While I am still working on my Breakdown Series, unfortunately my paying job has kept me busier than anticipated and not allowed me to make the progress I have wanted on that series and it takes quite a bit of time and research to put one of those together. So in the meantime I am going to start doing a question and answer article to get some new information out there (well I am taking questions that I either read on other sites, hear on radio or have people I know ask me and answer them). I have no name for this column and hope to maybe post quick little blurbs every day or every couple of days, please leave possible name suggestions in the comments or contact me through email, twitter, facebook, etc.
Also send me questions about anything and everything football!!
Question: I have heard lots of people (from every Cowboys website, Cowboys radio/podcast segment, Cowboys fan that I know) saying in one form or another that the Cowboys MUST go after free agent Guard Carl Nicks, NO MATTER WHAT.ReclinerQB Thoughts: Was Guard really the weakest position we had last year? Was it even the weakest position on the offensive line? In my opinion, not even close (Center was the weakest offensive position), yes they had some problems with consistency, and by that I mean having the same people playing from week to week. I even believe that some of the struggles that Doug Free had this year can be directly traced back to the revolving door at left guard, the team went through Bill Nagy, Kyle Kosier (before he settled in at Right Guard) Derrick Dockery, Montrae Holland and even David Arkin from the preseason on. It is very hard for a tackle to get comfortable when he is constantly having to adjust to the different style of player next to him, especially when some of them are inexperienced (both in the NFL and the style of offense you run).
With all that said, signing Carl Nicks would be a huge upgrade for just about any team as he is one of the best guards in the NFL, and at only 26, is not even in his prime. That means that there will be a lot of teams out there that will bid his price up, and there are a lot of teams that have more cap space than the Cowboys. Whichever team signs Nicks will undoubtedly be making him the highest paid guard in the history of the NFL, and he will be that teams starting guard for 5-7 years (I believe he will want a 4-5 year contract so that he can get another MONSTER payday when he is 30-31 years old, so while the contract may be publicized as a "7 year deal" it will probably be only a 4-5 year deal, realistically).
As I said on my Guard Breakdown, I (and from what I hear people in the Cowboys organization) believe that Arkin will be a starting guard in the NFL, and the team also thinks highly of Nagy (me not so much at Guard but maybe Center), and we have to remember that none of the rookies had anywhere near a regular off season due to the lockout. I think that the jump we will see in some of these players from last year to this year will be HUGE as they will have a full off season to watch film, work in the weight room, study playbooks and work with their coaches.
I am willing to go out on a limb and say that the Cowboys should only pursue Nicks if they can get him at a decent price. I would be more comfortable going after a more reasonably priced Guard in free agency (Ben Grubbs or Dan Connolly) to start at one spot and letting Arkin, Holland and Dockery battle in training camp for the other spot and keeping one of the veterans for depth (preferably Holland as I believe him and Fiammetta were the biggest reason our running game took off). In this scenario I believe we give Kosier a chance to win the starting center job as he made many of the line calls already last year and then draft a center to groom for the future (unless we can somehow land a top center in free agency).
I agree with most people that we need improved play from our interior linemen, unlike most people I believe that we have the players already on our roster, they just did not have a chance to develop because of the lockout, and we do not need to break the bank on a guard, we just need to add a strategic piece or two. The bulk of our cap space should be used to upgrade our defensive line and secondary.
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