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The All-22: Cowboys' young offensive

line could rival those of early 1990s
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On Pro Football Now, Super Bowl champion Amani Toomer, Sports Illustrated NFL analyst Aaron Nagler and NFL writer Andrew Perloff discuss
Jason Garrett not wanting to overwork DeMarco Murray and how this could hurt the Cowboys.

When reminiscing about the great offensive lines the Dallas Cowboys have
enjoyed in the past, many generally point to the lines assembled in the early
1990s. Those lines, consisting of Larry Allen, Nate Newton, Mark Tuinei, Mark
Stepnoski and Erik Williams, were among the best in NFL history.
BY DOUG FARRAR

NFL Power Rankings: Week 6 | Ranking the top-five young QBs

Posted:
Thu Oct. 9, 2014

botch heard 'round the world:

siting Romo's gaffe in Seattle

But the general decline of the Cowboys' O-line, and Jerry Jones' inability to replace
that talent, is frequently seen as a corollary to the franchise's two-decade playoff
drought. Jones tried to reload a few years later, but it didn't quite work out the
same way. Through the first years of the new millennium (and especially in the Bill
Parcells era, which lasted from 2003 through 2006, there was a concerted effort to
align a line that would revisit those glory days, and though there were talented
players like Flozell Adams and Marco Rivera, eventually, Dallas had to re-jigger
again. That process started in 2011, when Dallas drafted left tackle Tyron Smith
out of USC.
"I dont know how much you guys know the arc of our team," Dallas head coach
Jason Garrett told the Seattle media on Wednesday, in preparation for this

Sunday's Cowboys-Seahawks game. "Five, six, seven years ago we had a really
good offensive line, guys like Adams and Marc Colombo and Andre Gurode and
all those guys, Leonard Davis, Kyle Kosier. They were really a good unit, but all
those guys seem to have gotten older all at the time and they were making a lot of
money. We needed to make a transition, we needed to get younger."
They certainly did. Smith was 20 when the Cowboys drafted him; he'd left USC one
year after Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll did. In 2013, Dallas went back to the
well and took Wisconsin center-guard Travis Frederick in the first round, a move
that was universally panned at the time, because many saw Frederick as a secondround prospect (including, it must be said, Frederick himself). In 2014, they took
Notre Dame tackle Zack Martin and made him their right guard. That line is
rounded out by two relatively unheralded players -- undrafted left guard Ronald
Leary, who came to the team in 2012, and right tackle Doug Free, who has moved
from swing lineman to starting (and highly-paid) left tackle to journeyman since he
was taken in the fourth round of the 2007 draft.
It's not a given that a bunch of first-round picks will make an offensive line tick, but
it's working for the Cowboys in ways it hasn't in years, maybe even decades. This
season, DeMarco Murray leads the NFL with 130 carries, 670 yards and five
rushing touchdowns, while Tony Romo has been pressured on 25.7 percent of his
dropbacks -- down from 35.1 in 2013 and 31.3 in 2012 and 31.1 in 2011.
In the past, Romo would have to use his knack for the spectacular play, usually
escaping from pressure, to create and extend successful situations. Now, he can
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gals from No. 1 spot

relax in the pocket far more often and actually act like a quarterback from down to
down -- as opposed to that weird hybrid risk-taker with the usual attendant ups and
downs.
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"Its been a major difference," Romo said this week. "You know, we went through a
rough patch there for two or three years where it was difficult to read progressions.
Thats just a difficult way to play week in and week out in the NFL. Its allowed us
to kind of go through progressions at a normal rate. Weve been making it difficult
on opposing defenses, just to be able to take one thing away and just think that
was going to be what they can do to win and that really been a big benefit for us."

Audibles Podcast: Underutilized players

Sports Illustrated's Chris Burke and Doug Farrar discuss which NFL players have been the
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LT Tyron Smith

That all starts with Smith, who's Romo's blindside protector and a player who is
almost universally acknowledged as one of the best left tackles in the game. Both
Garrett and Carroll are familiar with Smith's greatness going back to his high
school days.
"When he was 16, he came to [USC summer] camp and he looked like he was 30,"
Carroll said. "He was just a grown man; physically fit, he was just unbelievably
developed as a young guy. At times, we werent sure what position he would wind
up playing because he was such a marvelous athlete; played tackle and thats
where he wound up of course, but hes just an amazing athlete. Hes got
tremendous proportion to him; hes lean like a defensive back but just in an
oversized body. Hes having a great start to his career; hes really rolling, and its
great to see him doing it."

hael Vick's lax attitude yet

ther strike against coach Rex

Smith has allowed one sack, one quarterback hit and five quarterback hurries
through five games, and he's been outstanding from the start of the season. (Well,
almost the start -- Dallas' 2014 campaign began with a Smith false start against the
49ers in Week 1.) Then, he went back into lockdown mode against San Francisco
DE Tank Carradine, taking Carradine back to the edge of the pocket, and
rebounding perfectly as Carradine tried to re-jigger his rush and move back inside.

LG Ronald Leary
Leary is two different players, which can be a bit frustrating when looking at him on
tape, When he comes off on time and keeps his pad level low, Leary is a fine fireout run blocker and a decent pass protector. He doesn't have great, quick feet, but
he recovers well in short spaces. When he comes off the ball high, however... well,
there are some NFL linemen who have the ability to overcome technical errors and
still win physical battles. Leary isn't one of them.
KING: DeMarco Murray's off to a historic start, but he needs to reign in his
pace
Here's the downside in the first quarter of Dallas' Week 4 win over the Saints -Leary gets backtracked by defensive tackle Brodrick Bunkley and allows a
pressure directly in Romo's face. Romo completed a 16-yard pass to Jason Witten
on this play, but he had to do one of his typical Houdini acts to get that
done. Smith also blundered on this play by letting up and allowing linebacker
Junior Galette to get inside.

Boomer's Top 5 QBs for Week 6

SI.com's Boomer Esiason counts down his top five quarterbacks heading into Week 6 of the
2014 NFL season.

C Travis Frederick; RT Zack Martin

"Theyre going to get so much better as they grow together with just the young
group, but theyve made an obvious commitment," Carroll said of this line. "Zack
looks like hes going well and Frederick is good, and we already know about Tyron
and the rest of those guys; theyre playing. Theyre running game is very consistent
and theyre very strong upfront and theyre just going to improve like crazy. Were
fortunate were getting them this early -- because a year from now, or by the end of
this season, these guys are really going to be something."
As Carroll mentions, the group is young and vulnerable. They're still learning how

h season spiraling out of control,

er remains a rock of stability

stin Murphy

to move together in slide protection, and especially earlier in the season, it was
literally hit-and-miss when it came to nailing their targets on the move. That kind of
alignment through the distance of a play is something that comes with time, and
while you could see it come together more consistently through the first five
games, it's still an issue at times.

RT Doug Free
Outside of Smith, this is a line of maulers, not technicians (Smith can be both). The
Cowboys like to jump out as if they're run-blocking on a lot of their pass-plays, and
they line one or two tight ends in formation to help with pass-blocking. Most of the
time, those tight ends are on Free's side, which tells you something about his
pass-blocking in general. Free is the only member of this line to give up more than
one sack this season (three, including two against the Titans in Week 2), and he
leads the team in pressures allowed with 10. He's a good, not great overall tackle
at this point in his career.
Where he really struggles is against speed ends, and he also fails to re-set after
initial hits, as he did here against Tennessee's Jurrell Casey. Casey is a 300pound former stay-at-home defensive tackle who new defensive coordinator Ray
Horton likes to move around in the formation, and Free just lost him.

That's not a guy you want on an island in pass protection.

In the end, I think Carroll's point about this line's age and development curve is
spot-on, and the reason the Cowboys' new front five could one day rival those
great lines of the 1990s. Like those Super Bowl lines, it's young and homegrown,
and it's being filled with the kinds of foundation players that can define a team over
time.

Pro Files: Roger Staubach

After a Hall of Fame career as the Dallas Cowboys signal caller, Roger Staubach has
continued his success at a second career in real estate.