When injury after injury befell the Cowboys offensive line in 2022, the team had to get creative. They moved players in an out of their optimal positions. Players rotated and different combinations were tested. By yearend, the Dallas line was a shell of its former self. The running game was ineffective and the pass protection was untrustworthy.
The Cowboys offense ground to halt because the damage sustained to the offensive line was too big to overcome. It’s a situation Dallas clearly hopes to avoid in 2023. The Cowboys have made a determined effort to mix and match linemen throughout offseason activities. It’s a formula they intend to continue into training camp in an quest to make the offensive line as antifragile as possible.
“Position flex is important,” Mike McCarthy said. “It’s a part of the design of a 53-man roster and even more so the 48-man roster.”
Nassim Taleb, economist/mathematician/philosopher, has literally written the book on becoming antifragile. While fragile items (like the Cowboys offensive line in 2022) break under pressure, antifragile ones get stronger from it.
It’s the difference between breaking a glass vase and breaking a bone. The glass vase is fragile and once broken, will never be as strong as it once was. The broken bone will actually heal up stronger than ever before.
Much like a healing broken bone, the Cowboys seem determined to go through the pains of cross training today all so they can be stronger or more antifragile tomorrow.
Their constant juggling goes beyond the simple search for a starting LG. They are working different combinations across the board, with only Tyler Biadasz (OC) and Zack Martin (RG) as locks in their respective positions.
“One of the things that I know Mike (McCarthy) talks about a lot is wanting to move the tackles inside so you stay athletic, you stay long, you stay big in there,” Will McClay, VP of Player Personnel, said earlier in the offseason. “You got to have the strength to anchor in there but the versatility of some of these guys…it’s tough to find five quality linemen for 32 teams so if you build the depth and you have versatile pieces when you have injuries that always come, and these guys get trained the right way, you have enough depth to go out there and continue to play your style of football.”
The Cowboys know, regardless of what they do to prepare, injuries will happen. Which is why they’re focused on the next best thing: becoming antifragile.
Testing their reserve tackles like Matt Waletzko and Josh Ball inside at guard helps them achieve that goal. Mixing and matching Tyron Smith and Tyler Smith shows what the optimal lineup can be. Finding out who can be a back-up at multiple positions and what combinations are the most effective will allow them to handle unforeseen injuries and set them on the path for resiliency.
The things the Cowboys do this summer will serve them well down the road.
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