Dallas Cowboys: Four strategies to deal with Travis Frederick’s retirement

The Wild-Card Idea

Switch Connor Williams with right offensive tackle La’el Collins, and have McGovern and Looney compete for starting center. This admittedly wild idea is born from the difficulties that Williams has had at guard over his two seasons, and his past as an offensive tackle. This also isn’t the first time this idea has been suggested.

When Williams was drafted, many floated this concept, since Collins used to play left guard for the Cowboys, and was very good at the spot, before he was moved to right tackle. It seemed a natural.  But the suggestion was abandoned at the time because Collins stated publicly he wanted to stay put at tackle.

But the idea might be worth revisiting.  After all, there is reason to suggest Williams might be much better at tackle than at guard. Guard is primarily a brute strength position, and Williams has been pushed out of the way at times. He is, however, extremely agile for such a big man, and offensive tackle is a position where agility is much more important.

Advantage: This might give Dallas the best possible outcome for the fewest resources allocated.

Disadvantage: It might not work. If it doesn’t, then the Cowboys would have a big problem at tackle, while it’s a settled issue now. Even if it does work, however, this scenario would be the most disruptive, since three players out of the five starting offensive linemen would be at different positions from last year. So, it’s a high-risk, high reward strategy.

So what will the Cowboys do?

The first three solutions seem a lot more likely than the last option. The Cowboys might not even consider the position-swap idea as it’s so far out-of-the-box. Nevertheless, since the upside is so high, I think they should at least think about it.

In the meantime, the Cowboys are likely looking at available players: free agents, in the draft, and possibly those on other teams with disputes with management. If I had to place a bet today, though, I’d say the most likely scenario has Dallas drafting a lineman in the second round.

According to walterfootball.com, there are no centers projected as first-round prospects, but three are designated as possible second-rounders. But there’s a lot of time on the clock right now, so nobody really knows what will happen.

It will be interesting to see how America’s Team responds to this unexpected dilemma.  What do you think they should do?