Nervous about our offensive line after hearing Big Nate's comments

[Kingofholland]

There remain some experienced olinemen available with some good career credentials if the oline isn't coming together as planned.

Personally I'm not reading much into Smith running with the 2nd team at first. Some coaches ease rookies in and make them earn that spot rather than handing it over. I'm sure he'll get work with the 1st team and unless he's still on the 2nd team at the end of camp I'm not worried.

 

[xwalker]

Yes, it appears you get caught up in the details and don't notice the big pick.

OL: Question: Did you notice those you named were all 1st rounders? We take guys w/ movement skills after the first rounds. They almost all flame out due to lack of power.

DL's:

Malik: Underpowered pass rusher
Hill: Complete project, w/ his ability to anchor at the NFL level a major question mark.

Osa n Galley were both taken lateley, where our DT drafting seems to have taken an upturn due to MM.

You specifically said they always want tall DTs. That was not correct.

1 OL maybe 2 in the past decade that struggled due to lack of power.

Connor Williams at OG.
I would like to have seen him at OT.

McGovern's issues are something else.
- Not wow power but decent.

 

[McKDaddy]

IMO the Cowboys have waited way too long to address the Tyron Smith situation. As great as #77 has been for so long, he has sadly turned into an occasionally good player that cannot consistently be counted on because of injuries. He hasn’t played a full season since 2015 and has missed a whopping 32 games since.

I know, many will point to his good games last year and his PFF rating which was good. But that doesn’t take into account his injury prone-ness or how poorly he played in the SF playoff game last January. It was probably Smith’s worst game of his career.

The LT position is arguably the 2nd or 3rd most important position on an NFL roster and we are still depending an a LT who cannot be depended upon any more.

Hey I love Tyron Smith. He is a borderline HOFer who IMO was THE BEST player we had from 2011-16. But he’s a shell of what he once was. And if we are depending on a talented but raw and untested rookie in Tyler Smith to be the LT when Tyron Smith is out…wow, that’s a big gamble.

This OL IMO is the key to this season. If it doesn’t get better than last year’s performance, this team is going nowhere.

I made many of these same points in an earlier thread. Tyron has been "that guy" and people still treat him as if he still is. But he isn't and that's the first step in an honest evaluation of your offensive line.

 

[JonesBoys]

IMO the Cowboys have waited way too long to address the Tyron Smith situation. As great as #77 has been for so long, he has sadly turned into an occasionally good player that cannot consistently be counted on because of injuries. He hasn’t played a full season since 2015 and has missed a whopping 32 games since.

I know, many will point to his good games last year and his PFF rating which was good. But that doesn’t take into account his injury prone-ness or how poorly he played in the SF playoff game last January. It was probably Smith’s worst game of his career.

The LT position is arguably the 2nd or 3rd most important position on an NFL roster and we are still depending an a LT who cannot be depended upon any more.

Hey I love Tyron Smith. He is a borderline HOFer who IMO was THE BEST player we had from 2011-16. But he’s a shell of what he once was. And if we are depending on a talented but raw and untested rookie in Tyler Smith to be the LT when Tyron Smith is out…wow, that’s a big gamble.

This OL IMO is the key to this season. If it doesn’t get better than last year’s performance, this team is going nowhere.

They knew o-line was a big issue at the end of the year. They really didn't do a lot to address it. Add in WR depth being a big issue for the first month or so, does anyone see this offense performing well out of the gate? I have low expectations of this offense.

 

[kskboys]

Rounds 1-4 are players that are supposed to make your team and contribute. Dallas usually goes 1 for 4. .250 at finding someone who can make the team and play at a NFL level. Too many wasted picks on if this guy wasn't hurt he would be a first rounder. If this guy wasn't a dope head he would have been x. If his guy didnt have a DV charge he would......
Jaylon. LVE. Gregory. Joseph. Ball.
I would never draft guys like that. ever.

Correct. Taking a shot on a player like that starts in the 4th.

 

[kskboys]

You specifically said they always want tall DTs. That was not correct.

1 OL maybe 2 in the past decade that struggled due to lack of power.

Connor Williams at OG.
I would like to have seen him at OT.

McGovern's issues are something else.
- Not wow power but decent.

Before recently, yes, it was. Do your research.

 

[xwalker]

Before recently, yes, it was. Do your research.

You're the one that failed to research.

I looked at the heights of interior DL drafted between 2006 and 2022.

Nothing pointed to a tendency towards players over 6-4.

 

[VaqueroTD]

They knew o-line was a big issue at the end of the year. They really didn't do a lot to address it. Add in WR depth being a big issue for the first month or so, does anyone see this offense performing well out of the gate? I have low expectations of this offense.

Worse case scenario

-Tyron out.
-McGovern picks up where he left off last year — struggling — as our rookie moves out to LT.
-Rookie Tyler Smith struggles mightily at LT where we learn quickly how much he got by in college on talent and not technique. Ball can’t cut it. Cowboys forced move Steele back there and pick up a midseason free agent for RT.
-THEN.. Zack or Biadasz goes down.

Best case scenario

-Rookie Smith stays and learns LG and gets by with some technique and coaching issues from his rawness.
-Tyron healthy all year but I’ll take misses 2-3 days and Ball proves able to handle it, Or blow me away, Our rookie can handle both roles, And McGovern shows us what he was at the beginning of last year.
-Steele’s confidence back at RT. Biadasz plays even better w experience and Smith next to him as the power horse.
- Zack’s older body holds up. Young guys stay lucky and healthy.

 

[Jfconrow]

At least they addressed the position in the draft. Going BPA at OL in the first and picking up an OT/Swing tackle. The only problem is lineman take a year or two to bulk up sometimes. Really the bigger problem I see is the teams inability to develop OL. If the guys a 1st round pick they seem to work out but no one else does. They tend to get late round DL to work out but the OL idk why they just can’t develop them.

I don’t get it strength training, technique, and practicing against a good DL but it doesn’t work. Maybe the problem lately is the DL didn’t have dominate DTs so it could be the practice competition wasn’t there.

 

[dmq]

I went into the draft this year realizing we couldn’t solve all our OL issues. I’ll be happy if Tyler Smith is a player and see what we can do in next years draft.

 

[Cowboys1fan]

Tretter? Anyone?

 

[DandyDon52]

It's not about any individual player we've taken, it's about passing up players that would've improved us instrumentally.

passing up players that would've improved us.......jones boys have done that for almost 30 years.
Some is obvious, but also hindsight is clearer than the time the picks are made.

 

[kskboys]

You're the one that failed to research.

I looked at the heights of interior DL drafted between 2006 and 2022.

Nothing pointed to a tendency towards players over 6-4.

So, you've been reduced to a YOU ARE type argument?

C'moooon. It's common knowledge that we took way too many slim pass rushers instead of good leverage guys.

 

[kskboys]

passing up players that would've improved us.......jones boys have done that for almost 30 years.
Some is obvious, but also hindsight is clearer than the time the picks are made.

Not w/ me. I only use guys I thought we should take, absolutely no hindsight.

 

[tyke1doe]

So zoners thought Tyron Smith was going to make it through this season?

 

[plasticman]

When you recently had an offensive line with three All Pros, one at each position of T, G, and C, there is really only one direction to go in changing the players.

The most important thing for an O-line is continuity....the same injury free five guys with the same OC for years.

 

[plymkr]

Anybody with a brain knows that the OL is an issue heading into this season.

We don't have brains on our FO, we have business men.

 

[Coogiguy03]

Was listening to a recent podcast of Hanging with the Boys and don't have a lot of confidence in our OLine after hearing Big Nate talk about it.

Nate was reporting about Tyron Smith already having back problems in training camp. Nate basically said if he's having it this early you can go ahead and assume he's missing significant games this year, which I agree with.

The crew started talking about Tyron's backup because we saw how much it hurt last year. They talked about Zack Martin's comment on Tyler Smith learning 2 positions as a rookie. Zack basically said that it's much easier to learn two positions on the same side instead of going back and forth because at least some of the technique stays the same. Newton doesn't sound too high on the remark though. Being practical, he said Zack is a once in a lifetime talent, was Pro Bowl caliber from day one, and what may look easy for Zack is not the same for Tyler. Much longer and funnier bit that Nate launches into on this and why so many superstars are not great coaches, but he's right. And this reminds me of a thread here asking if we should be worried that Smith wasn't on the starters practice team from day one, because that does worry me, and yes, Zack was on the first team from day one.

Didn't hear much good or bad about Tyler, just doesn't seem like Nate is sure he's the one at LT. The crew didn't sound very high on Josh Ball either. They didn't talk much about Connor McGovern either, at least not the parts I listened to. They were pretty much mocking our depth at offensive tackle right now. Nate's philosophy is that if the left tackle and center are not locked up, a team won't have much success, and can get by at the other positions on the line. His jokes about Dak better learning how to run again this year have me worried.

If you listen to Hanging With the Boys, Nate is always the practical one. He's not a homer like Irvin. He's not one of those guys who gets in the dumps like the rest of the media and fans. He keeps it light, practical and makes his predictions and observations like an everyday player using some good examples from his career or others to explain his points.

LINK BELOW if you want to listen to it. One of the better episodes I've listen to. It starts with a great tribute to MB3 from Jesse Holley. Some good stories about MB3 you don't hear.

Hangin' with the Boys: Remembering Marion (dallascowboys.com)

Micah started out with the backups last year

 

[ElGatoGrande]

They knew o-line was a big issue at the end of the year. They really didn't do a lot to address it. Add in WR depth being a big issue for the first month or so, does anyone see this offense performing well out of the gate? I have low expectations of this offense.

There's no sense of urgency with them this year and I believe it's because they don't see an immediate payoff. The team has too many issues to fix in one off-season so they'll just draft and take some flyers on guys, see who pans out, if they suck and get a higher draft pick they won't mind,,,, and if they still win this crap NFC East division they're okay with that too.

 

[GMO415]

He's always the practical one? He never picks the Cowboys to lose. Hahaha