Dallas Cowboys: What’s going on with these three invisible players?

The Dallas Cowboys have gotten off to a poor 1-3 start to the 2020 season. So why not play three young, promising players? What gives?

For most Dallas Cowboys fans, the last four weeks have been painful, almost excruciating to watch. The defense has been atrociously bad. The offensive line has been mediocre to bad at times. And the offense has been giving the ball away at an alarming rate. It’s just not good football.

But as the weeks have gone by, I’ve been wondering more and more about three young players I thought I would see this season. So here’s my attempt to answer the question: What’s going on with these three invisible players?

Connor McGovern, Guard

It seems every year, the Cowboys choose a player in the draft who no one sees coming. Last year, it was Connor McGovern. He started at Penn State at both guard and center for almost his entire three years before declaring for the draft prior to his senior year.

When he fell to the third round, both executive vice president Stephen Jones and former head coach Jason Garrett called McGovern a “blinking light”, meaning he was the highest rated player on their board at the time. Most of the scouting department viewed McGovern as a starting-caliber guard, with the ability to play center and were expecting him to be taken at the top of the second round.

But then McGovern tore his pectoral muscle and missed his entire rookie year with the Cowboys. Many observers expected to see the highly regarded guard competing with guard Connor Williams for the starting guard spot and maybe with centers Joe Looney and Tyler Biadasz for the starting job in the middle of the line.

Then training camp was shortened due to coronavirus, and with it, the competition. However, with injuries to starting offensive tackles Tyron Smith and La’el Collins, and the underwhelming play of Williams and Looney, things have changed. With several lower-string players pressed into service at the tackle positions, the offensive line performed poorly.

Against the Seattle Seahawks, the coaching staff even resorted to moving All-Pro guard Zack Martin to tackle, and moving Joe Looney to guard. One would think amid all this chaos, McGovern’s name might be called. Nope. He’s played a few special teams snaps, but that’s about it.

I wonder, if the Cowboys are trying to field their five best linemen, wouldn’t they want to see what McGovern can do?