Here are the potential Dallas Cowboys offensive line combinations following their selection of Tyler Guyton.
The Dallas Cowboys have a new offensive tackle. His name is Tyler Guyton.
It was about as obvious as it could be that Dallas was going to target an offensive lineman in the first round of the 2024 NFL Draft, and even though they traded back from their original selection (picking up a third-round pick in the process), they still did so with Guyton.
At the moment Guyton is a bit of a raw tackle prospect, but if there is any place where the Cowboys have earned the benefit of the doubt it is along the offensive line. This is their arena.
With Guyton now in the fold we now have to figure out what things may look like. Here are three possible offensive line combinations with him involved.
Scenario 1: Tyler Guyton lines up at left tackle
It makes the most sense for the Cowboys to approach life with Tyler Guyton as their new left tackle. That would at least be the best case scenario.
Tyler Smith manned the left tackle spot two years ago as a first-round rookie so Dallas doing this would hardly be unheard of. If they did go down this path they would look something like:
- LT: Tyler Guyton
- LG: Tyler Smith
- C: Brock Hoffman
- RG: Zack Martin
- RT: Terence Steele
This is the most chalk possible offensive line relative to what the Cowboys currently have on their roster. Brock Hoffman figures to be the starting center with Tyler Biadasz now elsewhere unless the Cowboys pick up a quality candidate in the next couple of rounds to compete for the spot. The opening is right there for Guyton to slide right in and take over on the left side.
It is undeniably a risk to play a rookie at left tackle, especially in a year of such significance, but again the Cowboys have done this just two years ago so they are clearly unafraid of that sort of challenge.
Scenario 2: Tyler Guyton lines up at right tackle
For the most part Guyton played right tackle at Oklahoma. Plenty of draft evaluators believe he is more comfortable on the right side.
History has also shown that the Cowboys are willing to play their left tackle of the future on the right side (shout out to the aforementioned Tyron Smith) so they could always go down that path with Guyton; however, Terence Steele is currently on the team so this would involve demoting him or swapping him over to the left.
- LT: Terence Steele or Matt Waletzko
- LG: Tyler Smith
- C: Brock Hoffman
- RG: Zack Martin
- RT: Tyler Guyton
Obviously the left tackle position looks very questionable here. Dallas would either be trusting Matt Waletzko with no real track record or asking Terence Steele to flip to the other side of the line. It seems a bit outlandish, but we are simply exploring all options right now.
Scenario 3: Tyler Guyton lines up at right tackle, but Terence Steele is still a starter
For the purposes of having any and every conversation, the Cowboys could elect to play Guyton at right tackle but approach the rest of their line with a bit of a twist.
You will recall that last offseason Jerry Jones toyed with the idea of playing Terence Steele at left guard. Imagine that world.
- LT: Tyler Smith
- LG: Terence Steele
- C: Brock Hoffman
- RG: Zack Martin
- RT: Tyler Guyton
Again, in this scenario the Cowboys could keep Guyton where he is “comfortable” at right tackle, but at a serious cost. They’d be moving both Tyler Smith and Terence Steele to positions that they did not primarily play last year just to maybe move Smith back inside in the future if Guyton is the left tackle at that point in time.
All told Scenario 1 seems to make the most sense. Hopefully that is where the Cowboys go.
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