One for the Short List

Injuries the past two seasons are a bit of a concern, but if the price is right it would be a significant upgrade.
Here’s hoping.

This year doesn’t concern me. It appears that he wrenched a knee and came back. He looked good at LT which impressed me because he’s a RT.

If his back injury was serious he would not have gotten his starting job back. The Pats have options at tackle. Let’s put it this way, he’s better than anybody not named Flozell.

There seems te be about 5 or 6 decent tackles that will make it to free agency. This should keep prices reasonable I hope.
Having a right tackle like Ashworth who could move to the left if needed and still play at an above average level would have got us into the playoffs this year. So far none of the NFC teams who have played in the playoffs have looked much better than we were.

Going into 2004 we had a question mark over cornerback or specifically right CB because we did not overspend for one of the few corners available. Injuries and poor play resulted. This became our achilles heel on defense and the team could not get around it. However the offseason after featured a number of solid CB’s and we landed Henry and Glenn to go with Newman which solved our CB problem.

In offseason 2005 the question mark was at tackle or more specifically right T. Again there was not alot of options in free agency for the prices they were going. This T weakness affected the offense all year and crippled it after Flozell went down. This free agency period coming though looks like it will have some talent at tackle and if we could solve our T problem this offseason like we did the CB one last year, well…

I know that a player can not go back and redo an earlier career decision, but, I wonder if Jacob Rogers looks at himself directly in the mirror every day…and tells himself, ’You’re stupid!’ If he had delayed his operation, and pushed the pain threshold this past season, both he and the Cowboys may well have been a LOT better off…

Raf,

Both offensive lines impressed me. Also, I was watching the same game and couldn’t help but see how much a big NT like Wilfolk could help the Cowboys. He just takes up so much space and almost always needs two guys to block him, which made it difficult for Denver to run.

I would just like to see bledsoe take his drop and not have to try to miss 1-2 d-lineman in his face.

petiti allowed more sacks then anyone, but tucker was worse, allowing i think 12 in only 10 games where petit gave up 13 in 16 games. i think petiti will turn out to be a decent tackle but just not yet. we need someone who can step in for 2-3 years and let him get some more experience.

mike,

If you look at OT that get drafted, it takes a couple of years to really become starter material. Usually the ones drafted in RD 1 are either on a team rebuilding, or placed on the bench, so I think Petitti is in good position to become better and better .. if he continues to work hard.

I am sure Ashworth would be a huge improvement over the toreadors we had playing the second half of last season. If we can get him I am all for it. If we have to draft a 330 pound guy out of the penal league to play tackle I wouldn’t mind at this point!!

One thing I have noticed in virtually all of these playoff games is the ability of the QB’s to dink and dunk and wiggle out of the clutches of pass rushers to still try to make a play after the pocket collapses. I hope Bledsoe is watching this carefully from home and realizing that even with really good protection the line can only give a QB so much time, so at least in postseason the QB has to improvise and stay on his feet long enough to make a play. This is not a knock on Bledsoe, just something I noticed in earnest as an impartial observer without a team in the hunt. It seems like the teams that can make the play on 3rd and long or 3rd and goal have QB’s who don’t fold under the pressure of the collapsing pocket.

Speaking of the commercials, it’s hilarious to see which ones stop getting airplay because the players featured in it sucked this season. Like the Dante Culpepper and Jay Feely ones. Also, has anyone else seen the Clinton Portis/LaVar Arrington ads for a local car dealer? Hilarious!

if it wasn’t for injuries……….FLO would be our LT….

True Jon, and if it wasn’t for all the injuries to our LB’s we might not have been gashed so hard the last 6 games too. It sucks, but it’s part of football. Knowing this, we definitely need better backups though!!

Ashworth’s injury history is a concern but his versatility outweighs that. If he can be had for a modest price, then the Cowboys should really go after him rather than going for another 30 something tackle in Jon Runyan.

Raf,

Yeah Ashworth looked good, his injuries scare me a little tho. If we lost him we’d be in the same boat as this year. What about Chris Hope, did you watch him closely? I couldnt get a good look at him (Polumolu is all over the place, man you can notice that guy). I did see Hope get burned by Dallas Clark, but so did Polumolu. And the FA OLB from the Colts looked good. I forget his name, but he was the one who knocked the ball out of Bettis’ hands.

lou c:
David Thornton. But he’s not a 3-4 OLB, he’s 6-2, just like Singleton, but he’s lighter.

Sterling,
Loved your comparison of our OL to TOREADORS! LOL!

Whatever moves we make in FA need to be cost effective because of some real studs (Witten et al) who need to be signed to long term deals soon. Notwithstanding the injuries, it would appear that Ashworth would fit that bill.