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By Bob Sturm
Dec 13, 2022
The Cowboys have enjoyed spectacular continuity along the offensive line this year.
Yes, there is no doubt that having Tyron Smith in his familiar left tackle spot all season would have been a blessing. But most teams across the league cannot boast what Dallas can— it pretty much has had the same five across the O-line the entire campaign. Opening-day starting left guard Connor McGovern was lost late in Week 1 until Week 4 and that forced Matt Farniok into duty. Otherwise? Aside from missing those two McGovern starts in September, the offensive line has looked the same across the board:
LT Tyler Smith | LG Connor McGovern | C Tyler Biadasz | RG Zack Martin | RT Terence Steele
The four other spots besides left guard are well over the 800-snap mark (perfect attendance) and overall, through 13 games the Cowboys have 63 of a possible 65 starts from their five (not counting Tyron Smith’s absence).
Having 97 percent attendance percentage from your starting offensive line is quite lovely.
https://theathletic.com/3994268/2022/12/12/cowboys-playoffs-goal-line-stand/
By comparison, the defending Super Bowl champion Los Angeles Rams have had 11 different starting lines through 12 games. They have had a total of four different starters at every spot but right tackle. Nobody is crying for them because they have been one of the healthiest teams in the NFL under Sean McVay, but our general opinion is that injuries are not a reflection of anything beyond that this sport is a brutal game that takes a major toll on the bodies we watch play it. You can change coaches or strength coaches all you want, but avoiding having to play 17 different starters on your offensive line is often best summarized as the good fortune smiling upon you from the football gods.
Well, no sooner did word filter around that Tyron Smith is back practicing with the team and unlocking another series of options for this group as he is ready to play in Jacksonville in Week 15, than we see that Steele is lost for the year after suffering a torn ACL/MCL in the second quarter Sunday against the Texans that will likely push into 2023.
Steele has been a very reliable player at right tackle through this season. He is not nearly a perfect player, nor is he a prototype for what you seek at that position, but he impresses the heck out of you for often he plays a solid game and we don’t even talk about him. He has exceeded every bar for his own success and has actually made walking away from La’el Collins look like it wasn’t a poor decision. He deserves a ton of credit and has a very bright future once he heals.
What should the Cowboys do down the stretch here?
Mike McCarthy and offensive line coach Joe Philbin have been doing this for a long time. They have been through multiple iterations of every offensive line that they have ever assembled and if you didn’t know better, they love the challenge of fashioning an offensive line over the course of the season and dealing with every change of wind direction that gives them a new puzzle. I say that because what we see doesn’t matter to these guys. They grow linemen — often Day 3 prospects or even undrafted free agents — and love to turn them into useable parts. I could make a list a mile long of names that went from off-roster to depth, from depth to starter, and from starter to big-money free agent, but pick any year in McCarthy’s coaching career and you will find the same trend. He doesn’t want the best of the best. He wants the overachievers who will fight you until they have nothing left.
I think that is important to remember when you look at this current situation. We have decided that Josh Ball is not a very good player. There is a very decent chance they disagree. We have watched him enough to have an idea that he is not NFL-caliber. But, they ran him out there last Sunday and might run him out there again. I have my prior opinions, but McCarthy often loves to give guys a chance to fail and to develop the skills that ultimately show growth and allow him to succeed.
Will Ball be the starter and work out to not sink the season?
We should hope, but McCarthy has done this enough times for us to know that we should not be shocked if they do not do what we think they should do. I would not have moved on from Collins. I would not have taken Tyler Smith in the first round. I would not have tried McGovern again. I might have tried to upgrade from Biadasz. Think about that. To someone who studies this team and this league daily for 12 months out of the year, I thought their offensive line was going to be poor once Tyron Smith was gone. And yet, through 13 games, they are 10-3 and their offensive line is considered a positive force in this operation.
Terence Steele is helped off the field after suffering a season-ending injury Sunday vs. Houston. (Raymond Carlin III / USA Today)
In other words, those of us who analyze are great at forming opinions — often good ones that are defendable — but that doesn’t mean we are great at knowing everything that goes into running an NFL team or evaluating an NFL player. Try as we might, we cannot win Super Bowls from our laptops. Turns out that seeing guys in the meetings, weight rooms and practices provides information that we cannot see on the All-22.
People get frustrated with my measured takes on whether Kelvin Joseph or Ball can cut it. The truth is, I have liked what Joseph has shown me and I have not liked what Ball does. But, keep in mind, I did not think Steele was an NFL starter and I definitely didn’t think Tyler Smith could hold up at left tackle against NFL edge rushers given his difficulty only one year ago with edge rushers he faced at Tulsa.
Yet, I must admit what I don’t know.
That said, I don’t think Ball is very good at pass protection and frankly, his back-to-back plays where he was beaten pretty soundly by Obo Okoronkwo on Sunday with the game on the line were catastrophically bad and reminded us of similar spots in preseason where he was just not up to the standard of making an NFL roster (let alone starting). Okoronkwo is definitely an NFL player, but with 6 1/2 sacks in four seasons, he is not a threatening edge. On Sunday, he looked like Von Miller because Ball had no answers for him on consecutive plays with 6:30 to go. On the first play, he jumped inside Ball and knocked the ball out of Prescott’s hands for a fumble that Ball recovered. On the very next play, he went outside Ball and hit Prescott’s arm which certainly made the interception happen. Imagine if that is a premier edge like Nick Bosa. Scary.
So, here is where we are:
Tyron Smith: If he is ready, he is your left tackle. I have no reservations about this. He is a special player who has earned the type of trust that makes you feel great. LT1. Also, he played right tackle in 2011, but has been left tackle since.
Tyler Smith: If Tyron Smith takes left tackle, then Tyler is my clear LG1. I would dream of having those two Smiths next to each other because that should be an awesome combo now that we know what Tyler is capable of doing. Inside, he should be even better as he does not need to play in space. His power is unquestioned and if he gets his hooks on you in a phone booth, there will be choke slams and pancakes served. I believe that is a magnificent future to imagine as December turns into January.
Connor McGovern: He has taken a step forward, but I believe that this pushes him to depth, which might be one play away. Not hard there.
Jason Peters: If we can take a hint, it would seem that the Cowboys are telling us that they don’t think it is smart to play him full-time yet. He has not been a right tackle for any significant time since his rookie year in 2006 when he was a member of the Buffalo Bills. That is many moons ago. Sunday was his season high with 27 snaps and the Cowboys speak as if they wish to rotate players. The only reason you do this is to keep his snaps down. I suspect this might be thrown out the window as early as Sunday because he is clearly your best option at right tackle. But, for now, they will speak of a time-share with Ball.
Josh Ball: I am willing to trust McCarthy on this, but it is also possible McCarthy knows better and is simply coaching his guys with confidence. Ball’s biggest weakness is his edge protection and that is a non-starter for me in this league and with this offense. I will admit that some of his work in the ground game was unexpectedly positive Sunday and I am more than willing to believe in his growth as it pertains to a rotational swing tackle, but starting at right tackle if I have a better choice in Peters? No way.
I want to end this offensive line shakeup with one last thought. About 15 years ago, the Giants built a defensive line that rotated eight bodies to attempt to attack the fatigue levels of opposing offensive lines late in games. They weren’t the first to have this idea, but their publicity department always had me thinking about them as innovators. The idea is simple: Offensive minds always talk about continuity and the advantage of thousands of snaps together allowing for them to all speak the same unspoken language of mental acuity and singleness in thought. If we play together, we will see every blitz and every coverage the same way. And when we are all singing from the same book, we will be on the same notes at the right times.
But, that means that offensive lines would never consider rotations because then you have to add players into the mix and your hopes of having five guys on the same page would vanish. But, if many hands are making light work on defense, the only way to match that would be an offensive line rotation that could keep those players fresh, too. We always thought at some point, teams might try a rotation on the O-line. Maybe some guys are better run blockers and others are better pass blockers. Can’t you have a third-down tackle who is excellent in pass protection like you do a third-down running back who is just a receiver? Specialization is everywhere, but not on the offensive line.
Are the Cowboys serious?
Would they want Peters and Ball switching off in their final four games? Would this be because they believe it is their best chance or is it to keep Peters for the playoffs? We better wait and see if Tyron Smith is healthy enough to try it. Otherwise, maybe Peters goes to RT and everything else stays like it is? Or maybe they really want Ball to become the guy they thought he was on draft day of 2021.
We will know soon enough.
