The Cowboys have rebuilt their offensive line under Mike McCarthy

All of a sudden the Dallas Cowboys offensive line is quite different.

When Mike McCarthy first accepted the Cowboys head coaching job, there were two obvious reasons – at least from a roster perspective – why the Super Bowl winning coach was excited to come to Dallas.

For starters, he had an entrenched starting quarterback in Dak Prescott, despite the fact that Prescott would go on to play on the franchise tag that season. Additionally, McCarthy also inherited a very talented offensive line that featured Tyron Smith, Zack Martin, La’el Collins, Travis Frederick, and Connor Williams in the starting lineup.

Five years later, and things have changed quite drastically. Not only is Prescott entering the final year of his current contract, with the prospect that he may not sign a new deal before the season begins, but only one of those starters on the offensive line remains in Dallas.

Frederick never even got a chance to play for McCarthy. The highly regarded center had just returned to football in 2019 after missing the 2018 season with Guillain-Barre syndrome. Frederick was named to his fifth Pro Bowl in his comeback season, but he ultimately opted to retire a month after McCarthy’s hire after the disease flared up again.

Frederick’s retirement led to the Cowboys drafting Tyler Biadasz in the fourth round. Biadasz saw limited action as a rookie, but became the starter in 2021 and held down that role for the next two years. However, Dallas showed him the door this offseason, and Biadasz followed Dan Quinn to the Commanders in free agency.

As for Collins and Williams, both players had a more complicated conclusion to their Cowboys tenures under McCarthy. In Collins’ case, he suffered a poor first impression with the new coach. There were reports that he showed up to training camp out of shape, and a car accident right around the same time also limited his availability in practice. He was ultimately placed on the injured reserve and missed the entire season.

A year later, Collins made his debut under McCarthy. However, he was then hit with a suspension for both failing a drug test and bribing the test collector. When Collins’ suspension ended, he was kept on the bench in favor of Terence Steele until injuries paved the way for Collins to play again. However, his play was inconsistent and Collins even got ejected from a game for fighting. That offseason, the Cowboys ultimately released him after first attempting to trade him.

Williams, on the other hand, fell out of favor due to his discipline on the field. Entering the 2021 season, the Cowboys tried him out at center but ultimately kept him at left guard. After 10 weeks, though, Williams led the league in penalties and was benched in favor of Connor McGovern. Williams eventually regained his starting job, but still finished the season second in the league in penalties. That precipitated his departure via free agency.

Smith, of course, stuck around the Cowboys much longer. This season will be the first in his career without a star on his helmet, though McCarthy has become plenty familiar with not having Smith on the field. The ultra-talented but oft-injured left tackle always presented a unique challenge to the coaching staff, and now they’ll hope for more consistency (from a health perspective) from rookie Tyler Guyton.

That leaves just Zack Martin from the original group. Even then, while the future Hall of Fame guard will be suiting up for his 11th season this year, he’s been shockingly upfront about how retirement is a very real possibility after the season, adding one more layer to the seismic changes this unit will undergo.

The offensive line hasn’t just seen personnel changes, but coaching changes as well. McCarthy first brought in Joe Philbin to coach the offensive line, who brought a slightly different technique to the room. A year ago, McCarthy swapped Philbin out for Mike Solari, who introduced larger changes to the blocking schemes in Dallas as part of the schematic adjustments that came with McCarthy taking over play-calling.

Now, the Cowboys enter the 2024 season anticipating two rookies – Guyton and center Cooper Beebe – to start alongside Martin, Steele, and a newly-minted All Pro guard in Tyler Smith. The faces in the trenches look very different from what McCarthy inherited, as do the styles with which they play. McCarthy hasn’t even started his fifth year in Dallas, but he’s overseen a pretty thorough reshaping of the most important position group in that short time.