Can the Dallas Cowboys line play improve to save the season?

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(Photo by Richard Rodriguez/Getty Images) /

Should Dallas fans be worried? Again, maybe. Reading up on Guillain-Barre syndrome, it sounds as if recovering sufferers get stronger and stronger as time goes on, so it might be that by playoff time, Frederick will be tougher than he is now. As for Williams and the rest of the line, it’s hard to say. If they’re all healthy at the end of the season, then maybe.

As for the middle of the defense, it still looks weak. Maliek Collins has never been a great run defender and the whole point of signing Covington was to help spell Woods. If he’s not the solution, then the Cowboys are still in trouble. Especially with Swiss-Army knife defensive lineman Tyrone Crawford out on injured reserve, as was just announced this week.

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It would certainly help if rookie DT Trysten Hill improved by the end of the season. But that’s just one more in a long line of what-ifs. The whole thing doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.

As far as the defensive middle goes, the core problem might just be Dallas’s whole philosophy. Many teams go out of their way to draft and sign huge, elite athletes in the middle of their D line. Dallas has never done that, at least not in the Marinelli era.

Though Hill was drafted in the second round last year, that’s the highest the Cowboys have drafted a defensive tackle in years. Maliek Collins was drafted in the third. And I can’t even remember the last time the Cowboys drafted a nose tackle, either high or low.

And none of them are really huge, monstrous guys. Defensive coordinator Rod Marinelli doesn’t believe in that. He prefers to find agile, athletic types. He’s known to pride himself on finding cast-off players and coaching them up.

He’s also known to sneer at the huge space-eaters that many teams like to have in the middle. To be fair, Marinelli’s approach has achieved decent results. The Cowboys’ defensive line isn’t terrible, at least with Woods in the lineup. But it isn’t championship caliber. Especially in the middle.

If I were in the front office, I would advise them to look for a big, strong defensive tackle who’s unhappy on his team and try to make a trade. It might not work. It might be too late. But nevertheless, I’d look anyway.

It looks to me that if the front office stands pat, then as we approach the playoffs, fans and players will be hoping and praying that Woods doesn’t get hurt again, and that the rest of the defensive tackles improve their play.

As for the offensive line, I’m not sure anything can be done in the middle of the season to improve their performance, except maybe to try Xavier Su’a-Filo again instead of Williams at left tackle. But really, I highly doubt the coaching staff will do that. We’ll just have to hope the rest of the line is healthy towards the end of the season.

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So, what we’ve got here is a situation with both lines where the team is counting an awful lot on hope. Again, it’s an uninspiring, deflating approach. Hope is not exactly a great strategy for success in the playoffs.

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