The Cowboys, the offensive line and the draft...

[silverbear]

Basically, the Boys will be returning their top 9 offensive linemen, 3 of whom were Pro Bowlers... we're talking about Flozell Adams, Kyle Kosier, Andre Gurode, Leonard Davis, Marc Colombo, Pat McQuistan, Doug Free, James Marten and Corey Procter... as I said, Adams, Gurode and Davis were Pro Bowlers, and an argument could be made that Colombo deserved to be in Hawaii, too... beyond that, they're high on their three recent draft picks, McQuistan, Free and Marten...

As a result, the offensive line will not be a high priority in the draft... I don't look for the Boys to draft any blocker until the 5th round at the earliest... at the same time, though, you always want to keep bringing in new blood, and I'm not all that big on Kosier in the Cowboys' system... I'm also a little uneasy about the depth at center, not being sold on Procter as Gurode's backup...

So late in the draft, I could see the Boys taking a flyer on a big center/guard type... I say big because Hudson Houck likes his players big; remember the Shane Hannah and George Hegamin days??

So I've spent a coupla hours looking at offensive linemen who will likely either be drafted in the later rounds, or go undrafted altogether... I'm looking at linemen who go at least 315 pounds, 310 pounds for the centers, and players who run the 40 in at least 5.3 seconds, preferably better...

At this point, I have a list of 31 prospects who fit that description... I then went and boiled that list down further, to a baker's dozen that I find intriguing for one reason or another... these players are listed in the approximate order of their draft grades, but only the first 3 or 4 stand any real chance of being drafted late, IMO:

Fernando Velasco 6-3, 316 lbs. C/OG Georgia 5.1 sec. 40
Doug Legursky 6-3, 310 lbs. C Marshall 5.25 sec. 40
Brennan Carvalho 6-1, 316 lbs. C/OG Portland State 5.1 sec. 40
Robbie Krutilla 6-3, 325 lbs. C/OG Western Michigan 5.25 sec. 40

Brandon Barnes 6-2, 325 lbs. OG Grand Valley State 5.05 sec. 40
Pat Schwenke 6-5, 316 lbs. OG/OT West Texas A&M 5.25 sec. 40
Derrick Morse 6-4, 325 lbs. C/OG Miami 5.25 sec. 40
Andrew Bain 6-3, 325 lbs. OG Miami 5.25 sec. 40
Chester Adams 6-4, 330 lbs. OG Georgia 5.25 sec. 40
Cody Balogh 6-6, 316 lbs. OT Montana 5.25 sec. 40
Floyd Headen 6-5, 325 lbs. OT/OG West Texas A&M 5.2 sec. 40
David Perkins 6-1, 325 lbs. OG/C Toledo 5.3 sec. 40
Pat So'oalo 6-5, 340 lbs. OG Oregon 5.25 sec. 40

It seems to me that there are a lot of big centers available late this year-- Velasco, Legursky, Carvalho, Krutilla, Morse, all of them at least 310 pounds... I'd definitely advocate the Boys drafting a big center/guard type late, then adding a couple-three of the undrafted prospects from this list, just to throw into the OL mix in training camp...

My sleepers on this list are Barnes (got to love a guy who can run the 40 in just barely over 5 second flat, at 325 pounds), Headen and So'oalo...

 

[Biggems]

Question for you Silver..........any of these Centers have the ability to longsnap?

I would prefer to have one of our existing linemen be able to longsnap and not have to waste a position on a longsnapper. It would free up an opening for an extra DB, WR, or LB.

LP is good at what he does, but that is all he does. There are only 3 positions on the team where I want that to be all he does...QB, K, and P. Everyone else needs to be versatile enough to play at least one other position, if not two or three others.

 

[Ceasaleo88]

I thought the same thing too. Picking up a big, solid C/G type to groom as a replacement for Kosier in the late rounds somewhere. I had us picking Velasco in 6th in my 1st mock.
But the more I thought about, and after seeing the list u came up with, I more sure than ever that we won't draft any O-lineman. O lineman always seem to fall in the draft for whateva reason, so there are guys that every mock had going in the 4th or 5th round that don't get drafted at all. We'll get a couple of quality guys that fall through the cracks and bring em in as bodies in camp, maybe someone shows something.

 

[silverbear]

Question for you Silver..........any of these Centers have the ability to longsnap?

I honestly don't know... I've read the school bios of Velasco, Spieker and Legursky, and if any of them have, it's not mentioned in their bio...

I'll look a little further into this tonight at work... if I find any who have, I'll let you know in this thread...

I would prefer to have one of our existing linemen be able to longsnap and not have to waste a position on a longsnapper. It would free up an opening for an extra DB, WR, or LB.

I dunno, I like LaDouceur's reliability... you never notice he's there, which means he's doing his job well...

I like versatile players too, but if it ain't broke, and it ain't, don't fix it...

 

[Sasquatch]

Basically, the Boys will be returning their top 9 offensive linemen, 3 of whom were Pro Bowlers... we're talking about Flozell Adams, Kyle Kosier, Andre Gurode, Leonard Davis, Marc Colombo, Pat McQuistan, Doug Free, James Marten and Corey Procter... as I said, Adams, Gurode and Davis were Pro Bowlers, and an argument could be made that Colombo deserved to be in Hawaii, too... beyond that, they're high on their three recent draft picks, McQuistan, Free and Marten...

As a result, the offensive line will not be a high priority in the draft... I don't look for the Boys to draft any blocker until the 5th round at the earliest... at the same time, though, you always want to keep bringing in new blood, and I'm not all that big on Kosier in the Cowboys' system... I'm also a little uneasy about the depth at center, not being sold on Procter as Gurode's backup...

So late in the draft, I could see the Boys taking a flyer on a big center/guard type... I say big because Hudson Houck likes his players big; remember the Shane Hannah and George Hegamin days??

So I've spent a coupla hours looking at offensive linemen who will likely either be drafted in the later rounds, or go undrafted altogether... I'm looking at linemen who go at least 315 pounds, 310 pounds for the centers, and players who run the 40 in at least 5.3 seconds, preferably better...

At this point, I have a list of 31 prospects who fit that description... I then went and boiled that list down further, to a baker's dozen that I find intriguing for one reason or another... these players are listed in the approximate order of their draft grades, but only the first 3 or 4 stand any real chance of being drafted late, IMO:

Fernando Velasco 6-3, 316 lbs. C/OG Georgia 5.1 sec. 40
Doug Legursky 6-3, 310 lbs. C Marshall 5.25 sec. 40
Brennan Carvalho 6-1, 316 lbs. C/OG Portland State 5.1 sec. 40
Robbie Krutilla 6-3, 325 lbs. C/OG Western Michigan 5.25 sec. 40

Brandon Barnes 6-2, 325 lbs. OG Grand Valley State 5.05 sec. 40
Pat Schwenke 6-5, 316 lbs. OG/OT West Texas A&M 5.25 sec. 40
Derrick Morse 6-4, 325 lbs. C/OG Miami 5.25 sec. 40
Andrew Bain 6-3, 325 lbs. OG Miami 5.25 sec. 40
Chester Adams 6-4, 330 lbs. OG Georgia 5.25 sec. 40
Cody Balogh 6-6, 316 lbs. OT Montana 5.25 sec. 40
Floyd Headen 6-5, 325 lbs. OT/OG West Texas A&M 5.2 sec. 40
David Perkins 6-1, 325 lbs. OG/C Toledo 5.3 sec. 40
Pat So'oalo 6-5, 340 lbs. OG Oregon 5.25 sec. 40

It seems to me that there are a lot of big centers available late this year-- Velasco, Legursky, Carvalho, Krutilla, Morse, all of them at least 310 pounds... I'd definitely advocate the Boys drafting a big center/guard type late, then adding a couple-three of the undrafted prospects from this list, just to throw into the OL mix in training camp...

My sleepers on this list are Barnes (got to love a guy who can run the 40 in just barely over 5 second flat, at 325 pounds), Headen and So'oalo...

Good post. Couldn't agree more about the need to upgrade our backup center.

 

[ThatsmyQB]

Velasco would be my pick because of his size and his ability to not only play Center but can play Guard too!

A guy I like who is missing is Chris McDuffie, can play guard but also can backup the Center position as well, when you want a backup, you want VERSATILITY and he has it, oh and he's 6'-5 330.

 

[Manwiththeplan]

I would prefer to have one of our existing linemen be able to longsnap and not have to waste a position on a longsnapper. It would free up an opening for an extra DB, WR, or LB.

The problem with that is if your LS gets injured, we have the kicking debacle that was 00-02 (I believe it lasted about that long). I think many teams just have a guy who does this and nothing else. Not to mention they resigned LP to a 4 year deal which means they probably aren't looking to replace him.

 

[burmafrd]

Does Georgia have a good history of putting O linemen in the NFL?

I do like his size. I think the era of the 290 lb Center is gone; even 300 or 305 is not looking so good. I think 310-315 is the smallest you can go now and get the job done all the time.

 

[ThatsmyQB]

The problem with that is if your LS gets injured, we have the kicking debacle .

Not to mention we just resigned our LS to a 5 year deal!

 

[Manwiththeplan]

Not to mention we just resigned our LS to a 5 year deal!

lol, did you read my whole post? Cause I actually did mention it (although I thought it was only 4)

 

[silverbear]

Does Georgia have a good history of putting O linemen in the NFL?

They've had a few, but not too many... in the 80s and 90s, Guy McIntyre was a multiple time Pro Bowler... more recently, the Stinchcomb brothers (Matt and Jon) had some success in the NFL, and even more recently still, Max Jean-Gilles was a 4th round pick in the 2006 draft...

This year, I think that both Velasco and Chester Adams have the potential to be pretty good NFL linemen... I'm a little surprised that Adams doesn't carry a bit higher draft grade...