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#4 Dallas Cowboys
Offense: LT Tyron Smith, LG La’el Collins, C Travis Frederick, RG Zack Martin, RT Cameron Fleming; Bench – Chaz Green, Connor Williams & Joe Looney
Defense: LE DeMarcus Lawrence, DT Maliek Collins, DT David Irving, RE Tyrone Crawford; Bench – Kony Ealy, Taco Charlton, Jihad Ward & Datone Jones
What has been the talk about the Cowboys? They lack a true number one receiver and they don’t have the people in the secondary to stop opponents’ passing attack. Yet, with the way they are constructed up front, they can get away with some shortcomings outside the hashes.
We called this Cowboys offensive line “The Great Wall of Dallas 2.0” a couple of years ago and after a down-season, nobody seems to talk about them anymore. However, I think they have a good shot at moving back up to the number one overall spot as a unit this upcoming season.
A fully healthy Tyron Smith has a pretty good argument for being the top left tackle in the game, Zack Martin is a perennial All-Pro guard and Travis Frederick has been in the Pro Bowl every year since his sophomore campaign.
Most importantly, however, La’el Collins can move back to left guard, which is clearly his best natural position, with Cameron Fleming coming over from New England to man the right tackle spot. I also think Texas rookie Connor Williams could see a lot of playing time because he has position flexibility if any of those five misses time or Fleming struggles early on.
Defensively, DeMarcus Lawrence had a breakout season, leading the league in sacks for most of 2017. He was put on the franchise tag and will be looking to recreate those numbers to earn a big payday. David Irving has taken over games single-handedly in the past and having him for 16 weeks will make this a completely different unit.
While Maliek Collins hasn’t developed into the player the Cowboys envisioned him to, I think Tyrone Crawford is a highly underrated D-linemen. With the guys I mentioned as bench players, which consists of high draft picks with a lot of upside, Dallas might go eight men deep in their rotation. They will look to keep these guys fresh and hungry for quarterbacks.
