State of OL

[gimmesix]

They got lucky health-wise. They were 1 injury away from Phil Costa starting. If a Guard got injured, Costa would probably be the Center with Fred moving to Guard.

True to an extent, but they did have one injury and that's why Bernadeau ended up starting. Parnell is good depth at tackle, but the center/guard depth can definitely be improved if Waters doesn't return. Something tells me that Dallas will keep his number readily available to call him out of retirement again if necessary.

 

[Bowdown27]

Way more important positions to focus on then oline in the first 3 rounds of the draft. The defense was the worst in cowboys history. If we don't use the first 3 rounds to change our defense this board will blow its roof off.

 

[jterrell]

Again, I'd love to have Pro Bowl at every spot on the depth chart but it doesn't work like that.

In the grand scheme of things Dallas has to rate its OL amongst its highest positional groupings.

It would be great to grab a value draft pick that can bolster the depth but no where near as critical as addressing all the guys who are currently starting at other positions that shouldn't be playing in the NFL or will not be back on this roster.

Dallas knows it is bringing back it's top 7 or 8 OL. It 'can' bring back Waters.
With Waters the depth chart is pretty friggin studly.

t. smith weems
leary bern
fred bern costa
waters, bern
free parnell

Remove Free and you are still better than just about anywhere else on this team.

Compare that to DB:
Carr
Claiborne
Scandrick
Moore
Webb

make a solid CB group

but Safety is

Church
Heath Wilcox (the ghost of matt johnson)
wow that's awful.
truly awful.

DL is so up in the air because Hatcher and Spencer are FA and Ware is owed a crapton.
Remove them and that group is:
Selvie
Crawford, Bass
Hayden
??

I mean that's as far as I can even get.

WR is: (and still probably not a priority of any kind)
Dez
TWill
Beasley
Harris --best special teamer
no one.

RB --workable but no one is envious.
Murray --10 game Murray
Dunbar
Randle

LB
wow, not even sure where to start....
SLB: Wilber
MLB: Lee
WLB: Carter
Holloman is probably the 4th LB.
Presumably Sims and Durant are gone.
Lawrence and those guys have to be gone. They are simply not NFL caliber football players.

 

[TwoDeep3]

Last yr at this time people were saying the OL had to be blown up. Jerry Jones had destoryed everything blah blah blah. Dallas made 1 change in the offseason drafting Fredrick and signed Waters during the season.

Tyron, Free, stayed where they were. Leary had spent his rookie yr developing. Seems the talent they said he had wasnt overrated. Leary from the start of camp showed he was going to start. He started out slow with a injury but came back and ended up 990 of Dallas' 997 offensive plays. All this from a guy who didnt get drafted because they said his knee wouldnt hold up.

It showed what happens when an OL can play the season together without injuries issues. Here are the total snap counts for OL players. total offensive naps the Cowboys had this yr was 997

Doug Free 997
Travis Fredrick 997
Tyron Smith 995
Ronald Leary 990
Mackenzie Bernadeau 675
Brian Waters 329
Jeremy Parnell 20
Phil Costa 1

Its clear continuity can do alot for a core. Four OL with 990 plays or more out of 997 is a great.

This OL was fixed with little change just alot of development and alot of healthy players being on the field instead of in the trainers room.

Fixed is a bold statement.

 

[Risen Star]

Fixed is a bold statement.

It's not fixed but it wasn't a weakness last year. You can't, however, count on either G spots to produce the same next year and the depth is laughably bad.

Both lines should be consistently emphasized going forward.

 

[TwoDeep3]

It's not fixed but it wasn't a weakness last year. You can't, however, count on either G spots to produce the same next year and the depth is laughably bad.

Both lines should be consistently emphasized going forward.

Adequate with an aging quarterback coming off two back surgeries isn't good enough.

 

[rwalters31]

Last yr at this time people were saying the OL had to be blown up. Jerry Jones had destoryed everything blah blah blah. Dallas made 1 change in the offseason drafting Fredrick and signed Waters during the season.

Tyron, Free, stayed where they were. Leary had spent his rookie yr developing. Seems the talent they said he had wasnt overrated. Leary from the start of camp showed he was going to start. He started out slow with a injury but came back and ended up 990 of Dallas' 997 offensive plays. All this from a guy who didnt get drafted because they said his knee wouldnt hold up.

It showed what happens when an OL can play the season together without injuries issues. Here are the total snap counts for OL players. total offensive naps the Cowboys had this yr was 997

Doug Free 997
Travis Fredrick 997
Tyron Smith 995
Ronald Leary 990
Mackenzie Bernadeau 675
Brian Waters 329
Jeremy Parnell 20
Phil Costa 1

Its clear continuity can do alot for a core. Four OL with 990 plays or more out of 997 is a great.

This OL was fixed with little change just alot of development and alot of healthy players being on the field instead of in the trainers room.

Yes, the OL injuries were down this year and the run game did benefit from it but the pass defense against good defenses was average and got our QB killed. We need very good guards still but poor drafting now has made the DL a real need. Lots of lineman are needed if we are to get out of the 8-8 record. The rest of the needs outside of lineman will have to wait until the next year. Just hope the new draft guy does a good job.

 

[reddyuta]

the line is not "fixed",one injury and we are back to t-rex Costa and parnell.We need to draft a OG in the first three rds.

 

[burmafrd]

Again, I'd love to have Pro Bowl at every spot on the depth chart but it doesn't work like that.

In the grand scheme of things Dallas has to rate its OL amongst its highest positional groupings.

It would be great to grab a value draft pick that can bolster the depth but no where near as critical as addressing all the guys who are currently starting at other positions that shouldn't be playing in the NFL or will not be back on this roster.

Dallas knows it is bringing back it's top 7 or 8 OL. It 'can' bring back Waters.
With Waters the depth chart is pretty friggin studly.

t. smith weems
leary bern
fred bern costa
waters, bern
free parnell

Remove Free and you are still better than just about anywhere else on this team.

Compare that to DB:
Carr
Claiborne
Scandrick
Moore
Webb

make a solid CB group

but Safety is

Church
Heath Wilcox (the ghost of matt johnson)
wow that's awful.
truly awful.

DL is so up in the air because Hatcher and Spencer are FA and Ware is owed a crapton.
Remove them and that group is:
Selvie
Crawford, Bass
Hayden
??

I mean that's as far as I can even get.

WR is: (and still probably not a priority of any kind)
Dez
TWill
Beasley
Harris --best special teamer
no one.

RB --workable but no one is envious.
Murray --10 game Murray
Dunbar
Randle

LB
wow, not even sure where to start....
SLB: Wilber
MLB: Lee
WLB: Carter
Holloman is probably the 4th LB.
Presumably Sims and Durant are gone.
Lawrence and those guys have to be gone. They are simply not NFL caliber football players.

anytime someone puts in the garbage about pro bowl at every position I know the rest of the post is not worth a bucket of warm spit

 

[jterrell]

It's not fixed but it wasn't a weakness last year. You can't, however, count on either G spots to produce the same next year and the depth is laughably bad.

Both lines should be consistently emphasized going forward.

Went from a bottom 5 OL to a top 10 OL.
No point arguing semantics but the OL is not a problem area in 2014.
On the current roster is it is arguably the best positional group.

Having a man crush on OL doesn't change any of those facts.

It is hilarious to posit we can't count on the OG we have repeating their performance even though they are young to prime age; yet we can somehow count on a draftee we've never even seen as a rookie?

 

[burmafrd]

lets see

We have one guard who has been up and down like a yo yo his entire career. Yet you think he will be consistent.

We have another guard that has knees with an expiration date on them- we just do not know when.

Yeah really good stuff there.

 

[theSHOW]

I'm expecting a backup G drafted in the mid to late rounds. That's it.

I like to see your mid to late round and raise it to a 1st to 3rd.

 

[theSHOW]

Again, I'd love to have Pro Bowl at every spot on the depth chart but it doesn't work like that.

In the grand scheme of things Dallas has to rate its OL amongst its highest positional groupings.

It would be great to grab a value draft pick that can bolster the depth but no where near as critical as addressing all the guys who are currently starting at other positions that shouldn't be playing in the NFL or will not be back on this roster.

Dallas knows it is bringing back it's top 7 or 8 OL. It 'can' bring back Waters.
With Waters the depth chart is pretty friggin studly.

t. smith weems
leary bern
fred bern costa
waters, bern
free parnell

Remove Free and you are still better than just about anywhere else on this team.

Compare that to DB:
Carr
Claiborne
Scandrick
Moore
Webb

make a solid CB group

but Safety is

Church
Heath Wilcox (the ghost of matt johnson)
wow that's awful.
truly awful.

DL is so up in the air because Hatcher and Spencer are FA and Ware is owed a crapton.
Remove them and that group is:
Selvie
Crawford, Bass
Hayden
??

I mean that's as far as I can even get.

WR is: (and still probably not a priority of any kind)
Dez
TWill
Beasley
Harris --best special teamer
no one.

RB --workable but no one is envious.
Murray --10 game Murray
Dunbar
Randle

LB
wow, not even sure where to start....
SLB: Wilber
MLB: Lee
WLB: Carter
Holloman is probably the 4th LB.
Presumably Sims and Durant are gone.
Lawrence and those guys have to be gone. They are simply not NFL caliber football players.

Nice breakdown. So the obvious needs in FA and Draft are 4 dline 2-3 linebackers 2 safety's and 1 guard. Hoping QB is healthy.

 

[FuzzyLumpkins]

Mack had the starting job in Carolina and lost it due to the same reasons that has made him a questionable starter in Dallas. He is inconsistent and plays soft. It has been this way his whole career. Injuries were a small problem compared to his on-field problems. He played well in spurts this year, but I don't trust him to play that way all the time.

That and he got hurt in the preseason the year before he signed with us.

Cool story nonetheless.