Tag: Connor Williams

Connor Williams, Quandre Diggs listed on ESPN’s most overrated, underrated free agents

One of the former Longhorns listed is considered overrated.

The NFL free agency period is starting to ramp up. Continue reading “Connor Williams, Quandre Diggs listed on ESPN’s most overrated, underrated free agents”

4 interior linemen the Panthers should target in free agency

The Panthers may need to revamp the entirety of their interior offensive line this spring. Here’s where they can start.

If it weren’t for right tackle Taylor Moton, the Carolina Panthers would have exactly zero assurances on their offensive line heading into 2022. So, obviously, there’s plenty of work to be done.

Much of that work has to come from the interior—where the team could lose their starting center and currently have two sets of turnstiles at guard. So, here are four options the Panthers should key in on for that area during free agency.

Cowboys’ Connor Williams is perfect free-agency fit for Bengals, says ESPN

ESPN has the perfect free agent in mind for the Bengals.

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It’s no secret what the Cincinnati Bengals will attack this offseason — the offensive line in front of Joe Burrow.

The question is more of a who? than anything, at this point.

And for the experts over at ESPN, only one name makes sense: Dallas Cowboys guard Connor Williams.

While outlining the best team fits for the top 50 free agents, Jeremy Fowler and Matt Bowen made the case for Williams to Cincinnati:

Why it makes sense: With Quinton Spain hitting free agency, the Bengals could pair Williams with center Trey Hopkins and guard Jackson Carman, who should make a Year 2 jump. — Fowler

Scheme fit: While we have some concerns on Williams’ overall power and ability to anchor, he upgrades the interior of the Bengals’ offensive line. A good fit for Zac Taylor’s outside zone run scheme, Williams also has the movement skills to mirror in pass p ro. — Bowen

The problem with Williams isn’t age (24) or performance — he had a 76.1 PFF grade last year, measuring well in the running and passing game. What sticks out is the 15 penalties while allowing just one sack.

Granted, it’s reasonable to hope that a guy like line coach Frank Pollack can help him clean that up. And Williams’ mid-range price tag is going to be more where the Bengals would like to be on the market. He’d be an instant upgrade and that would leave plenty of wiggle room to go upgrade another spot on the line before the draft.

A former second-round pick just hitting his prime with solid upside, it would be hard to complain about Williams, even if he’s not the biggest name on the market.

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10 under the radar 2022 free agent for the Eagles to targets

10 under the radar 2022 #NFL free agents for the #Eagles to target #FreeAgency #FlyEaglesFly

NFL free agency isn’t always about landing the big names and with a little over $24 million available, Howie Roseman could fill a lot of holes with some under-the-radar names.

Value is in the eyes of the beholder and with Philadelphia having needs at running back, cornerback, linebacker, and safety among others, there are several lesser-known players set to hit the open market that can help improve the culture already in place.

With the new league year quickly approaching, here are 10 under-the-radar free agents for the Eagles to target.

List of former Longhorns who will participate in the NFL playoffs

Texas will be well represented in this year’s NFL playoffs.

The NFL wrapped up another eventful regular season on Sunday.

The league battled COVID-19 all year long but found a way to make it to the postseason without any cancelations. It was also a successful year for many former Longhorns.

Justin Tucker, Quandre Diggs and Devin Duvernay were named to the 2022 Pro Bowl. D’Onta Foreman proved himself as a valuable running back while replacing Derrick Henry for the Titans and Colt McCoy picked up a few victories for his Cardinals.

The Wildcard round is now officially upon us as we are slated for six games this weekend.

Texas fans watching the playoffs will see some familiar faces on the field.

Of the 33 former Horns on active rosters, nine will participate in this year’s NFL playoffs. Five from the NFC and four from the AFC.

Take a look at a full list of Texas exes who will start their journey to the Lombardi trophy this weekend:

Connor McGovern to start at LG per owner, Cowboys HC McCarthy hopeful for Tyron Smith return

Jerry Jones confirmed a switch at left guard. Mike McCarthy said only, “both Connors will play,” and is hopeful that Tyron Smith will go. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The Cowboys have yet to see their “best five” offensive linemen take the field together in the starting lineup in 2021. With left tackle Tyron Smith trending in the right direction after a two-game absence, it could finally happen in Kansas City on Sunday.

It just may not be the five everyone thought it was going to be.

While head coach Mike McCarthy sounds optimistic that Smith could be back for the Week 11 game versus the Chiefs, another piece on the left side of the offensive line could also be changing as well. It’s a change many within the fanbase have been clamoring for.

Owner Jerry Jones confirmed on Dallas radio that third-year player Connor McGovern will be getting the start at left guard against the Chiefs, replacing Connor Williams. Williams has started at that spot in every game this season for the Cowboys.

“I think he’s basically earned [it],” Jones said, per 105.3 The Fan.

McGovern has seen plenty of snaps in 2021, but at various other positions in the offense, lining up in special formations as a blocking back, a tight end, and even split out as a wide receiver. Now he appears set to step in at left guard, despite playing right guard for most of his career.

“The issue with him is playing left guard,” Jones continued. “He has really sold the staff and sold the team on what he can do at right guard. So he’s doing two things. He’s not only going to have that role, but he’s going to be doing it at left guard.”

McGovern started nine games at right guard last season after Zack Martin suffered a concussion and then returned to the lineup as a fill-in right tackle.

Williams has been plagued by penalties this season, drawing a league-most 13 flags in nine outings. Asked about it earlier in the week, McCarthy hinted that swapping one Connor for another might be an option.

McCarthy said Williams “clearly understands the way he performed. We have a very competitive offensive line room. We’ll see what the future brings.”

It seems the future is now here at left guard. McCarthy wouldn’t confirm a change to the starting lineup, only revealing to 105.3 The Fan that “both Connors will play in the game.”

The coach did, however, express optimism that left tackle Tyron Smith could be making his return to the left side of the line for Sunday’s interconference showdown in Kansas City.

“We’re hopeful he can go on Sunday,” the coach said of Smith at The Star in Frisco on Friday. The 30-year-old was limited in practice on both Wednesday and Thursday, with the team working him back gradually from a bone spur issue in his ankle. Friday is traditionally the team’s mock game day; Smith was scheduled to participate.

That would have him meeting the three-game threshold that McCarthy and the training staff had laid out for Smith’s week and leaves one last hurdle for the Week 11 showdown. If Smith practices Saturday, the plan is for him to take the field on Sunday.

“He looks good,” McCarthy offered. “He felt good about his work.”

And Cowboys fans have cause to feel good, too, with the team’s seven-time Pro Bowler returning to his customary spot at left tackle and a rising star getting a shot next to him in replacing a weak link.

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Mike McCarthy: Cowboys to ‘start the week’ with La’el Collins in bench role

Yes, Collins has played better than Steele at RT. Yes, Collins is better at RT than at LG. Maybe this is about making Collins earn his job. Maybe he’s a better LG than Connor. Much to dissect. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Surprise, surprise, the Dallas Cowboys haven’t been playing coy after all. Many eyebrows have been raised by fans as the front office and coaching staff have refused to utter the words most expected to hear over the last two weeks. After missing the last five games of the season due to a suspension for allegedly bribing a drug-testing official, starting right tackle La’el Collins will will have an uphill battle to return to the starting lineup.

Terence Steele has improved remarkably from his time replacing Collins during 2020, when the then-undrafted rookie free agent struggled mightily across 14 starts. He’s played much better, finding a comfort level most outside of the Dallas coaching staff did not see coming. He won the swing tackle job from veteran Ty Nsekhe in the offseason and for now at least is holding off the returning Collins.

Head coach Mike McCarthy said that as practice resumes on Wednesday, Steele will continue to run with the 1s, as Collins backs up both him and left guard Connor Williams.

Collins entered the league playing left guard before being moved outside to tackle after two seasons.

While Steele is ascending, Collins has certainly played better than Steele is playing now, but after missing five of the first six games and not playing in 2020 due to a hip injury that required surgery, Collins has opened the door for several things.

He reported to camp in 2020 badly out of shape and the team did not make the same supportive effort in his suspension appeal as they have done for another noteworthy player, Ezekiel Elliott back in 2017. Collins will apparently have to earn his way back into Dallas’ starting lineup instead of being handed the position.

The bye week certainly gave Dallas time to evaluate what they wanted to do with their offensive line. Connor Williams had a rough game in Week 6 against New England. While Collins had some signature highlight plays as a guard, he lost his starting job to Ron Leary in 2016 after he started the season with some major issues there before suffering injury.

He could still, however, prove to be a better option there than Williams, who receives a bad rap for normally more-than-adequate play at guard. Williams isn’t at the level of perennial Pro Bowlers Tyron Smith and Zack Martin, but he doesn’t play as horribly as many feel he does. That doesn’t mean that Dallas isn’t in a position to try and get the best five offensive linemen on the field.

That effort could also potentially lead to backup interior player Connor McGovern getting some snaps. He’s been placed at fullback and as a sixth lineman, but could challenge for play time with second-year center Tyler Biadasz.

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3 Cowboys fined after Week 6 win, including WR CeeDee Lamb for goodbye wave

Lamb’s wave didn’t draw a penalty flag, since it came after the game had officially ended, but it will cost him over $10,000 just the same. | From @ToddBrock24f7

CeeDee Lamb waved goodbye to Patriots cornerback Jalen Mills after beating him to the end zone on a 35-yard touchdown catch in overtime of last week’s dramatic win in New England.

But now the Dallas Cowboys receiver will be waving goodbye to $10,300 because of it.

The NFL announced fines for three Cowboys on Saturday for actions in the Week 6 game in Foxborough. Lamb’s fine was for unsportsmanlike conduct,  even thought the act itself came after the game officially went final and therefore didn’t draw a flag. The news was first reported by NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, who points out that no fine was levied against Mills for his shove of Lamb.

But the second-year pass-catching phenom isn’t the only Cowboys player for whom the team’s fifth straight win proved to be a little costly.

Rookie cornerback Trevon Diggs received a $7,981 fine for unnecessary roughness; he hit Patriots receiver N’Keal Harry in the facemask after a play in the first quarter.

And offensive lineman Connor Williams drew the biggest fine of all, a $16,394 bill for a horribly-timed unsportsmanlike conduct penalty in the final seconds of the fourth quarter of play. That infraction created a dire 3rd-and-25 situation; it was only thanks to quarterback Dak Prescott’s 24-yard completion to Lamb on the next play that the Cowboys were able to attempt the 49-yard-field goal from Greg Zuerlein that ended up sending the game into overtime.

The Cowboys have had 59 flags thrown against them so far this season, the most in the league.

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La’el Collins, Connor Williams back at Cowboys practice as O-line shuffle continues

The return of two offensive linemen comes at a key moment, just as Dallas loses All-Pro Zack Martin for the Week 1 opener versus Tampa Bay. | From @ToddBrock24f7

One of the few things Cowboys fans were able to count on in 2020 was not being able to count on knowing who would play where along the offensive line. The team went through 15 unique combinations up front before the Thanksgiving Day game even kicked off.

Getting the front five back was one of the major storylines in Dallas this offseason, but now there’s already a script change as Zack Martin’s positive COVID test almost certainly takes him out of the season opener in Tampa. But the team did get some good news on the O-line, as La’el Collins and Connor Williams returned to practice on Sunday.

Collins, of course, missed the entire 2020 season with surgery meant to correct a nagging hip issue. Supposedly back in full force this year and looking noticeably leaner after a grueling rehab, the 28-year-old tackle talked openly about having plenty “left in the tank” for the upcoming campaign.

But the LSU product left practice early on August 18th with a neck stinger. He came back the following day and even played in the preseason loss to Houston two days after that. Another neck stinger on August 27th, though, forced him off the practice field once again.

As recently as Friday, Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy was using terms like “holding pattern” in describing Collins’s playing status. But his return to practice just 96 hours before a visit to the defending Super Bowl champs bodes well for his chances to hold down the fort at right tackle.

Connor Williams rejoins the team, too, having just been activated off the Reserve/COVID list, where he had been since testing positive for the virus August 25th.

The other Connor, guard Connor McGovern, will likely draw the straw of stepping into Martin’s spot Thursday night against the likes of Buccaneers defensive linemen Vita Vea and Ndamakong Suh.

“We will continue to work the combinations, but Connor McGovern will take the majority of the reps at right guard,” McCarthy said regarding the team’s Sunday practice session.

Working the combinations. Expect the Cowboys to fall into a very well-practiced routine of shuffling players along the line in the days leading up to Thursday’s game and perhaps even moving puzzle pieces around during the Week 1 contest.

“I mean, this is the climate that we’re in,” McCarthy said recently as the COVID numbers in the Dallas locker room climbed. “The great thing is we have experience at it.”

That, they do.

The Cowboys had hoped, though, that they wouldn’t have to fall back on that experience for the very first game of the season.

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Cowboys News: Prescott pops, COVID updates, IR loss, that ‘Hard Knocks’ drone shot

Dak Prescott got rave reviews at practice while the Cowboys add players to (and get one back from) the COVID list, plus Rico Dowdle’s loss. | From @StarConscience, @Cdburnett7, and @ToddBrock24f7

In the final week of preseason football, the Dallas Cowboys have a lot to figure out. A multitude of players and coaches are currently in COVID protocol, limiting their preparation for Week 1 and raising questions about when they’ll each be back. Running back Rico Dowdle has also been lost, but his absence will be felt for longer after being placed on season-ending IR.

The Cowboys won’t have to wait much longer to unleash Dak Prescott, though; the starting quarterback rejoined team drills on Wednesday to rave reviews. Cowboys team owner Jerry Jones spoke highly of backup Cooper Rush, though, saying the offense would be efficient if he had to be the starter during the regular season. Jones also made headlines of a different sort with one NFL agent who had some harsh words for the Dallas boss.

In the player countdown to the regular season, there are four new entries with the profiles on linebackers Leighton Vander Esch and Luke Gifford, defensive end Bradlee Anae, and left guard Connor Williams.

And the story behind that epic Hard Knocks drone shot is as crazy as the three-minutes of footage that opened this week’s episode. This is Wednesday’s Cowboys News and Notes.