Will the Dallas Cowboys have a Changing of the Guard?

Why can’t our Cowboys get over the hump?  Why can’t we seem to play at our best all the time?  Simple answer, we lose in the trenches.  As a Cowboys fan and as a former offensive lineman (from my high school days), I was stoked when I saw Tyron Smith’s phone ringing with Jason Garrett on the other line.  How many times in the past week did you see on the ESPN and NFL Network that the ‘talking heads’ ranked “Win in the trenches” as one of the main goals for every team?  8 times.

The prolific offenses of Green Bay and New Orleans lost this past week, and that is because the Giants and the 49′ers won the game in the trenches.  A short glance at the Cowboys last 10 first round picks shows an eerie trend that hopefully Jason Garret has broken for good.  Jerry Jones is like a barracuda, always going after something shiny and flashy that will help him sell jerseys.  He has done a good job of marketing the Dallas Cowboys, but it’s time to let the team do the marketing for itself and start winning some more championships, or at least make a deep playoff run every year.

More about the Cowboys draft picks after the break…

The Dallas Cowboys struck GOLD with DeMarcus Ware in the 1st round, but that’s about it.  I’m not including Dez Bryant and Tyron Smith in this because it is still too soon to bring the jury out on them.  Roy Williams was a heavy hitter, until the league decided they would eliminate the only way he knew how to tackle.  Terrence Newman has been an excellent corner, but he’s only 33 and his injury prone nature has lead to him playing his last snap as a Dallas Cowboy unless they can rework his contract. 7 million is way to much to pay an under achieving corner.

Marcus Spears has not lived up to his 1st round grade and at times has shown flashes of potential, but has leveled off towards mediocrity with other lower picks with far higher production.  Anthony Spencer is a grey area.  His pass rushing ability is not the greatest, but his ability to stop the run cannot be over-rated; but he certainly isn’t the type of player we thought we would have with a 1st round pick.  Bobby Carpenter was a bust, per his nickname “Barbie Carpenter” and we eventually traded him for another 1st round bust in Alex “Half Nelson” Barron.  Felix Jones has shown flashes of potential, but is not the dominant premiere back due to lack of production and his injury prone nature.

Last year, as we all know, Jerry drafted an offensive lineman in the 1st round.  With his production, Tyron should have gotten a free trip to Hawaii.  At times he did make mistakes, but even with those mistakes Tyron had the 4th highest PFF grade for OT’s, and was the most productive of the Cowboys offensive lineman.

Courtesy of ESPN

Why not have a changing of the guard? DeCastro is going to dominate the interior of NFL lines for the next 10 years. He will be available at pick 14, and would show that Jason Garrett is in charge in that war room, not Jerry Jones.

But even if we plug in DeCastro at LG or RG, that leaves the likes of Kosier/Arkin/Nagy/Holland/Dockery/Kowalksi to fill the ranks at the other guard position.  Frankly, I don’t like any of them compared to the Pro Bowler from New Orleans, Carl Nicks.,Who is a bruising 340lb. dump truck. Then all that leaves is for all of them to fight for the Center position.

Imagine, Free-DeCastro-Nagy-Nicks-Smith as our offensive line. Who needs the 4 minute offense? This line could maul for twice that long. And the oldest lineman would be Doug Free, leaving this line intact to maul for yards and Championships for years to come.

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