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By Bob Sturm 5h ago
As we creep closer and closer to the opening of training camp, the 2018 season gets further and further away. There is something about the freshness of a new season that allows us to spring up with hope and optimism all over again. It also allows us to maintain a selective memory when it comes to certain things. This is the specific reason why I do an awful lot of my film study work during the following summer. I prefer to have all of the emotion washed away and just watch things for what they are. Details and arguments have been forgotten; now just pop in the tape of Week 5, and review it as if you never experienced it live. I realize there might be a better way to spend your summer, but you have me on this wall.
Regardless, as we get further and further away, it is interesting to examine the narratives believed by the masses about what went right and what went wrong last year. Of course, the hot-take targets who coach and quarterback this team supply plenty of material, but I like to dig just a bit deeper (as you may know). This is a crucial time for this franchise to get back in the Super Bowl hunt, as so much of the team is in its prime. Several profitable drafts in a row have provided a golden opportunity over the next two seasons before the team’s salary cap sheet will call for a roster overhaul, should you subscribe to the four-year conveyor belt theory of today’s NFL (and I definitely do).
Every time I examine this team’s current situation and what we expect of them in 2019, it’s clear so much rests on the offensive line and their performance. I believe that they have really let the organization down in the last few years, and that disappointment has not received enough of the spotlight. [HR][/HR]
Allow me to make a brief case – by my standards – before we talk about each individual below.
From 2014 through 2016, the Cowboys were a dominant bunch up front, spending most of those three seasons grounding and pounding just about anyone who stood in their path. 2016 was probably the best season of this era in terms of physical domination of the opponent, but 2014 wasn’t too shabby, either. 2015, of course, was a lost year based on the pulverizing of Tony Romo’s collarbone twice. But for the most part, that was a season where the offensive line demonstrated that nearly “anyone could rush behind that line and be successful” as Dallas still ran for 4.63 yards a carry despite trying to play the entire season without a passing threat at quarterback.
2017 was great until the second half of the season saw the suspension of Ezekiel Elliott coincide with the injury to Tyron Smith, the Chaz Green/Byron Bell stretch run and the dismissal of Frank Pollack as offensive line coach.
2018 never got close to off the ground, as Travis Frederick was lost for the year after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Connor Williams’ rookie year fell below expectations. Those two issues, combined with Tyron Smith trying to play hurt in the second half plus a disappointing campaign from La’el Collins, put the offensive line in a place where they seldom dominated any game all year.
The end result? They were overrun for an absurd number of sacks and penalties, with running game results that were “good” by normal standards but subpar by the group’s since its formation in 2014.
Here’s a thorough look at the last five years:
DALLAS COWBOYS OFFENSE, 2014-2018 ( scroll right to see full stats)
Season G Rush Att Rush Yds Rush Avg Rush TD Rush Long Rush/G Rush Yds/G Rush 1st Stuffed Stuff % Sacked
As you can see, the average numbers at the bottom exceed the 2018 production in pretty much every category (except negative metrics like stuffed runs and sacks). This was not a very good season from the offensive line.
Now, you can suggest that all of this was caused by easily explainable factors. There’s reason to believe things will revert to form in 2019. Still, we need to see it again. We just haven’t seen much of the utter domination that came in stretches like the physical butt-kickings of 2016, when this team walked into San Francisco, Green Bay, Cleveland and Pittsburgh in four consecutive road games and ran the ball for 170 yards per game at 4.9 a carry with a rookie quarterback (who was seldom sacked) and a rookie running back who was being fed, despite playing without an injured Dez Bryant for much of that stretch.
Of course, locking this big and nasty group down for their primes was a massive objective for the front office. As you can see here, nobody comes close to the nearly $61 million this team is spending up front – especially considering the 2019 cap is about $188 million. They had better be great.
SPOTRAC – TOP 5 OFFENSIVE LINE CAP DOLLARS – 2019
Unfortunately, they were not great by nearly any metric in 2018. Again, perhaps easily explainable, but if you followed my four-part sack series, I hope I convinced you that the lazy explanation of blaming Scott Linehan and Dak Prescott misses some clear and obvious cases when this offensive line had their lunches handed to them way too often. Even if you liberally assign 20 sacks to the QB and the scheme, that would hang nearly 40 on the offensive line themselves – way too many for what is supposed to be the best group in the league (or darn close).
Before I get into a few thoughts on each player from 2018 and moving forward, I want to also tell you that I am a very faithful follower of Movin’ the Chains on Sirius with Jim Miller and a guy I have admired for years, Pat Kirwan. They recently worked their way through the entire league, comprehensively discussing each and every one of the league’s 32 offensive line groups and ranking them going into this season. It is, of course, just opinion and subjectivity, but it was also thorough and reasoned. When they were done, they both felt very good about Dallas moving forward as their lists will attest below:
Can they get back there? A great deal rests on the return of Travis Frederick to his normal, dominant self. If he can, seemingly anything is possible. If he cannot, we might be chasing the ghosts of that day in Pittsburgh in 2016 forever. That group might not live here anymore. [HR][/HR]
Allow me to look at each player that played over 100 snaps in brief and summarize my thoughts on each player from their 2018 tape and what we might expect moving forward. I will move from left to right on the offensive line. I am not a big fan of report cards, but let me try to this June exercise anyway. Just know the grades are against their expectations, so a B for one guy is not necessarily better than a C for another.
2018 REPORT CARDS – COWBOYS OFFENSIVE LINE
LT TYRON SMITH: I already have written quite a bit about Tyron’s 2018 in his own specific piece, but in summary, know that I am still pretty high on the future of Tyron and believe that he has many good years to go. He was very good in 2018, but also missed time once again and that is not something we should just ignore. He also was hit with a team-high 10 penalties, including seven holding calls. None of that is worth blowing off, but I would say that three of the seven holds were in the Eagles game in Week 14 when he was quite hurt and trying to brave through it to help the Cowboys win the division that day. I certainly had issues with PFF claiming he didn’t give up a sack all year, as I charged him with three in 849 offensive snaps. He wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but the difference between what he does and the average NFL tackle is immense. So, grading him against himself is different than grading him against what the Giants have been playing at LT since his career started. There is nothing wrong with Tyron Smith in the past, present and future. 2018 Grade: B
LT CAM FLEMING: Fleming was brought over to offer some swing-tackle insurance after the Chaz Green incident and performed about how you might expect of a veteran third tackle. He was good in some small windows, but you don’t want him to play very often because he is pretty limited. He had to come on to finish the Atlanta game for Tyron, then Thanksgiving versus Washington, the New Orleans game, some mop-up late against the Colts and, finally, the full Giants game in Week 17. Fleming played 232 snaps in all and he really struggled in a few spots – especially being isolated against Olivier Vernon. 2018 Grade: C
LG CONNOR WILLIAMS: It was a very difficult task for this young and talented local product to roll in and handle a new position at the NFL level with no issues. It was also ridiculous for the front office to not even make him earn his starting spot by beating out anyone in camp. They basically named him the starter on draft night and then heaped praise on him in camp before the season started, and he was routinely outclassed by the NFL terrors at defensive tackle; terrors he was asked to deal with too soon. It started when Kawaan Short destroyed him in Week 1, and things did not improve substantially in his 505 snaps at LG over the first half of the season before he hurt his knee. Williams then watched for about six weeks, then returned at RG when Zack Martin took time off and displayed some improvement. He at least finished strong: His best football was against Seattle in the playoffs. To call 2018 a massive learning experience is an understatement. His newly added weight and projection at RT suggests he still has a very bright future on the perimeter, where he was good at Texas. I probably wouldn’t waste any more time trying him inside. He was overmatched, and between the seven sacks and five holding penalties in an abbreviated year, we can assume he might not be a guard moving forward. I would get him ready for right tackle even if he plays “swing” in 2019. 2018 Grade: D
LG XAVIER SU’A-FILO: When Connor Williams was hurt against Tennessee, Xavier stepped in the next week at Philadelphia and was really quite good, providing noticeable improvement in a very difficult spot. Things dissipated quickly from there, however, and it appeared he went from better to worse when his ankle was injured on Thanksgiving. He played through it, but his performance against the Saints was well below acceptable in any regard; he was no match for what the Saints threw at him. His courage and mettle were admirable, but he was run over pretty badly. In 494 snaps, Su’a-Filo allowed seven sacks – a very high number for a guard – and, combined with Connor Williams and Adam Redmond, Dallas left guards conceded 15.5 sacks, which must be some sort of NFL record for most allowed by a position that normally doesn’t concede many. There is no questioning his toughness, but his ankle did him in and it wasn’t pretty down the stretch. 2018 Grade: D-
From the sacks project, here were the sacks allowed by position in 2018:
C JOE LOONEY: Where would the Cowboys have been without Joe Looney in 2018? He was far from perfect, but in my study, I did not charge him for a single sack for a physical bust despite playing every single snap. Now, there is quite a discussion to have about how many of the blitzes that fooled the Cowboys protection were on his plate and something that Travis Frederick might have seen differently, but that’s difficult to say with certainty from the outside. He was charged for four holding penalties and served mainly as “help” with the guards. I think he was a major step down from Frederick when the team ran the ball, but at the same time gave them incredible play from a backup and he would be my top reserve on the interior until proven otherwise. 2018 Grade: B+
RG ZACK MARTIN: One of the best offensive linemen in the entire NFL for his entire five-year career, and 2018 was no different. Martin hurt his knee in the preseason (two straight years with a huge injury scare from Martin in August) and dealt with it the entire year, which is a really good excuse to not play him in the preseason again moving forward. But he battled through it, and while he did surrender a few sacks this year, they seemed to come in early December when he was playing on one leg. He then sat out a few games before the playoffs to try to get his knee right, but it still gave him issues all year. He is tough, his quality is high, won almost all of his battles with ease and, alongside Tyron, represents the least of the Cowboys’ worries. His work in pass protection is clinical and his run blocking is quite good, too. He definitely missed Frederick to his left, but there is a reason he is considered arguably the best guard in the sport. 2018 Grade: A-
RT LA’EL COLLINS: As I said in the sack study, this was a pretty disappointing year for Collins, who gave up an enormous number of pressures in protection all season long and was hit with nine sacks according to my accounting. I have been a pretty big believer that Collins is the best LG on the Cowboys roster the last few years, but they tried to make him a serviceable right tackle, instead, to plug a hole they’ve have had since Doug Free retired. Collins has been serviceable, for sure, but 2018 was a step backwards. According to PFF, nobody in the NFL gave up more pressures among the 25 players who played the most at right tackle in 2018, and only Cincinnati’s Bobby Hart allowed more sacks. On top of that, Collins also had seven holding calls against him. All of this while making a very healthy wage. He was durable and I am a big believer in his talent, but he needs to be better than he was. 2018 Grade: C-
Moving forward, I would strongly consider playing Connor McGovern at LG and letting Connor Williams spend this season preparing to take over for Collins at RT for 2020. Then, with Frederick back at center, I have Joe Looney as cover for McGovern if there is a developmental issue there (although, from his tape at Penn State, I believe he is several steps ahead of where Williams was when trying to learn the position as a rookie.)
It will be interesting to see if the Cowboys coaching staff sees things my way at all. We will know soon enough.
By Bob Sturm 5h ago
As we creep closer and closer to the opening of training camp, the 2018 season gets further and further away. There is something about the freshness of a new season that allows us to spring up with hope and optimism all over again. It also allows us to maintain a selective memory when it comes to certain things. This is the specific reason why I do an awful lot of my film study work during the following summer. I prefer to have all of the emotion washed away and just watch things for what they are. Details and arguments have been forgotten; now just pop in the tape of Week 5, and review it as if you never experienced it live. I realize there might be a better way to spend your summer, but you have me on this wall.
Regardless, as we get further and further away, it is interesting to examine the narratives believed by the masses about what went right and what went wrong last year. Of course, the hot-take targets who coach and quarterback this team supply plenty of material, but I like to dig just a bit deeper (as you may know). This is a crucial time for this franchise to get back in the Super Bowl hunt, as so much of the team is in its prime. Several profitable drafts in a row have provided a golden opportunity over the next two seasons before the team’s salary cap sheet will call for a roster overhaul, should you subscribe to the four-year conveyor belt theory of today’s NFL (and I definitely do).
Every time I examine this team’s current situation and what we expect of them in 2019, it’s clear so much rests on the offensive line and their performance. I believe that they have really let the organization down in the last few years, and that disappointment has not received enough of the spotlight. [HR][/HR]
Allow me to make a brief case – by my standards – before we talk about each individual below.
From 2014 through 2016, the Cowboys were a dominant bunch up front, spending most of those three seasons grounding and pounding just about anyone who stood in their path. 2016 was probably the best season of this era in terms of physical domination of the opponent, but 2014 wasn’t too shabby, either. 2015, of course, was a lost year based on the pulverizing of Tony Romo’s collarbone twice. But for the most part, that was a season where the offensive line demonstrated that nearly “anyone could rush behind that line and be successful” as Dallas still ran for 4.63 yards a carry despite trying to play the entire season without a passing threat at quarterback.
2017 was great until the second half of the season saw the suspension of Ezekiel Elliott coincide with the injury to Tyron Smith, the Chaz Green/Byron Bell stretch run and the dismissal of Frank Pollack as offensive line coach.
2018 never got close to off the ground, as Travis Frederick was lost for the year after being diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome and Connor Williams’ rookie year fell below expectations. Those two issues, combined with Tyron Smith trying to play hurt in the second half plus a disappointing campaign from La’el Collins, put the offensive line in a place where they seldom dominated any game all year.
The end result? They were overrun for an absurd number of sacks and penalties, with running game results that were “good” by normal standards but subpar by the group’s since its formation in 2014.
Here’s a thorough look at the last five years:
DALLAS COWBOYS OFFENSE, 2014-2018 ( scroll right to see full stats)
| 2014 | 16 | 508 | 2354 | 4.63 | 16 | 65 | 31.8 | 147.1 | 106 | 48 | 9.4 | 30 |
| 2015 | 16 | 408 | 1890 | 4.63 | 8 | 50 | 25.5 | 118.1 | 94 | 39 | 9.6 | 33 |
| 2016 | 16 | 499 | 2396 | 4.8 | 24 | 60 | 31.2 | 149.8 | 142 | 40 | 8 | 28 |
| 2017 | 16 | 480 | 2170 | 4.52 | 18 | 70 | 30 | 135.6 | 127 | 39 | 8.1 | 32 |
| 2018 | 16 | 439 | 1963 | 4.47 | 13 | 41 | 27.4 | 122.7 | 113 | 42 | 9.6 | 56 |
| Totals | 80 | 2334 | 10773 | 4.62 | 79 | 70 | 29.2 | 134.7 | 582 | 208 | 8.9 | 179 |
As you can see, the average numbers at the bottom exceed the 2018 production in pretty much every category (except negative metrics like stuffed runs and sacks). This was not a very good season from the offensive line.
Now, you can suggest that all of this was caused by easily explainable factors. There’s reason to believe things will revert to form in 2019. Still, we need to see it again. We just haven’t seen much of the utter domination that came in stretches like the physical butt-kickings of 2016, when this team walked into San Francisco, Green Bay, Cleveland and Pittsburgh in four consecutive road games and ran the ball for 170 yards per game at 4.9 a carry with a rookie quarterback (who was seldom sacked) and a rookie running back who was being fed, despite playing without an injured Dez Bryant for much of that stretch.
Of course, locking this big and nasty group down for their primes was a massive objective for the front office. As you can see here, nobody comes close to the nearly $61 million this team is spending up front – especially considering the 2019 cap is about $188 million. They had better be great.
SPOTRAC – TOP 5 OFFENSIVE LINE CAP DOLLARS – 2019
Unfortunately, they were not great by nearly any metric in 2018. Again, perhaps easily explainable, but if you followed my four-part sack series, I hope I convinced you that the lazy explanation of blaming Scott Linehan and Dak Prescott misses some clear and obvious cases when this offensive line had their lunches handed to them way too often. Even if you liberally assign 20 sacks to the QB and the scheme, that would hang nearly 40 on the offensive line themselves – way too many for what is supposed to be the best group in the league (or darn close).
Before I get into a few thoughts on each player from 2018 and moving forward, I want to also tell you that I am a very faithful follower of Movin’ the Chains on Sirius with Jim Miller and a guy I have admired for years, Pat Kirwan. They recently worked their way through the entire league, comprehensively discussing each and every one of the league’s 32 offensive line groups and ranking them going into this season. It is, of course, just opinion and subjectivity, but it was also thorough and reasoned. When they were done, they both felt very good about Dallas moving forward as their lists will attest below:
I share that with you because I do value their opinion and know they aren’t looking for clicks or opinion nonsense you find elsewhere. They really do believe the Cowboys still have an elite offensive line unit, and I agree with them. But the downturn over the last 24 or so games has been disconcerting and maybe even a bit unnoticed amidst all of the talk about Jason Garrett and Dak Prescott when the Cowboys are covered nationally. If ever a story was going to go under-reported, it might be that a mighty offensive line has not been so mighty in recent times. Surely, if anyone spent time watching it carefully, they would see that employing three different offensive line coaches in 12 months is never a good sign, either. It has been a while since Bill Callahan was credited with helping turn this group into the mightiest bulldozer in the league.Can they get back there? A great deal rests on the return of Travis Frederick to his normal, dominant self. If he can, seemingly anything is possible. If he cannot, we might be chasing the ghosts of that day in Pittsburgh in 2016 forever. That group might not live here anymore. [HR][/HR]
Allow me to look at each player that played over 100 snaps in brief and summarize my thoughts on each player from their 2018 tape and what we might expect moving forward. I will move from left to right on the offensive line. I am not a big fan of report cards, but let me try to this June exercise anyway. Just know the grades are against their expectations, so a B for one guy is not necessarily better than a C for another.
2018 REPORT CARDS – COWBOYS OFFENSIVE LINE
LT TYRON SMITH: I already have written quite a bit about Tyron’s 2018 in his own specific piece, but in summary, know that I am still pretty high on the future of Tyron and believe that he has many good years to go. He was very good in 2018, but also missed time once again and that is not something we should just ignore. He also was hit with a team-high 10 penalties, including seven holding calls. None of that is worth blowing off, but I would say that three of the seven holds were in the Eagles game in Week 14 when he was quite hurt and trying to brave through it to help the Cowboys win the division that day. I certainly had issues with PFF claiming he didn’t give up a sack all year, as I charged him with three in 849 offensive snaps. He wasn’t perfect by any stretch, but the difference between what he does and the average NFL tackle is immense. So, grading him against himself is different than grading him against what the Giants have been playing at LT since his career started. There is nothing wrong with Tyron Smith in the past, present and future. 2018 Grade: B
LT CAM FLEMING: Fleming was brought over to offer some swing-tackle insurance after the Chaz Green incident and performed about how you might expect of a veteran third tackle. He was good in some small windows, but you don’t want him to play very often because he is pretty limited. He had to come on to finish the Atlanta game for Tyron, then Thanksgiving versus Washington, the New Orleans game, some mop-up late against the Colts and, finally, the full Giants game in Week 17. Fleming played 232 snaps in all and he really struggled in a few spots – especially being isolated against Olivier Vernon. 2018 Grade: C
LG CONNOR WILLIAMS: It was a very difficult task for this young and talented local product to roll in and handle a new position at the NFL level with no issues. It was also ridiculous for the front office to not even make him earn his starting spot by beating out anyone in camp. They basically named him the starter on draft night and then heaped praise on him in camp before the season started, and he was routinely outclassed by the NFL terrors at defensive tackle; terrors he was asked to deal with too soon. It started when Kawaan Short destroyed him in Week 1, and things did not improve substantially in his 505 snaps at LG over the first half of the season before he hurt his knee. Williams then watched for about six weeks, then returned at RG when Zack Martin took time off and displayed some improvement. He at least finished strong: His best football was against Seattle in the playoffs. To call 2018 a massive learning experience is an understatement. His newly added weight and projection at RT suggests he still has a very bright future on the perimeter, where he was good at Texas. I probably wouldn’t waste any more time trying him inside. He was overmatched, and between the seven sacks and five holding penalties in an abbreviated year, we can assume he might not be a guard moving forward. I would get him ready for right tackle even if he plays “swing” in 2019. 2018 Grade: D
LG XAVIER SU’A-FILO: When Connor Williams was hurt against Tennessee, Xavier stepped in the next week at Philadelphia and was really quite good, providing noticeable improvement in a very difficult spot. Things dissipated quickly from there, however, and it appeared he went from better to worse when his ankle was injured on Thanksgiving. He played through it, but his performance against the Saints was well below acceptable in any regard; he was no match for what the Saints threw at him. His courage and mettle were admirable, but he was run over pretty badly. In 494 snaps, Su’a-Filo allowed seven sacks – a very high number for a guard – and, combined with Connor Williams and Adam Redmond, Dallas left guards conceded 15.5 sacks, which must be some sort of NFL record for most allowed by a position that normally doesn’t concede many. There is no questioning his toughness, but his ankle did him in and it wasn’t pretty down the stretch. 2018 Grade: D-
From the sacks project, here were the sacks allowed by position in 2018:
C JOE LOONEY: Where would the Cowboys have been without Joe Looney in 2018? He was far from perfect, but in my study, I did not charge him for a single sack for a physical bust despite playing every single snap. Now, there is quite a discussion to have about how many of the blitzes that fooled the Cowboys protection were on his plate and something that Travis Frederick might have seen differently, but that’s difficult to say with certainty from the outside. He was charged for four holding penalties and served mainly as “help” with the guards. I think he was a major step down from Frederick when the team ran the ball, but at the same time gave them incredible play from a backup and he would be my top reserve on the interior until proven otherwise. 2018 Grade: B+
RG ZACK MARTIN: One of the best offensive linemen in the entire NFL for his entire five-year career, and 2018 was no different. Martin hurt his knee in the preseason (two straight years with a huge injury scare from Martin in August) and dealt with it the entire year, which is a really good excuse to not play him in the preseason again moving forward. But he battled through it, and while he did surrender a few sacks this year, they seemed to come in early December when he was playing on one leg. He then sat out a few games before the playoffs to try to get his knee right, but it still gave him issues all year. He is tough, his quality is high, won almost all of his battles with ease and, alongside Tyron, represents the least of the Cowboys’ worries. His work in pass protection is clinical and his run blocking is quite good, too. He definitely missed Frederick to his left, but there is a reason he is considered arguably the best guard in the sport. 2018 Grade: A-
RT LA’EL COLLINS: As I said in the sack study, this was a pretty disappointing year for Collins, who gave up an enormous number of pressures in protection all season long and was hit with nine sacks according to my accounting. I have been a pretty big believer that Collins is the best LG on the Cowboys roster the last few years, but they tried to make him a serviceable right tackle, instead, to plug a hole they’ve have had since Doug Free retired. Collins has been serviceable, for sure, but 2018 was a step backwards. According to PFF, nobody in the NFL gave up more pressures among the 25 players who played the most at right tackle in 2018, and only Cincinnati’s Bobby Hart allowed more sacks. On top of that, Collins also had seven holding calls against him. All of this while making a very healthy wage. He was durable and I am a big believer in his talent, but he needs to be better than he was. 2018 Grade: C-
Moving forward, I would strongly consider playing Connor McGovern at LG and letting Connor Williams spend this season preparing to take over for Collins at RT for 2020. Then, with Frederick back at center, I have Joe Looney as cover for McGovern if there is a developmental issue there (although, from his tape at Penn State, I believe he is several steps ahead of where Williams was when trying to learn the position as a rookie.)
It will be interesting to see if the Cowboys coaching staff sees things my way at all. We will know soon enough.
