Offensive Line: Present and Future?

by unexpected on Dec 21, 2005 2:04 AM CST Comment 8 comments

The Redskins game was terrible. I've read alot of comments about the how the offense looks stagnant, and I really believe that all our problems stem from our offensive line.

Well, duh. For all of Drew Bledsoe's faults, he can still be an amazing quarterback. Bledsoe's the most immobile quarterback in the NFL, and yet, for some reason, we start a 6th round draft pick on his right side, and we have an undrafted college guard covering his blind side!

Why?! I know Flozell Adams and Jacob Rogers are out for the year with injuries, but I don't understand how these guys were backups in the first place. Why is Torrin Tucker still playing? Didn't we sign Marco Rivera at Guard because of his dismal performance? Yes, elsewhere they can be successful, but not with the quarterback that we have. Given Bledsoe, the Cowboys have to place a premium on protecting him.

Now, our offense is just plain vanilla. We can switch to max-protect schemes, but this really limits our big play potential.

After the injury to Jacob Rogers, I was really worried that this may happen (I wasn't too fond of him to begin with). On paper, we're really mediocre.

If we're to win with the current setup, we need a new strategy. Flozell is coming back next year, so the left side should be taken care of, but I'm still not keen on Jacob Rogers on the right side. I really hope we sign the best available tackle and plug him in on the right side. Make Jacob Rogers a backup. Yeah, he was a second-round pick, but he's always making excuses about his lack of progress and just has a bad attitude.

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Done with Jacob Rogers

The Cowboys will release Jacob Rogers after the season, he is only still on the roster because of rules around releasing injured players.

Having Flo back will help next year, but Larry Allen is not getting any younger, Marco Rivera has played poorly and we just signed him to a multi-year contract. The Cowboys will need to dip into free-agency, as you mentioned, for some tackle help and will have to spend a few draft picks to help the line.

What a mess.

by Dave Halprin on Dec 21, 2005 7:51 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

I blame Parcells

The offensive line certainly is a mess and I blame Parcells. Don't get me wrong, I think the Tuna is a great coach, obvious future hall of famer, however, he really dropped the ball when assembling the line. It all started when he drafts Rogers and Peterman in the second and third round in 2004. The jury is still out on Peterman, but Rogers should have never been drafted. The word was he played soft and was injury proned, but for some reason Parcells still took him. To make matters worse, he signs Bledsoe knowing he can only be effective if you protect him well, but fails to draft or sign a good RT. That was an awful decision to leave that position unsettled when Bledsoe is your qb. Also, I know Johnson is still young, but he hasn't looked good and was another Parcells high draft pick. Those decisions he made regarding the line are killing us now.

by Terry on Dec 21, 2005 8:56 AM CST reply actions 0 recs

Coulda shoulda woulda

You can tell by their off-season actions they thought they had everyone in place Adams-Allen-Johnson-Rivera-Rogers for a solid line and on paper, yeah it looks good. But they were snake bit from the get go. First Rivera hurts his back in a treadmill incident (never heard of that one before) and needs off-season surgery and doesn't look like the Probowl guard we thought we were getting. Then Rogers gets injured and decides to take surgery over playing through it (which pisses Parcells and Jones off so we cut him) adios to a 2nd round pick. Then Adams blows out a knee and is done for the year. We had no quality backups, and made little to no effort to secure any. And Johnson appears to be in a sophmore slump. So of the off-season projected starters only Allen has played up to expectations. And the strength of the offense was going to be the running game, while Bledsoe cannot perform well behind a less than stellar pass protecting line. You can definitely put a good portion of the blame on Parcells for taking a big gamble that the line would hold up and not getting quality backups.

by APerfectStar on Dec 21, 2005 10:08 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

I agree

Tom, I agree we were snake bit, but relying on Jacobs when he never played in 2004 was way too risky. I never really liked the pick to begin with, there were better tackle prospects still on the board during that draft. Regardless, with Allen and Rivera long in the tooth and our tackle position a mess Parcells has to really overhaul the line this offseason if the Cowboys have any shot at making a run at the SB in the future.

by Terry on Dec 22, 2005 9:21 AM CST up reply actions 0 recs

What about Larry Allen?

The most important position on the OL is left tackle. Put Larry Allen out there and plug some schmo at LG. But it's probably too late for this move.

by CBerry on Dec 25, 2005 11:22 PM CST reply actions 0 recs

Allen at LT

I think the Cowboys talked about doing this but Parcells wanted the line to be strong up the middle because that is where teams like to blitz Bledsoe the most. I think if Parcells felt Peterman was good enough, they might have tried it.

by Terry on Dec 26, 2005 12:32 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

No to Larry

Larry Allen isn't the same player of five years ago, he doesn't have the footwork and Athletism to play left Tackle anymore, he has all he can do to play inside, noway he should of gotten voted to the probowl, he's average at best and serious thinking in the offseason on whether to bring him back again next year.I thought we should of traded him to the Lions when we had the chance for a third rounder.The O-line needs a complete overhaul in the offseason.

by Deke on Dec 26, 2005 1:56 PM CST up reply actions 0 recs

LA average at best????

No, he may not be the LA of 5 years ago, but he is still a dominating player. I have read several articles this year about players that LA has faced THIS YEAR talk about how the were manhandled by him. True, he does not have what would be needed to play tackle at a high level, but he is still one of the best guards in the league. He still has two years of starting quality left.

Cowboy fan since I was conceived!

by airtyme on Dec 29, 2005 10:29 AM CST reply actions 0 recs