Why do analysts keep talking about the best five guys on the line?

[wick]

This is such a wrong-headed approach to the offensive line. You should not seek to get your five best guys on the field. You should instead seek to get your best offensive line on the field. Right now, Phil Costa may well be one of Dallas' five best linemen. But there's simply no question that Dallas' best offensive line is one with Travis Frederick at center. I fail to see how you are a better team by making sure your five best players are on the field if it doesn't result in the best offensive line you can roll out. "Your five best" is such an inane thing to say, but I have read it countless times this preseason.

 

[MichaelWinicki]

This is such a wrong-headed approach to the offensive line. You should not seek to get your five best guys on the field. You should instead seek to get your best offensive line on the field. Right now, Phil Costa may well be one of Dallas' five best linemen. But there's simply no question that Dallas' best offensive line is one with Travis Frederick at center. I fail to see how you are a better team by making sure your five best players are on the field if it doesn't result in the best offensive line you can roll out. "Your five best" is such an inane thing to say, but I have read it countless times this preseason.

Well yeah.

You have the two best tackles, the two best guards and the best center.

It would be like talking about the skill positions on offense and saying that you're taking the "Best 6" to the huddle.

 

[mrmojo]

[qagree"wick, post: 5137534, member: 538"]This is such a wrong-headed approach to the offensive line. You should not seek to get your five best guys on the field. You should instead seek to get your best offensive line on the field. Right now, Phil Costa may well be one of Dallas' five best linemen. But there's simply no question that Dallas' best offensive line is one with Travis Frederick at center. I fail to see how you are a better team by making sure your five best players are on the field if it doesn't result in the best offensive line you can roll out. "Your five best" is such an inane thing to say, but I have read it countless times this preseason.[/quote]


I agree because each offensive line position has a different skill set....the difference between left and right tackle is huge. That's why it is so impressive what Larry Allen did in his HOF career. I say leave Frederick at center he has been very impressive there and go fund a right guard.

 

[nathanlt]

I agree. By moving Frederick to guard, Dallas offensive line gets worse. They play a rookie out of his natural position, and expect the line to gel????

 

[Sinister]

First of all Costa is not one of the five best lineman on this team. Nothing will convince me of that. He was getting pushed around by the Raiders second team...yeesh.

Second I think in theory of course you want your five best lineman, but for the most part players have different strengths and weakness and players have to complement those strengths and weaknesses or 'gel' with the players next to them as those above have stated.

I hate the thought of Costa playing center and Frederick playing guard, but they have to prepare for the worst case scenario. Injuries destroyed this line last year and I think they want a little gelling between those two just in case.

 

[reddyuta]

Costa is a JAG,i think this is his last season here.We will probably draft another guard next year to solidify the line.

 

[Eskimo]

I think they bring it up because the question arises as to whether we are better with TFred and Center and Mack at RG or are we better with Costa at Center and TFred at RG.

The math might be: (TFred(C) - Costa (C)) + (Mack(OG) - TFred (OG))

If you think the value above is greater than zero than you go with the present lineup. If you think it is negative than you go with the alternative lineup.

One big worry I have with everyone saying TFred looks much better at Center than RG is how much of it has to do with stamina. Many comments were made about his college tape and how dominant he would look in the first half and how sloppy he would look in the second half. Maybe that is the discrepancy we see in his play. I really hope that is not the case.

Regardless, I am very happy with TFred at Center and believe now that we should just proceed with him at Center and try to find the best OG we can afford to put beside him. As this is a SB contending team I would be okay with spending money on Waters if he were a difference maker. I am far from convinced that he is going to walk in off the streets and be a better player at his age than Mack, Arkin, Killer and Livings, though. Missing football for a year really seems to do something bad to older players. They never seem to recover their functional strength and quickness again even if they look great in the gym.

I still contend not bringing in Holland last year was a huge mistake. I think we probably would have made the playoffs with Holland subbing in for Mack in the first half of the year and Livings for the second half of the year. The only time we ran the ball well in the last two years was when he was on the field between Free and Costa in 2011. That is when Murray tore up the league and we made our move up into first place in the division. Unfortunately he got hurt at the end of the year and that was a big loss but he should have been recovered by the start of 2012 and apparently had continued on with his conditioning program that got him back on the team in 2011.

I am still not confident in Waters but I really do not want to see Derrick Dockery in our uniform ever again.

 

[Alexander]

First of all Costa is not one of the five best lineman on this team. Nothing will convince me of that. He was getting pushed around by the Raiders second team...yeesh..

And it was not once or twice either. I do not care what Broaddus keeps repeating about his charm in the zone scheme, he cannot handle power if the player across from him elects to simply go right into his body. He is not a lot different from Arkin in that regard. If things do not break perfectly and he counters with great technique, he can look really bad, very quick.

 

[TwoDeep3]

I agree. By moving Frederick to guard, Dallas offensive line gets worse. They play a rookie out of his natural position, and expect the line to gel????

I totally disagree with this assessment.

If Freddie is better at guard than Bernadeau, and makes that position more solid, and Costa can handle center, that is better than Freddie at center and a guard that doesn't get it done.

Still lots of football before this is determined.

 

[Sinister]

And it was not once or twice either. I do not care what Broaddus keeps repeating about his charm in the zone scheme, he cannot handle power if the player across from him elects to simply go right into his body. He is not a lot different from Arkin in that regard. If things do not break perfectly and he counters with great technique, he can look really bad, very quick.

I think of Arkin as a poor mans Costa, haha.

I don't hate Costa either. I don't think he is garbage. I root like hell for him, but he is just not consistent enough. One series he'll play OK, then the next series he gets pushed into the backfield every other play. I don't know if he can ever be a consistent presence on the line because he lacks the strength to recover from technique/leverage mistakes.

 

[Alexander]

I think of Arkin as a poor mans Costa, haha.

I don't hate Costa either. I don't think he is garbage. I root like hell for him, but he is just not consistent enough. One series he'll play OK, then the next series he gets pushed into the backfield every other play. I don't know if he can ever be a consistent presence on the line because he lacks the strength to recover from technique/leverage mistakes.

He is what he appears to be. A solid backup center in this league. He should not be part of anyone's "best five". If that is the case, you have a problem.

 

[nathanlt]

I totally disagree with this assessment.

If Freddie is better at guard than Bernadeau, and makes that position more solid, and Costa can handle center, that is better than Freddie at center and a guard that doesn't get it done.

Still lots of football before this is determined.

Well, if you have lineman who get thrown into the backfield, moving them to center certainly isn't going to help them anchor and prevent getting blown up in the backfield. Frederick is terrific at making line calls and even calls for the secondary. That is not replaceable.

Staggering your best lineman helps in pass pro. Smith, Leary, Frederick, weak guard TBD, and Free is decent enough. Pulling the weak guard may not help, unless he's supposed to block a corner, LB or safety in the process. The run game will hurt if Dallas does not find a solution to that guard spot. Don't move Frederick, then Dallas will have a weak center instead of a strong and smart one. A weak center making poor calls results in the whole line being worse off.

 

[jobberone]

Well, injuries happen. If the RG goes down then right now I'm move Fred to RG and Costa to C. At that point that would be the best five.

 

[TwoDeep3]

Well, if you have lineman who get thrown into the backfield, moving them to center certainly isn't going to help them anchor and prevent getting blown up in the backfield. Frederick is terrific at making line calls and even calls for the secondary. That is not replaceable.

Staggering your best lineman helps in pass pro. Smith, Leary, Frederick, weak guard TBD, and Free is decent enough. Pulling the weak guard may not help, unless he's supposed to block a corner, LB or safety in the process. The run game will hurt if Dallas does not find a solution to that guard spot. Don't move Frederick, then Dallas will have a weak center instead of a strong and smart one. A weak center making poor calls results in the whole line being worse off.

If you are basing this off last year, then maybe we should give this experiment a chance before you assume this new zone blocking won't help Costa.

I'm for the best line possible and don't give a rat's ankle who their names are. But I also believe you have to to experiment with all options and sometimes think outside of the box to get this done.

I want p[lay-off victories and am not really too concerned with how they arrive and by whom.

 

[big dog cowboy]

I really do not want to see Derrick Dockery in our uniform ever again.

I'll 2nd that. We need to move forward.

 

[JoeyBoy718]

This is like cornerbacks and safeties, in my opinion. Carr is a great CB in this league. He also has the ability to play S. He is a far better CB than S though. That's like plugging in Carr at S because he is better than Will Allen, then playing Scandrick at CB. Is a lineup of CB Claiborne/Scandrick & S Carr/Church really better than CB Carr/Claiborne & S Church/Allen????

The answer is No, because CB is a more important position than S. You want your CB situation maximized. You also want your C position maximized because C is more important than RG.