MacMahon: New locker spotlights Tyron Smith's status

Cotton

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New locker spotlights Tyron Smith's status

December, 7, 2013

By Tim MacMahon | ESPNDallas.com


IRVING, Texas -- The location of Tyron Smith's new locker at the Dallas Cowboys' Valley Ranch practice facility says a lot about how the franchise views the 22-year-old left tackle.

Smith moved this week to the locker formerly occupied by defensive tackle Jay Ratliff. It's noteworthy because that stall is one of six that border the exits in the locker room, and coach Jason Garrett has strategically tried to put team leaders in those lockers because they are the highest trafficked areas in the room.

OK, so that didn't work out real well with Ratliff, who now plays for the Chicago Bears after a rather bitter departure from Dallas in October. But the other players in the exit lockers -- Tony Romo, Sean Lee, Jason Witten, DeMarcus Ware and Doug Free -- set examples that Garrett wants the rest of the Cowboys to follow.

"An NFL locker room is a sacred place, and there are things that are controlled in there," said Witten, who is now Smith's neighbor in the locker room. "Tyron has earned that. That's something that he deserves. If you look around our football team, he's a guy that plays at a high level and expects everyone else to as well. I think that's a good thing to have him there."

Garrett has been effusive in his praise for Smith recently, saying the third-year tackle is performing at a Pro Bowl level. Smith's new real estate in the locker room is evidence that the coaches consider him a leader despite the fact that he's younger than every player on the team with the exception of most rookies.

"Ain't there yet," Smith said. "I'm trying to get there."
 

Genghis Khan

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Free. :lol

We intentionally set up Free and Ratliff as team leaders. Even this year, when it was obvious Ratliff was loafing, barely played the past couple seasons, didnt play particularly well and didn't want to Play here, and Free was so bad the past couple years he had to take a huge pay cut.

We sure know how to run a team.
 

jester

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These seemingly small items that make me a fan of Garrett's approach. His Win to Loss ratio doesn't speak well enough of him and really is an issue that needs to be resolved.
 

jester

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Free. :lol

We intentionally set up Free and Ratliff as team leaders. Even this year, when it was obvious Ratliff was loafing, barely played the past couple seasons, didnt play particularly well and didn't want to Play here, and Free was so bad the past couple years he had to take a huge pay cut.

We sure know how to run a team.
Far too often great performers get elevated to leadership status despite not really displaying leadership qualities simply by play on the field alone. Dome guys are locker room kinda guys but don't have the talent on the field.
 

jester

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...was not a leader.
True , not in conventional sense. But my point is that a scrub impacted the team's culture. The Rudy analogy is an argument subject to interpretation of the cinematic theme.

But more to the point of being a leader on a team if you are teh suck sounds like a contradiction but it happens. There are guys who take the proper approach, well liked, trusted or whatever that draw people to listen and are influenced by even if they are not the top performers. There are people who are naturally gifted at performing their craft and simply lead by example. Sure if you are the best on the team at your position, people tend to look up to you. But the leadership aspect imho can be defined by asking, is his approach one that I can follow to achieve succcess, and that isn't simply defined by who does well and who doesn't.
 

superpunk

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Rat was as good a leader as we could have on this team until he got into whatever he got into contractually with Jerry. And a consistent performer. Free is the bigger head scratcher.
 
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