Cowboys fire OL coach Paul Alexander, name successor
ByPATRIK WALKER 14 minutes ago
Change has come for the Dallas Cowboys, at least in some capacity.
According to a statement from the team, offensive line coach Paul Alexander has been fired only seven games into his career with the Cowboys. Longtime assistant OL coach Marc Colombo has been named his successor. This hire was a mistake from the beginning, and the organization is wasting no time making it right. They'll also hire Hudson Houck, a man with a lot of OL coaching experience under his belt, to help Colombo with the transition.
After deciding to move on from Frank Pollack this past offseason, many thought the Cowboys would granted Colombo the lead position, but instead interviewed and subsequently hired former Alexander instead, essentially swapping bodies with the Bengals. It's clear the Cowboys were dead seat on change -- beneath their top three coaching positions, that is -- yet it's difficult to reconcile the decision to fire Pollack, who teaches the zone blocking scheme, for Alexander.
In his 23 years with the Bengals, Alexander has planted his feet firmly within the power blocking scheme, which creates immediate Day One issues in the Metroplex. The Cowboys' vaunted offensive line struggled to begin the 2017 season which more much more accountable to the failed Chaz Green experiment than anything else, and once former first-round pick Jonathan Cooper was (finally) given the post at starting left guard, the needle rapidly turned north for the unit. Although the corps can switch to a PBS (power blocking scheme) for short stretches of time, it's not what they've become accustomed to winning games in.
The Cowboys understand (understood?) this to now, which is why they've been all-in on grabbing running backs who are zone runners -- i.e., Ezekiel Elliott, Rod Smith, Alfred Morris -- while ultimately doing away with the only PBS runner on the team just a few weeks ago in Darren McFadden. With the latter now gone and possibly Morris, given the circumstances as well as his soon-to-be free agent status, it's possible the team sees this all as an opportunity to change direction and try something new.
The problem is it's historically difficult to morph a ZBS runner into one who does well in the PBS, and it's an issue furthered by the fact pro bowl linemen Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick and Zack Martin have all taken over the league at their respective position thanks to zone blocking. The perennial All-Pros will now be asked to do a 180-degree turn going into 2018, along with Elliott and R. Smith, which doesn't exactly invoke confidence as it relates to dominating to begin this coming season.
Simply put, this isn't what was broken -- so why try to fix it?
There's also the fact the Bengals' rushing attack has finished top-10 in yards per game only three times since the turn of the century, and here is a full-on view of they're rankings over the last 18 seasons in the category, working backwards from the early 2000's:
2nd, 18th, 21st, 13th, 17th, 11th, 26th, 24th, 29th, 9th, 27th, 19th, 18th, 18th, 6th, 13th, 13th, 31st (2017)
That's an average NFL ranking of 18th, which is hardly something to write home about. The Cowboys, for contrast, have been top 10 the last four seasons and top two in three of those four campaigns dating back to 2015 -- the season Pollack was promoted to offensive line coach.
Coincidence? Not at all.
Colombo will now get his shot to make things right in a season that's season All-Pro Tyron Smith take a step back, as well as right tackle La'El Collins.