Blogging The Boys
It’s been a bumpy season for the Dallas Cowboys. The team had big expectactions coming into the year, despite taking on a new coaching staff. The front office was very active this offseason adding several new players to the team. Even though they remained frugal in free agency, the were aggressive in other means, orchestrating seven trades that added veteran players to their team. Some of these deals took place before the draft, others happened in summer before the season started, and then a couple more occurred last week right before the trade deadline.
While the effectiveness of the moves will always be scrutinized, we can at least say the Cowboys’ front office is trying. They’re often accused of not doing all that much, but when you take a look at everything they’ve done, it’s quite a long list. Let’s run through what the Cowboys have done this past year to help improve this football team.
Fixing their offensive line
Entering the new season, the Cowboys already had some good pieces along the offensive line. They have their All-Pro left guard, Tyler Smith, who’s only 24 years old. They also drafted three offensive linemen last season, Tyler Guyton, Cooper Beebe, and Nathan Thomas. But that wasn’t enough for the new offensive coaches, Klayton Adams and Conor Riley, who are both o-line specialists. They signed free agents Robert Jones, Saahdiq Charles, and Hakeem Adeniji. They also used their top draft resource on Alabama guard Tyler Booker.
The Cowboys weren’t messing around with trying to improve their strength in the trenches, and it’s worked. Despite being hit with a multitude of injuries along the offensive line, the team has maintained strong depth, supported a solid rushing attack and have given Dak Prescott plenty of time to throw. The Cowboys’ offensive line ranks in the top 10 in both pass-block and run-block win rates.
Are you pleased with the effort they made to improve the offensive line?
Fixing their running game
The fact that Javonte Williams is playing so well creates the illusion that the Cowboys did a good job handling the running back group, but if we strictly go by effort, you might get some mixed reviews. Yes, the Cowboys added four new players into the mix with free agents Williams and Miles Sanders, and two draft picks in Jaydon Blue and Phil Mafah, but outside of Williams, nobody has done much. Injuries have played a role as the free agent Sanders was averaging a career-high 5.9 yards per carry in the four games he played. Mind you, that’s a small sample size, but the one-two combo of Williams and Sanders was working for them with Williams handling the bulk of the work.
Adding four new guys is something, but all of them were cheap resources. Both Williams ($3 million) and Sanders ($1.3 million) were bargain bin free agents, and both Blue (fifth-round) and Mafah (seventh-round) were Day 3 draft investments. Williams’ success will distract us from how little the...
