Scout's Notebook: 5 Best Linemen; Webb Improving

[pancakeman]

If Leary can't be back for game 1, who do you think will be at L guard and who at R guard?

 

[xwalker]

If Kowalski can stay healthy he has at least shown he can more than hold his own against a good defense, which is a lot more than you can say about Arkin.

Kowalski has barely played and that was against 2nd/3rd string defenders.

 

[IrishAnto]

Kowalski has barely played and that was against 2nd/3rd string defenders.

You seem to forget his second half (overtime) performance in 2011 against the 49’ers who are rumoured to have a pretty salty defense and I also believe later that same campaign he played significant snaps against the Giants whose defense is not too shabby either.

In both instances he more than held his own.
Tell me what Arkin has done when games actually count?

 

[bayeslife]

I agree. I don't think Broaddus is a true scout. Decent reporter, but I think in the end you gotta give it to Arkin. It's his 3rd year ad he's at least coming on.

lolwut, you don't "gotta give it" to anyone, it's whoever is better. It doesn't matter how much Arkin is coming on, Bern is still better.

 

[jterrell]

i thought free looked terrible at rg but it was his first time playing there.
i think he is simply not built to be an rg but whatever, that position is an issue either way.

bern is a solid OG when healthy but he's barely been healthy.

dallas has invested thousands of reps in Arkin.
he looks vastly improved so i'd give him a long look tonight.
he may be one of few players who tonight matters for.
if he can't contribute this year it is time to move on.

the irony of course is he'd be picked up immediately and end up starting 3 or 4 years someone else....

 

[CowboyMcCoy]

lolwut, you don't "gotta give it" to anyone, it's whoever is better. It doesn't matter how much Arkin is coming on, Bern is still better.

I think Arkin is already better and will be better in time.

To each his own, I guess.

I don't see what you guys are seeing with Arkin and why you think he's so bad.

 

[IrishAnto]

I think Arkin is already better and will be better in time.

To each his own, I guess.

I don't see what you guys are seeing with Arkin and why you think he's so bad.

I don't think the coaches view him as good enough otherwise I don't think Free is moved to RG and Bern to LG.

 

[RoyTheHammer]

I think Arkin is already better and will be better in time.

To each his own, I guess.

I don't see what you guys are seeing with Arkin and why you think he's so bad.

We took our starting RT, who was playing well all preseason for us, and moved him to RG for the forseeable future, moving our starting RG to LG because of injury.

 

[xwalker]

You seem to forget his second half (overtime) performance in 2011 against the 49’ers who are rumoured to have a pretty salty defense and I also believe later that same campaign he played significant snaps against the Giants whose defense is not too shabby either.

In both instances he more than held his own.
Tell me what Arkin has done when games actually count?

Prior to training camp I thought that Kowalski would significantly outperform Arkin based on what Kowalski did in 2011 and what Arkin has not done.

Unfortunately, Kowalski didn't look good in the Blue/White scrimmage and then got injured. He looked fairly good against the Bengals 2nd/3rd string, but that does not tell me much.

Arkin has played more this preseason and has played some against first string defenders. His quality of play has been similar to Kowalski's play against the Bengals 2nd/3rd sting defenders.

There just is not much evidence that Kowalski is better than Arkin at this point. It's possible that he is, but I have not seen any evidence of it. I can't give the past (2011) much weight in the evaluation because Kowalski has had multiple injuries since then. Some players don't fully recover from Ankle injuries and that type of thing. See Lissemore who's speed/quickness seems to have disappeared after multiple ankle injuries.

At this point I would just keep both of them and put Livings on IR or designated-for-return-IR.

I think either Arkin or Kowalski could get the team through a game as a backup. Neither are ever going to be as good at run blocking at Leary, IMO. Free also looked stronger at Guard than either Arkin or Kowalski which was a shock to me because Free looked very weak at RT last season.

 

[IrishAnto]

Prior to training camp I thought that Kowalski would significantly outperform Arkin based on what Kowalski did in 2011 and what Arkin has not done.

Unfortunately, Kowalski didn't look good in the Blue/White scrimmage and then got injured. He looked fairly good against the Bengals 2nd/3rd string, but that does not tell me much.

Arkin has played more this preseason and has played some against first string defenders. His quality of play has been similar to Kowalski's play against the Bengals 2nd/3rd sting defenders.

There just is not much evidence that Kowalski is better than Arkin at this point. It's possible that he is, but I have not seen any evidence of it. I can't give the past (2011) much weight in the evaluation because Kowalski has had multiple injuries since then. Some players don't fully recover from Ankle injuries and that type of thing. See Lissemore who's speed/quickness seems to have disappeared after multiple ankle injuries.

At this point I would just keep both of them and put Livings on IR or designated-for-return-IR.

I think either Arkin or Kowalski could get the team through a game as a backup. Neither are ever going to be as good at run blocking at Leary, IMO. Free also looked stronger at Guard than either Arkin or Kowalski which was a shock to me because Free looked very weak at RT last season.

The bottom line is that Arkin has never taken a single snap in a meaningful game in his NFL career and you can’t just dismiss what Kowalski did in 2011 because he had two injuries since then.

Trying to link what you speculate might be the problem with Lissemore and Kowalski is tenuous at best.

Arkin has probably over the last two years taken more snaps in training camp/ preseason games than anybody else but despite the problems we’ve had on the OL not once has he been put into a meaningful game.

That should tell you a lot about what the coaches think of his game.