Dallas Cowboys move Tyron Smith to left tackle, Doug Free shifted to right – NFL News
Dallas Cowboys have slightly shuffled their offensive line after swapping positions of Tyron Smith and Doug Free, head coach, Jason Garrett, announced on Thursday, February, 23, 2012.
Garrett, who is in Indianapolis to attend the National Football League (NFL) Scouting Combine, informed that Smith will now serve at left tackle, while Free will play at right tackle.
The restructured offensive line will come into action in April when the Cowboys will start their offseason workout programme.
Tyron, who was selected in the 2011 NFL Drafts, used to play at right tackle in his college, but Garrett thinks that the player has potential of playing on the other side of the offensive line as well.
The coach was of the view that Free, who is playing with the Cowboys since 2007 and signed a four-year, $32 million contract with the franchise last year, is also capable of playing at either side of the offensive line.
Garrett said:
"We've talked about that. Tyron will start at left tackle as a starting point and Doug will start at right tackle. The versatility that Tyron had coming out is something we really were attracted to.”
He added:
“He was a right tackle in college, as you know, but we felt like he had the physical traits to play left tackle, and the same thing with Doug Free, we felt like he could play either side."
Garrett also informed that he had talked to both the players regarding the shuffling and said that they were ready to adapt to the change.
Garrett did mention the new positions of both the players, but maintained that there would be no guarantee that they would keep on playing on the same positions.
If need be, he said, the positions can be changed again.
He said:
"Our starting point when we get back together playing football is going to be Tyron is going to be on the left side and Doug's going to be on the right side, but there's no guarantee of that."
The Cowboys finished the last season after winning and losing eight games respectively and stayed just one game behind the National Football Conference (NFC) East division leaders, New York Giants, who were the only ones to qualify for the playoffs from
the division.
These changes might help them showcasing better performance in the next season.
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