A quickie here: Todd Archer of ESPN Dallas has just tweeted that the Cowboys have signed Kyle Kosier to a three year deal. JasonLaCanfora reports that the contract is expected to be around 9 million. How much of that is guaranteed is as yet undisclosed.
Last season, as Keg so ably demonstrated in his recent post on the Dallas O-line, the more mobile left side of Free and Kosier were by far superior to the lumbering right side, where Leonard Davis and Marc Colombo did their business. With the drafting of players like Tyron Smith and David Arkin in April, it was apparent that Jason Garrett wanted to acquire linemen whose games resembled that of Free and Kosier, so that all five players could pull, run in space and get to the second level. As recently as yesterday evening, with both "leftsiders" as free agents on the open market (and, reportedly, a bidding war breaking out for Free's services), this seemed a tall order.
But, as Keg pointed out, Jerry always gets his man. In this case, the 32-year old Kosier (he'll be 33 in November) will likely be a Cowboy for the rest of his career. He's a feel-good story of sorts: as one of the few free agents brought to the Cowboys without much fanfare, he has proven to be one of their best FA pickups. Although he missed a few games to injury in 2008 and 2010 (and proved difficult if not impossible to replace in both instances), he has been Mr. Steady during his Cowboys tenure.
This is an important signing for another reason as well; Kosier is a savvy vet who helps center Andre Gurode make a lot of the pre-snap line calls. Gurode has a lot on his plate this summer: he'll have to get his knee well, then get used to having a new player on his right side; having to make all the calls would be an unwelcome additional burden.
More to follow as the news trickles out...