The trouble with the hole at guard

[InmanRoshi]

It's interesting how people think it's just standard that good NFL teams are well above average at all 5 OL positions. It speaks to how little people follow the NFL outside of the Cowboys.

 

[bayeslife]

the only people who said that guard is not a problem are those that somehow have the idea that a good O line is a luxury we cannot afford.

And what's wrong with that philosophy? You don't need an elite O-line to win, and you certainly don't need to break the bank on a freaking guard.

 

[Risen Star]

Right now one might arguably conclude that there is a reasonable expectation that we can get adequate play at four of the five offensive line spots. I think that is a fair assumption (regardless if it turns out to be accurate or not).

There seems to be a vast difference in opinion about how good we are at the 5th spot which at this point is the guard opposite of Leary. Many posters seem satisfied with Arkin. I'm not really sold on him, but more importantly, the Cowboys don't seem satisfied with him either (and the rest of the guards) since they seem to be in the market for a starter.

I think if you're being honest, you really can't expect adequate play from 4 of the 5 spots. You can count on Tyron Smith being solid. Frederick's a rookie. Despite what I think of him I can not expect him to not go through rookie growing pains. Leary will be a first year starter. Nobody knows what we have there. Barring a vet signing, the other G spot will be up for grabs amongst a case of misfits. Doug Free has been exposed as a pretty bad player once the training wheels came off and he was asked to earn his money.

That's not to say all 4 positions will fail this year but they certainly are all question marks going into the season.

 

[5Stars]

As it turned out we could have traded back and still got DeCastro. But as they say ...." if a worm had a machine gun the birds wouldn't eat him".

lmao...

I have been on this planet for many, many years, and I have never heard that before. lol

Did you just make that up?

 

[cowboys2233]

lmao...

I have been on this planet for many, many years, and I have never heard that before. lol

Did you just make that up?

It's a strange analogy, doesn't seem to make sense. Besides, what is a worm going to do with a machine gun? That fool ain't got no trigger fingers!

 

[5Stars]

It's a strange analogy, doesn't seem to make sense. Besides, what is a worm going to do with a machine gun? That fool ain't got no trigger fingers!

lmao....!

 

[cowboys2233]

But as they say ...." if a worm had a machine gun the birds wouldn't eat him".

C'mon, man!

 

[jobberone]

Broaddus has always been high on Bernadeau. No idea why.

Because he has the potential to be great. He's not great. He's marginally average. But if you watch the guy play he'll blow you over with some of the plays he makes. He'll deflate you with some, too. The rest are ho hum. So I'm not on his band wagon....rarely am anyone....but I see what Callahan see's in this guy. I'm just not close enough or smart enough to tell you why he can't be consistently better.

 

[burmafrd]

And what's wrong with that philosophy? You don't need an elite O-line to win, and you certainly don't need to break the bank on a freaking guard.

show me where I said anything about elite? Or is it you just cannot read?

 

[Risen Star]

And what's wrong with that philosophy? You don't need an elite O-line to win, and you certainly don't need to break the bank on a freaking guard.

What's wrong with the philosophy that we can't afford a good OL?

Did you just ask that?

Give me that "freaking" G over the high priced irrelevant CB any day.

 

[Idgit]

And what's wrong with that philosophy? You don't need an elite O-line to win, and you certainly don't need to break the bank on a freaking guard.

Exactly. And you can develop a decent OG relatively affordably, and you can cover up for limitations at RG if you have to. There are a lot of competitive teams with similar holes in their rosters.

 

[5Stars]

What's wrong with the philosophy that we can't afford a good OL?

Did you just ask that?

Give me that "freaking" G over the high priced irrelevant CB any day.[/quote]

I really wish you would look up the word "irrelevant", because you really don't know the meaning of the word!

I guess when the Cowboys signed Deion Sanders that helped the Cowboys win a SB , instead of signing him they should have signed the best guard in the NFL and they would have still won a SB?

 

[superpunk]

Honestly we could hate the rest of what we have on the line and still be trying to upgrade. We aren't trying to keep water in we're trying to keep it out, so as many holes as you can plug is good no matter how many holes there are oh no I've lost the bucket analogy...

 

[bayeslife]

What's wrong with the philosophy that we can't afford a good OL?

Did you just ask that?

Give me that "freaking" G over the high priced irrelevant CB any day.

There's almost 0 difference in the impact of a game between an "okay" guard and a great guard that costs way more money. It's obviously not a position you can completely neglect, but it's money better spent elsewhere if you can manage to get mediocre to good performance at that spot. The offense didn't under-perform last year because of the lack of great guard play.

 

[jobberone]

I think if you're being honest, you really can't expect adequate play from 4 of the 5 spots. You can count on Tyron Smith being solid. Frederick's a rookie. Despite what I think of him I can not expect him to not go through rookie growing pains. Leary will be a first year starter. Nobody knows what we have there. Barring a vet signing, the other G spot will be up for grabs amongst a case of misfits. Doug Free has been exposed as a pretty bad player once the training wheels came off and he was asked to earn his money.

That's not to say all 4 positions will fail this year but they certainly are all question marks going into the season.

You may be right or not. I think it more fair to say the OL has more than one question mark. You and I just disagree on Free so I'll just say let's agree to that. There are people who have some credit that Free is not a bad player, he has some technique issues (I'd add he's adequately but not overlay strong), and he's doing well with the new ZBS. He'll still have some problems with his hands IMO but he should do better than last year when he was in the 30-40th percentile.

Smith wasn't a lot better but he's stronger and just needs more playing time esp with the move (which applies to Free as well). I expect those two tackles to be adequate.

Center will be ok nothing more than that. And yes Fred will have his rookie share of growing pains. He needs to practice against Ratliff BTW. He'll grow as the year goes by.

I agree that LG will also have some growing issues if it's Leary.

I'm not that worried about RG just a little. I think Bernie will be at least average esp with better overall OL play and esp with a stronger C by him and Free doing better. He needs reps with the ZBS and the other guys.

I like the competition although I'm with you in that I'd like more experience. There are a lot of questions. We agree there.

 

[jobberone]

Honestly we could hate the rest of what we have on the line and still be trying to upgrade. We aren't trying to keep water in we're trying to keep it out, so as many holes as you can plug is good no matter how many holes there are oh no I've lost the bucket analogy...

I'm not sure if this is good for either of us but I followed that ok.

 

[cowboysooner]

We have 2 guys who aren't healthy and none of their replacements have nfl experience. Costa is currently the best mixture of health and experience on the interior but that requires moving your first round pick out of his best chance of success. Getting one healthy experienced piece out of the 3 interior spots would help greatly

I'm not completely ruling out Moore changing his mind because he changed it before.

 

[SWG9]

Exactly. And you can develop a decent OG relatively affordably, and you can cover up for limitations at RG if you have to. There are a lot of competitive teams with similar holes in their rosters.

Other teams might be able to develop guards relatively cheaply and easily, but Dallas isn't one of them. I would have provided the complete list of failed Cowboys' guards over the last 15-20 years, but I started projectile vomiting around Cory Proctor.

The list is literally Larry Allen and no one else. To put it into perspective, second place is a tie between Matt Lehr and Solomon Page. It's that ugly.

 

[SWG9]

There's almost 0 difference in the impact of a game between an "okay" guard and a great guard that costs way more money. It's obviously not a position you can completely neglect, but it's money better spent elsewhere if you can manage to get mediocre to good performance at that spot. The offense didn't under-perform last year because of the lack of great guard play.

But we're not getting okay play at OG. We're getting negative play, we have been for years, and it absolutely is a gigantic factor in the team underperforming on offense.

We cannot run in short yardage situations; the Commanders literally ran the exact same A Gap blitz over and over and we couldn't handle it. How is this not a huge problem?

 

[Nirvana]