Dallas Cowboys: A healthy Travis Frederick could be a difference maker

The Dallas Cowboys took a severe hit last season when Travis Frederick was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome. His 2019 potential return could be huge.

Injuries are a major part of the National Football League, which is without a doubt the most violent of the professional sports leagues in existence. What stings even more is when star or key player is out for reasons that aren’t the direct result of the many high impact hits landed during the course of a season. The Dallas Cowboys present an example of this scenario, but they aren’t the only ones.

Look no further than someone like Everson Griffen of the Minnesota Vikings, who missed time last season due to mental health issues, which could be football related but aren’t as easily correlated. When thinking about the Cowboys experience with this unfortunate circumstance, All-World Center Travis Frederick is that example.

Frederick was diagnosed with Guillain-Barré Syndrome, an immune disorder that attacks the muscles,  just weeks before the start of the 2018 season. Although it was a huge blow to one of the presumptive stronger Cowboy units, it was fortunately not a death strike.

Regardless of the success that was achieved while Frederick was out of the lineup, it will be an awfully significant upgrade when he is able to return to the field, which appears as though it could be this season. According to Kevin Para of NFL.com, Frederick is progressing towards just that, but there are necessary measures and steps that must be taken:

"The autoimmune disease is unpredictable, which has led to necessary caution from the player and team in making concrete declarations on when Frederick might return. His ability to work out with teammates during the conditioning portion of the offseason schedule is a small step in the right direction, but it’s a good step."

Frederick is a four-time NFL Pro Bowler, from the 2014-2017 seasons, he was also a First Team All-Pro performer for the 2016 season. He was also ranked as the 37th best player of the 2017 NFL season, his last full season, by Pro Football Focus on their Top 101 players from the 2017 season list. He was a top 5 offensive lineman in that season according to this list, and the second ranked center, only behind the Philadelphia Eagles’ Jason Kelce.

On a team level, from the perspective of his effect on the entire offensive line unit, they were ranked as the number four offensive line in the NFL after the 2017 season. This past season without Frederick was a different story, as the Cowboys dropped all the way down to the 14th ranked offensive line unit after this past season according to Pro Football Focus.

The stats and rankings weren’t the only factors that helped to make this statement though. It was clear that last season’s version of the Cowboys offensive line had taken a step back from previous seasons. Some would say it was due to injury, while some would even point to a general lack of depth, but losing a starting Center who just so happens to be one of the better players in the entire league probably didn’t help a ton either.

The best teams, and teams that go on to win Super Bowls, are often those teams who can run the ball for crucial yards when they need to, gain the crucial first down, and stop the other team from gaining that crucial first down. Although Frederick doesn’t have much to do with stopping the opposing team, he has almost everything to do with the other two factors mentioned.

If the Dallas Cowboys hope to reach that great peak which is a berth, and hopefully a Super Bowl victory, they must do everything in their power to get Frederick back on the field. Although as noted from the piece by Para of NFL.com that his condition is a bit “unpredictable”, even if it just means being patient and allowing him a ton of room to re-acclimate himself, they must do all they can to help him regain that All-Pro form.

This is the case for many reasons, with one of the most important being the fact that you just want to see someone who seems like a genuinely good guy continue to succeed. Another huge reason would be because he is a difference maker when he is fully right and healthy. A difference maker indeed, Frederick could be the difference between a team that gets knocked out in the first playoff game that they play, or a potential Super Bowl Champion.