Dallas Cowboys: Projected starting lineup leaves no excuses in 2019

This Dallas Cowboys kicking specialists group is the weakest of the three. Success criteria will be don’t do anything to lose any games.

Let’s start with the strongest member of this group, long snapper L.P. Ladouceur. He is simply one of the best to ever do it having not registered a single bad snap in his 14-year career.

Far from perfect, but consistent in his craft, is punter Chris Jones. While unspectacular, Jones does do one thing very well and that’s kick unreturnable punts. According to David Helman’s story on dallascowboys.com, Jones allowed 8.5 yard per return in 2018 while only allowing 30 of his 60 punts to be returned. This was following a 2017 where those numbers were four yards per return and only18 of 66 punts returned.

Lastly, we have Brett Maher, the kicker who replace Cowboys kicker Dan Bailey, who during his tenure as Dallas’ kicker became the most accurate in NFL history. I just wrote an article on Bailey’s shadow and over the kicking game and won’t rehash the argument. Basically, the Cowboys have traded accuracy at 40 yards and closer for a strong legged kicker that give you the opportunity for a 55-60 yard kick from time to time.  Kicking specialists – no change in 2019.

The 2019 Dallas Cowboys are a better team than last year and have no excuse to do any worse than the 10-6 record for 2018. A head coach in the last year of his deal and a new offensive coordinator are a couple additions to the equation, but ultimately, this team will field a championship level squad and the fans should settle for nothing less.

The motto for the 2019 Dallas Cowboys should be NO EXCUSES.

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