Projected 2014 starters: Dallas Cowboys

[RoyTheHammer]

Kinda disappointing to hear that Martin is penciled in as the RG. I would hope that we didn't spend our #16 overall selection on a RG. LG, that would be OK but you should be able to find RGs all through the draft. OTs and LG, even Centers, not so much.

I always found this argument to be silly. Who cares what side of the line they play on? I heard people say this about Smith when we drafted him too. Honestly though, if we take a RT or RG in the top 15 picks and they turn out to be multiple time Pro Bowl and All Pro players.. i'll take that everytime.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Watching Detroit. He just let Fairley plow Romo on a quick move. He has been about 50% getting blocks on the second level. Gave up another pressure to Fairley and was on the ground. that was our first two series.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Third series and now Frederick is helping on Fairley. They screwed up a line stunt and tagged Romo. Leary blocked inside and Fairley looped to the outside for a free shot.

 

[RS12]

No. We are talking about the logic being employed.

You are free to take the Coaches word over mine or anybodies. I trust you realize the reverse is also true.

I would, however, point out that taking Martin at 16 is not what disappoints me. Not giving him the opportunity at LG, where I believe he could do the most good, is what disappoints me.

I really wonder what the plan was if they would have pulled off the Trai Turner trade.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Fairley sheds him to make the tackle but goes down on the play. It was a 5 yard gain but that was because Fairley could only hit Randle due to the injury. Leary put on his butt by the backup two plays later. Fred still helping Leary. Leary fails to execute the cutoff and is on the ground.

Leary was godawful in the first half of the Lions game.

 

[xwalker]

I am talking about when he is supposed to come off the ball and try and cut off the mike from pursuit. Fred can single block the NT or Smith down especially when they are not at the point of attack which allows the guards to pursue targets on the second level. Leary is very poor.

Leary against quickness is always worrisome.

I don't know why he is playing LG frankly. Seems more sensible to have him on the power side and not dealing with one on ones on under tackles. He can dominate when asked to drive straight ahead. On the goal line when you need guys to get low and a yard of push, he performs like a champ. He is just limited.

I am going to watch the Detroit and KC games to see how he does against top interior line play.

I don't remember when those games were played, but you need to watch games in the 2nd half of the season. The later the better as he improved as the season progressed.


I remember Fred and the OL struggling with Poe in KC.

 

[xwalker]

Zach Martin may be the best OLiineman Dallas has on the Field.

That is a meaningless statement.

Clowney "might" be the best DE in the league OR he might be average.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

I don't remember when those games were played, but you need to watch games in the 2nd half of the season. The later the better as he improved as the season progressed.


I remember Fred and the OL struggling with Poe in KC.

I have watched the last three games of the season. I wanted to see what went wrong. I just watched him get dominated in Detroit now.

Leary has been good for a QB sack or hit per game. I am sorry but I do not want him matching up with pass rushing DT because he struggled with it even at the end. He not only missed blocks but completely whiffed and allowed Romo to get blasted. If any one lineman was responsible for Romo getting injured it was Leary.

He allowed Romo to get hit on the last drive of the third quarter against GB and Romo got the yips concerning pressure up through the Washington game. If Romo saw anything coming over LG he was throwing the ball away.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Watching the Bears game. Leary gives up another hit on Romo in hte first play of the second quarter. Blocks inside and completely whiffs again. When a guy does the same thing over and over and over again it is troubling. Maybe the coaching sucks but he is clueless in pass protection and its a huge problem.

OTOH, Bernadeau is dominant in the running game. He has cleared the point of attack multiple times for huge gains for Murray.

Scandrick is playing awful. He was the one they targeted for these large receivers so far in the first half. He played poorly against Green Bay. There are breakdowns in zone coverage all over the place. They go into their drops but seem to have no conception of what to look for so as to attack routes. Heath and Webb fail in the corner of the end zone to end the half.

Carter and Scandrick attack throws and cause incompletions but Sean Lee goes down.

Leary fails to reach the WLB on stretch left and Murray is cut off from the corner. Romo is inaccurate and three and out.

Bruce Carter makes another play for a PD. But the Bears go to work on Nevis Irvin Lawrence and Hayden in the run game. Scandrick misses the tackle and into the end zone and the rout is on. Need a 2 pt conversion? Throw into Heath's zone!

Bernadeau gives up a sack to Ratliff and it is garbage time.

 

[jobberone]

Zach Martin may be the best OLiineman Dallas has on the Field.

And you may be right. I think most rookies aren't quite prepared for the NFL but there are exceptions. Hopefully he's one of them. He's certainly going to give the other guards some competition.

 

[jobberone]

I am talking about when he is supposed to come off the ball and try and cut off the mike from pursuit. Fred can single block the NT or Smith down especially when they are not at the point of attack which allows the guards to pursue targets on the second level. Leary is very poor.

Leary against quickness is always worrisome.

I don't know why he is playing LG frankly. Seems more sensible to have him on the power side and not dealing with one on ones on under tackles. He can dominate when asked to drive straight ahead. On the goal line when you need guys to get low and a yard of push, he performs like a champ. He is just limited.

I am going to watch the Detroit and KC games to see how he does against top interior line play.

Mack is probably the strongest guy on the line. When he's playing good technique and using his feet properly he is impressive. He's getting better albeit slowly. He played better last year and both guards played better in the second half of the year. I think they have Mack on the right because he can help Free out the most in the running game. Neither Leary or Mack are consistent enough for me nor do they play at the second level that well or get out on the edge. They are getting better and the competition this year at guard will get interesting IMO.

I also think Waters played on the right to stabilize Fred and Free leaving Leary at LG. When Waters went down they left Leary in place and just put Mack at RG where he's played before. The footwork is different left and right and players get comfortable with who they line up with. So leaving Leary there was the right choice for those reasons. He's not a mobile guard and neither is Mack. I don't think Martin will be either but he may be better than any of the other guards.

 

[CashMan]

Zach Martin may be the best OLiineman Dallas has on the Field.

Over Smith?!?

 

[ABQCOWBOY]

I always found this argument to be silly. Who cares what side of the line they play on? I heard people say this about Smith when we drafted him too. Honestly though, if we take a RT or RG in the top 15 picks and they turn out to be multiple time Pro Bowl and All Pro players.. i'll take that everytime.

In most Offenses, the Right Guard is usually the bigger, stronger of the two Guard positions and is more capable of matching up one on one. Generally, the RG is not asked to pull or reach two the second level nearly as much. Also, defensively, the speed guy is typically on the weak side or the Left DE. This is where you see more stunts and twists because it's already problematic to get a speed edge rusher blocked. The Offense accounts for that guy so the more times you can create confusion in the blocking scheme on that side of the ball, the more success you might have in getting pressure. That is why the Left Guard is generally more mobile then the RG. It does make a difference. If you have a player who has the ability to pull and lead, who is quicker, then that is Generally the LG. Martin is exactly that guy for us. He is more mobile and quicker then either Bern or Leary. This is why the discussion of which side he best fits is important. I agree, he can play either and is a Pro Bowler then it doesn't matter, if you also have a very capable guy who is already playing LG. We don't have that IMO. I believe that both Bern and Leary are two slow to play LG. It makes more sense to me to use Leary as the primary backup and let the best two Guards Start. I believe that would be Bern on the Right and Martin on the Left.

 

[xwalker]

I have watched the last three games of the season. I wanted to see what went wrong. I just watched him get dominated in Detroit now.

Leary has been good for a QB sack or hit per game. I am sorry but I do not want him matching up with pass rushing DT because he struggled with it even at the end. He not only missed blocks but completely whiffed and allowed Romo to get blasted. If any one lineman was responsible for Romo getting injured it was Leary.

He allowed Romo to get hit on the last drive of the third quarter against GB and Romo got the yips concerning pressure up through the Washington game. If Romo saw anything coming over LG he was throwing the ball away.

There was no other way for Leary to block that play against GB. Fred is too late to get back for #50 and Leary has to block him. If he let him go any earlier to pick up #52, then #50 is free. That play failed because Fred gave too much help to Bern who didn't appear to need it.

 

[xwalker]

Watching the Bears game. Leary gives up another hit on Romo in hte first play of the second quarter. Blocks inside and completely whiffs again. When a guy does the same thing over and over and over again it is troubling. Maybe the coaching sucks but he is clueless in pass protection and its a huge problem.

The 1st play of the 2nd quarter in the Bears game, the Bears had 7 men on the line as possible rushers. Tyron took the outside guy and Leary took the next guy over. The RB was in place for the 3rd guy over. Tyron's man dropped back into coverage and Leary's man crossed over to the outside. Leary and Tyron executed that played exactly as required. The RB (Randle) had a terrible block. Fred got pancaked by his man. Leary almost got back over to clean up Fred's mistake.

I assume that your using the All-22 to review these games, because the 2nd angle is much better then the original camera angle. Leary executed that play exactly as intended.

Leary fails to reach the WLB on stretch left and Murray is cut off from the corner. Romo is inaccurate and three and out.

Which quarter and series. I'll review this one.

 

[xwalker]

Mack is probably the strongest guy on the line. When he's playing good technique and using his feet properly he is impressive. He's getting better albeit slowly. He played better last year and both guards played better in the second half of the year. I think they have Mack on the right because he can help Free out the most in the running game. Neither Leary or Mack are consistent enough for me nor do they play at the second level that well or get out on the edge. They are getting better and the competition this year at guard will get interesting IMO.

I also think Waters played on the right to stabilize Fred and Free leaving Leary at LG. When Waters went down they left Leary in place and just put Mack at RG where he's played before. The footwork is different left and right and players get comfortable with who they line up with. So leaving Leary there was the right choice for those reasons. He's not a mobile guard and neither is Mack. I don't think Martin will be either but he may be better than any of the other guards.

Have you reviewed them on the All-22? I think you would be surprised at how well Leary was playing near the end of the season.

I normally respect Fuzzy's analysis because unlike many posters, I think he actually watches the games; however, these posts in regards to Leary are just not correct, IMO.

 

[BlindFaith]

I think that if you put Smith, Martin and Fredbeard all on the same side, you create a situation where you can run on anybody at any time. If you put him on the right side with Free, not so much.

Free graded out to be our best run blocker and one of the better run blockers in the league. Free has more issues with pass blocking.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

The 1st play of the 2nd quarter in the Bears game, the Bears had 7 men on the line as possible rushers. Tyron took the outside guy and Leary took the next guy over. The RB was in place for the 3rd guy over. Tyron's man dropped back into coverage and Leary's man crossed over to the outside. Leary and Tyron executed that played exactly as required. The RB (Randle) had a terrible block. Fred got pancaked by his man. Leary almost got back over to clean up Fred's mistake.

I assume that your using the All-22 to review these games, because the 2nd angle is much better then the original camera angle. Leary executed that play exactly as intended.


Which quarter and series. I'll review this one.

Sorry but doubling down on the inside to help on the NT while the other guy loops into the hole leaving the RB on an island for pass protection is not 'how it supposed to work.' At best, you have no way of knowing that assignment but helping and complete abandoning your assignment is not the way to go. It is the RB job to help and if he does help then he still needs to cover that gap. It was a stunt and he compounded failure with more failure.

 

[xwalker]

Sorry but doubling down on the inside to help on the NT while the other guy loops into the hole leaving the RB on an island for pass protection is not 'how it supposed to work.' At best, you have no way of knowing that assignment but helping and complete abandoning your assignment is not the way to go. It is the RB job to help and if he does help then he still needs to cover that gap. It was a stunt and he compounded failure with more failure.

I don't know which play you're referring to. In the play involving the RB, Leary was not "doubling down" on the NT. He was blocking to the outside. The RB had the 3rd guy.

In the GB game, Leary was doubling on the NT, but Leary was the primary blocker on that defender with Fred 1st helping Bern and then coming back to the double with Leary.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

In most Offenses, the Right Guard is usually the bigger, stronger of the two Guard positions and is more capable of matching up one on one. Generally, the RG is not asked to pull or reach two the second level nearly as much. Also, defensively, the speed guy is typically on the weak side or the Left DE. This is where you see more stunts and twists because it's already problematic to get a speed edge rusher blocked. The Offense accounts for that guy so the more times you can create confusion in the blocking scheme on that side of the ball, the more success you might have in getting pressure. That is why the Left Guard is generally more mobile then the RG. It does make a difference. If you have a player who has the ability to pull and lead, who is quicker, then that is Generally the LG. Martin is exactly that guy for us. He is more mobile and quicker then either Bern or Leary. This is why the discussion of which side he best fits is important. I agree, he can play either and is a Pro Bowler then it doesn't matter, if you also have a very capable guy who is already playing LG. We don't have that IMO. I believe that both Bern and Leary are two slow to play LG. It makes more sense to me to use Leary as the primary backup and let the best two Guards Start. I believe that would be Bern on the Right and Martin on the Left.

That is a veryy good assessment of the difference between the two. I agree with you that Martin should probably be on the left side, i was just saying it shouldn't matter what side he plays in regards to where he was drafted because i think if you get a Pro Bowl player for any of the starting 22 positions on the field, i'd take them as a top 15 pick anyday. So in that regard i don't care if he plays left or right guard, as long as he plays it at a very high level. As far as scheme fit for him, you'd probably be correct in saying he'd be better used at LG.

Hope that makes sense.