The Cowboys fielded a revolving door at left guard last year and, for now, it looks like it may continue revolving through the summer. According to Michael Gehlken of The Dallas Morning News, Dallas is looking into multiple possibilities to replace Connor McGovern, who departed for Buffalo in free agency back in March.
The favorite to man the newly open starting spot is Tyler Smith, who manned the position at times last season when he wasn’t at left tackle. With Tyron Smith back to healthy, Tyler can shift inside for good this season. The younger Smith embraced the opportunity to work at guard recently, asserting that being elite at both positions will ultimately help the team the most.
The Cowboys haven’t limited the versatility training to Smith. Gehlken reports that multiple other linemen have received time at both guard and tackle this offseason. Matt Farniok, who has worked mostly at interior line positions so far in Dallas, has been working outside. Chuma Edoga has worked at right tackle and left guard, as well. Even second-year lineman Matt Waletzko was approached by offensive line coach Mike Solari to work at guard for the first time in his life.
As of right now, it looks to be a starting lineup of Tyron Smith at left tackle, Tyler Smith at left guard, Tyler Biadasz at center, Zack Martin at right guard, and Terence Steele at right tackle. With Steele still coming back from a late season-ending ACL and MCL tear, many in the building would like to see Tyler Smith continue to develop at tackle. In the meantime, it seems that Dallas is keeping its options open for both positions.
Here are a few other rumors coming out of Arlington:
- Rookie second-round tight end out of Michigan Luke Schoonmaker has been dealing with a plantar fascia issue, reportedly wearing a walking boot on his right foot last week. According to Jon Machota of The Athletic, Schoonmaker was out of the boot this week but was still limited to just sideline work. The injury isn’t considered serious, as he’s expected to be ready for the start of training camp, according to head coach Mike McCarthy.
- Owner, president, and general manager Jerry Jones continues to leave the door open for a reunion with veteran running back Ezekiel Elliott, according to Machota. His son, and team CEO, Stephen Jones says that the team is looking into adding a bigger back. They signed fullback Hunter Luepke undrafted out of North Dakota State and signed the stout Ronald Jones in free agency, but Elliott could always find his way back to Dallas despite both parties continuing to explore their options.
- Lastly, another report from Machota claims confidence that wide receiver and return specialist KaVontae Turpin should find a spot on the Cowboys’ eventual 53-man roster. While rookie running back Deuce Vaughn and Malik Davis got some opportunities to handle return duties in recent weeks, Turpin is a much more explosive and proven option. It also doesn’t hurt that Turpin has been getting some serious run with the second-team wide receiver group.
“other rumors coming out of Arlington”. They play in Arlington and their are headquarters is in the out of the way suburb north of Dallas called Frisco.
All while calling themselves the Dallas Cowboys and they don’t have any they don’t have any training facilities/headquarters in Dallas. I don’t think they have any association with Dallas besides the team name. Before Arlington they were in Irving. They’re spread out in the DFW area but still no association with Dallas. Lol. Never understood why they headquartered in Frisco. That’s a long drive from Frisco to Arlington.
That’s why Jerry has a helicopter
The NY Giants and NY Jets play in, and have all of their facilities, in New Jersey. Other teams are also outside of their namesakes, like Buffalo, Washington, etc.
Dallas is hardly the exception
Y’all acting like overgrown children! Having your club offices and practice site in the suburbs is the norm in today’s NFL.
I’m not really convinced that cross training is a great idea. I suppose the theory behind all this is to have less reliance on backups, but in many cases, instead of developing a player who is good at one thing, you’ll wind up with a player who is just average at two things.