The Dallas Cowboys offensive line had real problems on Sunday night against the Los Angeles Rams, grading out as the third worst in the NFL.
It doesn’t take a football savant to recognize the offensive line for the Dallas Cowboys was beaten like a drum on Sunday night against the Los Angeles Rams. Quarterback Dak Prescott was under a seemingly endless barrage of pressure led by defensive tackle, and two-time Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald.
Luckily for Dallas, they won’t face him again in the regular season. Unluckily, the Cowboys are still missing right tackle La’el Collins for at least the next two weeks and there’s, for the first time in a long time, serious concern about the offensive line.
Led by Aaron Donald, the Los Angeles Rams caused Dak Prescott to play under fire throughout their Week 1 matchup. He was under pressure on 19 dropbacks, the second-most of the week. When a quarterback is under pressure that much, not many good things are going to happen for the offense … As a whole, the Dallas offensive line was the third-lowest graded unit of the day and lost the third-most reps.
As a whole, the Dallas offensive line was the third-lowest graded unit of the day and lost the third-most reps. Tackle Tyron Smith and center Joe Looney didn’t play poorly, as they earned pass-block grades of 77.3 and 69.1, respectively, but the other three (Connor Williams, Zack Martin and Terence Steele) offensive linemen struggled. All three were either beaten by a defender or allowed a pressure on six or more pass-block reps. While the Cowboys won’t face a player like Donald every week — and Martin is likely to bounce back, given he was the highest-graded active guard in pass protection from 2014-19 — Williams and Steele are two reasons to worry, especially with facing Grady Jarrett in Week 2.
It used to be these exact pieces praising the best line in football. Father time has taken its toll on the unit. Tyron Smith and Zack Martin both turn 30 this year. Travis Frederick retired. Combine that with the underwhelming play by 2018 second-round pick Connor Williams and it’s suddenly a group that has ugly warts.
Prior to the game, the football world was shocked to hear that right tackle would be manned by UDFA rookie Terence Steele from Texas Tech, and not veteran Cam Erving who was signed to be the swing tackle this past spring.
If the Cowboys weren’t pleased with Steele’s performance, they lost the opportunity to go with Erving when the latter sprained his MCL on special teams duty. When it rains it pours, even under the canopy of SoFi Stadium.
There’s no reason to expect it to be this bad for the entire year, but a team’s season can go south in a hurry if this specific issue doesn’t get fixed. Week 1 was a flat out reminder that nothing gold stays in the NFL, not even the Dallas Cowboys offensive line.
After freeing up $3.25M by releasing Gerald McCoy the Cowboys add an additional $7M in cap space by restructuring Tyron Smith’s contract.
The Dallas Cowboys may not take the field Saturday for practice but that hasn’t stopped them from handling business off of it. After freeing up $3.25 million in cap space with the release of Gerald McCoy earlier this week the Cowboys are converting $8.9 million of Tyron Smith’s salary into a signing bonus, creating an additional $7.1 million worth of wiggle room with the voided year added.
The void year acts simply as a placeholder to spread the proration of the bonus over five seasons’ cap instead of just the four remaining on Smith’s deal. Smith will still be a free agent in 2024 under his current deal.
The Cowboys converted $8.9M of OT Tyron Smith base salary into a signing bonus, per source. That clears $6.675M in cap space for Dallas to work with this year (unless a void year was added, which would bring it $7.12M).
Cap flexibility for free agents or in-season management.
The move is mostly about carrying over cap space for 2021 as the Cowboys are facing a potential $37.7 million dollar franchise tag number if a long-term deal for quarterback Dak Prescott isn’t reached, especially with the cap expected to take a dip due to the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
Please stop don't connect what the Cowboys did with Tyron Smith's restructure to Clowney or Earl Thomas. It's not that. It's about 2021 cap space more than anything else.
Although Smith has missed three games in each of the last four seasons the Cowboys are showing great confidence in him going forward with this move. Smith signed a ten-year, $109 million dollar deal with $40 million in guarantees back in 2014. He was set to make $10 million in base salary before the restructure.
Lane Johnson is No. 6 in a ranking of tackles entering the 2020 season
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The 2020 season is fast approaching and the Eagles will again have one of the top offensive lines in the NFL thanks to star right tackle Lane Johnson.
With Brandon Brooks out, Johnson is the high profile name on the line and he’ll be leaned on by Jason Peters who’s returning to play right guard.
Pro Football Focus recently ranked the top-25 offensive tackles in the NFL entering the 2020 season and Johnson landed in the top-10 at No. 6, while second-year left tackle Andre Dillard was left off the list.
6. LANE JOHNSON, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES
It’s a shame that Johnson’s 2019 season ended the way it did, as he was having a career year. He produced an 88.8 PFF grade, ranking second in the NFL. His run-block grade sat at 92.6, which was the best we have seen at the position since Joe Staley in 2012. He’s created holes for the run game ever since he came into the NFL in 2013, ranking outside the top-10 in run-block grade just once. That’s the definition of reliable right there. To take that a step further, Johnson played 2018 with a couple of nagging injuries and still managed to produce like a top-10 tackle.
Johnson will no doubt use the top-6 ranking as motivation, and as one of the highest-paid at his position, he’s definitely worthy of feeling like he should be the highest-rated tackle in football.
The Eagles simply aren’t the same as a unit without Johnson on the field.
However, Smith may not be as high on the list as many USC fans would hope to see him, especially coming off his seventh consecutive Pro Bowl appearance in 2019 with Dallas.
Smith comes in at No. 7 on the list, not bad for an aging veteran, but hardly indicative of how good he has been in his career, and as recently as last year.
USA TODAY writer Mark Schofield explains:
Over eight years at left tackle, Smith has allowed just 19 credited sacks. That includes one in 2018 and one again in 2019. That is extremely impressive for a left tackle. He did allow 23 quarterback hurries in 2019, his most allowed since 2013, as well as 30 quarterback pressures (again his most since 2013), which sees him slide a bit in these rankings. But not too far.
While Smith’s performance may be waning (a tiny bit) he’s still among the league’s most elite pass and run blockers, and the Cowboys are more than happy sliding him in to protect Dak Prescott for the foreseeable future.
Tackle Tyron Smith and defensive end Jurrell Casey were each chosen among the 80 best players in the NFL by their peers.
The NFL is releasing their top-100 players heading into the 2020 season, as voted on by the players themselves.
So far the league has released 71-100 and a pair of former USC Trojans, defensive end Jurrell Casey and left tackle Tyron Smith, have been selected.
Smith came in at No. 78 overall, his seventh consecutive year showing up on the list, after once again proving to be an elite pass protector in 2019. Smith allowed just one sack in 13 games played last year with Dallas.
He is a seven-time Pro Bowler and was a member of the 2010’s All-Decade Team, no doubt cementing himself among the best tackles the game has ever seen, and one of the best USC Trojans to play in the NFL.
Casey came in at No. 71 overall. Entering his first season with the Broncos, Casey will look to make his sixth consecutive Pro Bowl appearance in 2020.
He has solidified himself as one of the most reliable, dependant players at his position over the last decade, playing in 139 of a possible 144 games and racking up 51 sacks and 115 quarterback hits.
One of the newest Broncos checks in at No. 71 on the #NFLTop100 …
There are still 70 players to go, and a handful of other former USC stars could find themselves listed among the best of the best as the rest of the list comes out this week.
The Dallas Cowboys had six Pro Bowlers last season and a handful of snubs, so in any NFL top 100 list based on 2019, they should be expected to appear several times. When the list is the NFL’s own Top 100, it is even more imperative for America’s …
The Dallas Cowboys had six Pro Bowlers last season and a handful of snubs, so in any NFL top 100 list based on 2019, they should be expected to appear several times. When the list is the NFL’s own Top 100, it is even more imperative for America’s Team to be represented.
The NFL’s list is curated based on votes of the player’s themselves, and though over the years many of the participants have admitted to not taking the process too seriously, it’s still a high honor to be recognized by one’s peers. Thus far, the first 30 of the list have been revealed with, linebacker Jaylon Smith checking in at No. 88, and left tackle Tyron showing up in the next set.
Smith enjoyed his first Pro Bowl season in 2019, but drops 28 spots from his No. 61 ranking in last year’s list. Smith proved himself durable in 2019, however, posting a career-high 142 tackles while starting all 16 games for the second year in a row.
The specifics of Smith’s rankings are actually pretty accurate. Smith did not have nearly the same season he had in 2018, when he was a Pro Bowl snub. Playing without his partner-in-crime Leighton Vander Esch for most of the season, Smith racked up the tackles, but did not have the greatest season in coverage.
Smith’s Pro Football Focus coverage grade plummeted from a stellar 80.6 in 2018 down to a mediocre-at-best 60.8 in 2019. He allowed three touchdowns and was called for five penalties. With Vander Esch’s return and a switch to a new role in Mike Nolan’s defense, the hope is Smith can return to form, or even improve on where he was in 2018.
As for the tackle, Smith once again was among the league’s best, earning him position No. 76.
A seven-time Pro Bowler and a member of the 2010’s All-Decade Team, Smith is one of the best blocking offensive tackles to ever play the game. A nine-year veteran, he has twice made first-team All-Pro. In 13 games at left tackle last season, the USC product allowed just one sack.
Though he only played in 13 games yet again, when he did play he was his great self again. Though he was dinged for eight penalties, close inspection shows he was being dinged for immaculate technique and ridiculous quickness.
Smith has been named to seven consecutive Pro Bowls and looks to anchor another edition of one of the NFL’s best offensive lines with guard Zack Martin and right tackle La’el Collins.
You need to protect the quarterback in today’s NFL, and if you’re going to be a great tackle start there. Here are the est in the game.
A few years ago, long before a career change that brought me to this moment, I was doing what probably everyone reading this piece was doing: Watching the NFL Draft. It was the 2013 NFL Draft to be exact, and the Miami Dolphins had just made their first-round selection: Dion Jordan, a pass rusher out of the University of Oregon.
It was a bit of a shocking move, in that Jordan was considered a first-round prospect but maybe not someone worthy of a Top Five selection. He also tore his labrum that February and would be sidelined for three to four months as he recovered from the surgery to repair the injury.
When the pick was made Mike Mayock, covering the draft for the NFL Network, said something that has stuck with me since. He talked about how the Jordan pick was more evidence that the most important spot on a football field is the seven yards behind the center. I’m paraphrasing now, but he said that teams need guys who can “throw from that spot, protect that spot, and attack that spot.”
When you are going to pay the guy throwing from that spot somewhere in the vicinity of $500 million dollars, the guys protecting that spot better be darn good at what they do.
Here are some of the best the league has to offer at protecting the spot from the tackle position.
Two names are going to be glaringly absent from this list, so we need to address them right out of the gate. First up is Trent Williams, who found a new home this offseason with the San Francisco 49ers. Williams is usually a lock for lists like this, but as he missed all of 2019, he failed to meet the snap threshold for this piece. Then there is Jason Peters, another mainstay at the offensive tackle position. Part of the criteria for these lists is a bit of forward-thinking, and since Peters is actually kicking inside to guard this year for the Philadelphia Eagles, it is hard to consider him a tackle for this exercise.
Other names that just missed out include Bryan Bulaga, who is sliding into a tackle spot for the Los Angeles Chargers this season, and Jake Matthews, who continues a long lineage of NFL success. Then there is Trent Brown, a massive human who locked down Tom Brady’s blindside two seasons ago, and now handles the right tackle spot for the Las Vegas Raiders. A few more years of success from Brown probably slides him onto future such lists. Finally Braden Smith is worthy of consideration after just two years in the league, and perhaps he’ll crack the Top 11 in next year’s edition.
Best Tackle Pair
(Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports)
As we will discuss in a few minutes, you need bookends at the tackle position in today’s NFL. Gone are the days when the best pass rusher was going to be attacking your left tackle on down after down. Now defenses are attacking from every possible angle, and some of the best pass rushers in the game (such as Von Miller and Khalil Mack) are working against your right tackle in large part. So the teams that have a pair of bookend tackles are in good shape.
Those teams include the Baltimore Ravens, who get to roll out Ronnie Stanley and Orlando Brown Jr. on Sundays. Then there are the Dallas Cowboys, and we will see both La’el Collins and Tyron Smith on this list. Indianapolis has a solid pair as well, with Anthony Castonzo and the previously-mentioned Braden Smith. Some good pairs were broken up this offseason, such as Bavid Bakhtiari and Bryan Bulaga, as well as Taylor Lewan and Jack Conklin. Lane Johnson and Jason Peters are still teammates, but no longer the pair of bookends they once were.
That brings us to the top duo, the combination of Ryan Ramczyk and Terron Armstead in New Orleans. Both players make this list and they are both elite talents at the position. Sean Payton and company have assembled a talented offensive line group and these bookend tackles are a huge part.
Lane Johnson No. 6 in ESPN.com ranking of top offensive tackles in NFL
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Lane Johnson gets motivated by the slightest hint of disrespect and the recent ranking of offensive tackles by ESPN.com should have the Eagles star roaring and ready for the 2020 NFL season to start.
In a changing of the guard in some sense, Johnson finished outside the top-5, landing at No. 6 on the list behind Terron Armstead of the New Orleans Saints who was No. 5 on the list.
6. Lane Johnson, Philadelphia Eagles
Age: 30 | Highest ranking: 3 | Lowest ranking: 12
Johnson has been doing serious work at right tackle for a while now, and 2019 featured some of his best. Johnson produced the highest run-blocking grade on Pro Football Focus and won on 90.2% of his pass blocks while committing a respectable four penalties.
But his career wasn’t always trending that way in the eyes of some.
“Along lines of Tunsil — didn’t think much of him early, turned into a quality starting tackle,” a long-time defensive assistant said. “I thought he was a bust, but to his credit, he changed the conversation.”
Johnson is an ideal fit for today’s NFL that prioritizes athleticism in space, with one executive calling him “on a different level” than most from an athletical standpoint.
“Nowadays there aren’t any power-type guys where you say, ‘Oh man, he’s so powerful,'” an AFC exec said. “Aren’t a lot of guys who create movement. It’s about matching up athletically and giving your offense time. And Lane can do that.”
Johnson was a stud in 2019, but the four missed games at crucial points in the season seemed to hinder his ranking entering the 2020 NFL season.
In the ranking, Johnson maintained his status as the top right tackle in the NFL as well. Dallas Cowboys star left tackle Tyron Smith was No. 1 on the list.
The Cowboys seven-time Pro Bowler Tyron Smith was ranked the NFL’s top offensive tackle by ESPN. Based on average annual salaries and recent production Ezekiel Elliott was named the Cowboys most overpaid player.
Even as he continued to battle nagging injuries in 2019, Dallas Cowboys star left tackle Tyron Smith made his seventh consecutive Pro Bowl. He was recently ranked the top offensive tackle in the NFL by ESPN, but there’s a few names missing from the list. Ezekiel Elliott signed a six-year, $90 million dollar extension before the beginning of last season and finished in the top-five in several statistical categories. However, based on average annual salary and recent production he was surprisingly named the Cowboys’ most overpaid player.
The July 15 deadline for Dak Prescott to sign a long-term deal is rapidly approaching, but according to ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler, the Cowboys are willing to be patient until the end. Amari Cooper is one of the best wide receivers in the NFL, yet opinions on him vary amongst league executives. CeeDee Lamb’s most effective route, how Amari Cooper could be primed for his best season, and three things you can learn from preseason rankings are covered in the news and notes.
ESPN is currently releasing its rankings of the top 10 players at every position. One anonymous NFC executive had high praise for the Cowboys Tyron Smith when it came to the league’s top offensive tackles. Question, where is La’el Collins and Mitchell Schwartz, can right tackles get some love?
Opinions on Cowboys wide receiver Amari Cooper are split amongst NFL personnel. Some see him as a top 10 receiver easily, while others have him ranked a lot lower.
Having Michael Gallup and CeeDee Lamb alongside him and another year working with Kellen Moore could see Amari Cooper have the best season of his career.
Recently on NFL Total Access, Deangelo Hall discussed Dak Prescott’s contract situation. Although he doesn’t view him on the level of Patrick Mahomes, he feels he’s worth the $35 million dollar price tag he commands.
The Dallas Cowboys still have an abundance of wealth along the offensive line, even with the retirement of Travis Frederick. Truth be told, the center position hasn’t been elite in North Texas since the 2017 season, but left tackle Tyron Smith and …
The Dallas Cowboys still have an abundance of wealth along the offensive line, even with the retirement of Travis Frederick. Truth be told, the center position hasn’t been elite in North Texas since the 2017 season, but left tackle Tyron Smith and right guard Zack Martin haven’t been left to fend for themselves, either.
On the contrary, the right tackle may have taken some years to reach the status, but in 2019 La’el Collins came into his own as a force of nature. In fact, he may have already surpassed Smith as the Cowboys’ best tackle. Who would have seen that coming?
Up until his under-the-radar extension talks leading into September 2019, there was plenty of talk in these parts that Collins second contract would expire, and the Cowboys would be considering in-house options to hold the edge down. He was rewarded with financial security, and then turned around and rewarded Dak Prescott with one of the best offensive tackle performances in the league.
Collins finished the year as Pro Football Focus’ fifth-highest graded tackle and third-highest in run blocking. He didn’t make the Pro Bowl, but should have, as he finally fulfilled the promise shown back in his early years when he was bulldozing defenders.
Or when he was keeping pace with running backs 40 yards down the field.
Early Years
The 6-foot-4, 320-pound tackle out of LSU was initially moved inside after joining the Cowboys, but that wasn’t even close to the most difficult transition he had to make entering the league. Projected to be a first-round pick, his draft stock was submarined by a Louisiana police investigation. His ex-girlfriend was murdered, and he was considered a person of interest. He was never considered a suspect, but the mystery just a few days before the draft sent him plummeting.
After missing out on the first round and as teams passed on Day 2, his agent began working to ensure Collins would go undrafted, thus allowing him to choose his destination. Anyone unfamiliar with the salesman that is Jerry Jones, learned for the final time in 2015. Jones, with help from quarterback Tony Romo, Smith, Martin and Frederick, wined, dined and wooed Collins and his mother, signing the Bayou Bengal as a UDFA.
As a rookie with veteran Doug Free was entrenched at right tackle, Collins career started in a reserve role. He didn’t get onto the field until left guard Ron Leary struggled through the first part of the season and Jason Garrett made the switch. He played well enough to earn the job going into 2016 and made a handful of highlight plays in a disappointing season.
The following year, Collins struggled out the gate. A foot injury landed him on injured reserve but his play was suffering before then. Leary got his job back, parlayed the opportunity to excel on a 13-3 team into a Pro Bowl appearance and a hefty contract with the Denver Broncos.
The following year, Free retired and Collins returned to his collegiate position of tackle.
Collins began his return and his ascent.
Contract Killer
After dropping from the first round he was projected to be drafted in, Collins lost out on a ton of guaranteed money and five years of team control. If he had been taken later in the draft, Collins would have a lot less money and been stuck for four years. As a UDFA, he signed just a three-year deal, worth just over $1.5 million total with a $21,000 signing bonus.
Jones and the Cowboys made him whole, though.
After just two years the Cowboys extended Collins another two years, for $15.4 million. The total compensation across the five seasons was equal to what Collins would have made as a first-round pick.
The move to right tackle came next as Collins took over for a retired Free and started to reclaim the glory. His 2017 grades bounced back a bit, reaching his rookie level after the small sample size of the prior year. Considering the staunch competition he faced, his performance was more than acceptable. Jason Pierre-Paul, Chandler Jones, Robert Quinn, Ryan Kerrigan and Justin Houston all lined up across the youngster.
In 2018 he continued to improve, bringing his PFF grade up from 63.3 to 71.9. Still, the amount of penalties he incurred (11) and sacks allowed (8) brought into question whether or not he was going to be a long-term solution.
The Cowboys had drafted Texas’ Connor Williams in the second round the previous April and converted him to guard, but there were whispers he had received a similar promise as Collins had, that he would eventually be moved to tackle.
Williams didn’t have the functional strength to impress as a rookie though, so it was hard to consider he may be moved initially. The drafting of Connor McGovern in 2019’s third round brought flexibility back into the fold in a “best five lineman” approach, with Collins entering the final year of his extension.
Until it wasn’t his final year anymore.
The Cowboys and Collins killed another contract, agreeing to a new, five-year extension right before the 2019 season kicked off. The additional years brought Collins an additional $50 million and locked him in through 2024, bringing him in line with the other fixtures in the group.
Smith is signed through 2023, Martin through 2024. Before his retirement, Frederick was inked through 2023 as well. The group was primed to protect Dak Prescott’s front side, blind side and front side through the QBs next contract, with whichever of the Connor’s emerged as the best candidate at LG.
Before the season, though, Collins was seen as the weakest of the four fixtures. No longer.
Hitman
A lot of players tend to fall off in their production after they receive a big deal. That wasn’t the case for Collins at all. He went from good to great in a hurry during 2019. He started off with back-to-back shutouts, not allowing a single hurry, hit or QB sack against New York or against Washington. Say what you want about Washington’s overall team, but their defensive front is a powerhouse and shutting them out is no small feat.
Collins would have four shutouts on the season, only allowing two sacks all year according to PFF. His penalty rate also dropped, plummeting from 11 to 5, meaning that the sacks allowed was truly a function of better technique.
The Cowboys messed with a good thing when it came to their OL coaching. For the first half of 2018, Paul Alexander was the coach, and he brought with him a bunch of different teaching techniques that screwed with the entire group on the way to 56 sacks allowed for the season.
Collins suffered more than any of the other lineman, unable to change over after having just shifted back to tackle brain one year prior. When Marc Colombo took over for Alexander midseason, the switch went on for Collins and that improvement continued into the 2019 season.
It wasn’t just pass blocking, either.
Ezekiel Elliott rushed for a full yard more per carry running to right tackle as opposed to left tackle; 4.06 to 3.06. Two of Elliott’s three 30+-yard runs went to the right side where Collins patrols.
While Collins missed the majority of his second season with injury, he’s played through a lot of nicks and bruises without them taking him out of the lineup. He’s missed just one game in the last three seasons, Week 6 of last year.
With Smith missing three games a year annually, and with Collins improved play in 2019, it stands to reason he’s the club’s 1A offensive tackle, despite playing on the right side.
This is part of our Countdown to the Regular Season player profile countdown. Up next is LG Zack Martin.
