The Dallas Cowboys offensive line can no longer be considered elite

How Dallas tried to fix the offensive line

Since then, Dallas has signed a truckload of higher quality backups and drafted several more offensive linemen with high picks, Connor Williams with a second-round pick in 2018, and Connor McGovern with a third-round pick in this year’s draft.

Last year, we were told that Connor Williams would be a plug and play guard. He’d be perfect, even though he’d played tackle in college. It would be no problem. Unfortunately, Williams was not perfect. He was undersized at tackle, and was pushed around at times.

But worse, center Travis Frederick got sick with Guillain-Barré syndrome and missed the entire season. Then, at various points in the season, almost the entire rest of the line got injured.

Tyron Smith missed his now-customary three games. Williams got injured and missed a few too. And worst of all, five-time All-Pro Zack Martin injured his back and knee and missed time as well.

Even with all that, however, Dallas still got lucky in some ways. Reserve center Joe Looney played unexpectedly solid football in Frederick’s place all season. He wasn’t an All-Pro like Frederick, but he was pretty good. So were Xavier Su’a-Filo and Cameron Fleming, two other reserves who were called upon to start in place of injured Cowboys linemen.

This year in training camp, the Dallas head office learned their lesson. No one said everything would be fine. They told the truth. They didn’t really know. Williams had gained 20 pounds in muscle over the offseason, and Frederick was healing up nicely.

But would he be 100%? How much better would Williams be? Nobody knew. The front office signed their quality reserves again, drafted McGovern and hoped for the best. We’d have to wait and see Frederick and Williams play.

Well, we’ve seen. And the truth is Dallas’s line has been very good at times this year. They’re definitely better than last year. Frederick and Williams have been solid at times, and there hasn’t been a rash of injuries.

In some games, like against the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants, the Dallas line almost looked like the dominant line of years past. But those were weak teams. In other games, like against the New Orleans Saints, they didn’t fare nearly as well.