Ex-Cowboys scout: How Dallas could keep Doug Free and sign Eric Winston
Staff reports
After picking just one linemen during last month's NFL Draft, the Dallas Cowboys are still trying to cobble together an offensive line competent enough to protect Tony Romo, their $108-million man at quarterback.
For now, the biggest question seems to be at right tackle, where six-year veteran Doug Free struggled mightily last season. If Free doesn't take a pay cut, the Cowboys are almost certain to cut him loose, but while the team awaits resolution, the few remaining options on the free agent market are getting scooped up.
Free agent tackle Tyson Clabo signed with the Dolphins over the weekend, leaving Eric Winston as the only prominent free agent tackle left available. But former Cowboys scout Glenn "Stretch" Smith recently told 103.3 KESN-FM that Clabo's deal may have been irrelevant to the Cowboys because they simply didn't like him.
"What I’m hearing out there is that they really didn’t want Tyson Clabo," Smith said. "A lot of people had him as the highest-rated tackle. The people at Valley Ranch think Eric Winston is the more athletic of the two tackles that were available through free agency."
Smith told, who worked for the Cowboys during the Chan Gailey and Dave Campo eras, told the station that Cowboys personnel thought Clabo wore down during the end of his last season with Atlanta and that he looked "old" and "slow." The team liked Winston better as a result, and Winston's Texas roots make him a good fit for Dallas.
"He’s a kid from Midland, Texas. I think he wants to be a Cowboy," Smith said. "Now, it just becomes a question of dollars and cents with will Doug Free take and accept a pay cut?"
But even if Free agrees to reduce his salary to stay with the Cowboys, Smith said the team could still find a way to fit Winston into the fold by moving Free inside to guard. Free's lack of lateral speed wouldn't be as much of a problem on the interior line, but some have wondered if his height would be a hindrance for Free while trying to drive block defensive tackles in the running game.
Smith doesn't have those concerns.
"The difference with him being 6’8” is he’s not a long, lower-body kid. When you get in trouble inside at 6'8" is when you can’t sit and you can’t anchor," Smith said. "When you’re real low and guys can pick you up and get up under your pads and you can’t play with that leverage, Doug Free is not that way. He’s kind of like [Jonathan] Ogden used to be. He’s a 6'8" kid, but he’s not all legs, and he can anchor a little bit inside. I don’t think this would be a give-up situation at all to move him to guard."
