FanPost

Frederick vs Costa...the Future of the Cowboys Center Position Version 2.0

This is a "repost" of an older post that I did a couple of years ago, where I compared Costa vs Gurode. Basically I am going to "update it" to reflect the Potential battle between Phil Costa and Travis Frederick this coming TC...

The general consensus before the draft was that Phil Costa was the starter at Center for the forseeable future, and that Dallas was going to be moving to a full on "zone blocking Line". However the Addition of the drafts top rated C, Travis Frederick, and having him work out as a C during the Rookie Mini-camps seem to be sending a different Signal. The peculiar thing is that Travis is seen as a "Man/Power" blocking type of OL vs Costa as a "Zone blocker". I don't think I need to go into details about these schemes as they have been thoroughly hashed out Here @ BTB repeatedly. So lets do A comparison shall we?

Now let's look at what Travis Frederick brings to the table:

Combine Invite: Yes
Height: 6-4
Weight: 312
40 Yrd Dash: 5.55
20 Yrd Dash: 3.14
10 Yrd Dash: 1.91
225 Lb. Bench Reps: 21
Vertical Jump: 28 1/2
Broad Jump: 08'01"
20 Yrd Shuttle: 4.76
3-Cone Drill: 7.81

Now let me make a few points:

1. There is nothing "wrong" with an Offensive lineman that runs a 5.55 40 yard dash....to me the 40 yard dash(outside of WR's RB's and CB's and to a slightly lesser extent Safeties) the 40 yard dash is completely worthless number....JMHO

2. the "important" numbers are on the right hand side...Vertical/Broad and 20 SS/3 cone drill..and to a certain extent the Bench press. In those Travis put up solid(though not outstanding) numbers.

3. Frederick is regarded as one of the smartest players in the draft...one story is that at the Combine a team gave him 20 formation to memorize.. when quizzed @ his proday, he remembered all of them...

So lets look at Costa...

Height: 6-3
Weight: 308
40 Yrd Dash: 5.12
20 Yrd Dash: 3.09
10 Yrd Dash: 1.60
225 Lb. Bench Reps: 30
Vertical Jump: 35
Broad Jump: 09'04"
20 Yrd Shuttle: 4.65
3-Cone Drill: 7.66

Now, the reason Costa went undrafted is due to his short arms. At "only" 6-2 he is "undersized" height wise, and does not have the long arms that most GM's and coaches look for.

However, a couple of things stand out.

  1. Costa is still fairly strong, posting a solid 30 reps on the 225 bench, though that is considered fairly poor due again to his arm length, though I imagine that that has been increased. (NFL.com lists him @ 311lbs)
  2. Costa is VERY quick and mobile...a 4.65 20yd Shuttle combined with a 7.66 3-cone is very good.
  3. Costa is also fairly explosive..posting a 35" vert and 9' + broad jump.
  4. Garret has raved many times about how smart Costa is

So what does all this mean? Well, on paper it would seem that Costa has the edge against Frederick in the battle for the center spot. However Fredrick was taking reps in Mini camp @ center instead of Guard. Could that mean that Dallas is going to have Frederick @ Center? Maybe. But as we all know Jerry as stated that he thinks Costa would be a good C with 2 good G's next to him. However Frederick was graded as the Best C in the draft for a reason, so it stands to reason that Dallas would want him to play that position. Also Blue Eyed Devil made a quote about Costa that I am reusing here:

When you look at what Costa did well in the pre-season game it was double-teaming his man for 1.5 seconds then getting to a linebacker. He did very well at that.

Now I am not saying that this is a bad thing. However, here is what I am thinking...That is what Garrett wants his guards to do, not his center. I think that he wants his center to be the "power man" of the line. The guy that may not be super mobile but able to take on the biggest DT's/NT's in the game one-on-one, and either stonewall them or move them. Which Frederrick is supposed to be able to do very well. And with the rise in popularity of the 3-4 defense,(Two of our Division opponnets run a 3-4, and the Giants run a 4-3 that uses two big "run stuffers" on first and second down) having a center that can take on a 330-350lbs NT one-on-one could be crucial to Garrett's run game. Now, like I said before, this is only an educated guess.but as I said when this post was initially posted:

I think we will find out either next draft or the 2013 draft (Dallas will more than likely be needing to draft a center by then if only to replace either Costa or Gurode).

Guess we have our Answer...right?

My Guess? this will be our line in 2013:

LT- Tyron Smith

LG-David Arkin

C- Frederick

RG- Mackenzy Bernadeau

RT- Doug Free

As always I welcome comments and critiques...Feel free to share your thoughts......

Another user-created commentary provided by a BTB reader.