to win with.

At RT, Parnell and Free were good enough in the last 4 games for the team to win with.

At Guard, Livings and Bernadeau were good enough in some games for the team to win with. I'm not certain how much injures to both players affected their consistency.

Definition of drastically "Severe or radical in nature; extreme"

All one can hope for is moderately better because of another year of coaching and the presense of Frederich.

Costa is certainly better at run blocking than pass protection where he is less than average. That's why the team has been locking for a replacement.