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Ask any Dallas Cowboys fan and they’ll tell you the biggest weakness of the team is their offensive line. It’s actually been that way for a few years now and the Cowboys have failed to address it properly. However, if there is one player who can help the offensive line improve in 2013, it might be Ronald Leary.
Leary, the undrafted free agent out of Memphis, is a powerful and athletic player who needs to win a starting guard spot for the Cowboys this season. Going back to last year scouts were saying that Leary had the ability, he just needed to learn a pro system and for his knees to hold up in order to be a factor. According to former Dallas Cowboys scout Bryan Broaddus, those two things have happened and Leary is legitimately competing for a starting spot on the offensive line.
“Leary looks like a completely different player than the one we saw last season. He looks more confident in what he has to accomplish assignment wise and to be quite honest if you talk to scouts around the league like I do the biggest questions about his play were the issues with the knee which appears to be giving him no problems because I have not seen him a day to rest it…”
It’s great to read the progress that Leary is making since the Cowboys expected a lot out of him after giving him a ton of guaranteed money after the draft last year. The hope was that Leary’s knees could hold up and that he would give the Cowboys a steal on a player who would’ve been a third or a fourth-round pick if his knee condition didn’t raise red flags. The scouting report on Leary gets even better though as Broaddus goes into more detail.
“I was seeing less and less of the adjustment problems to his assignments and carrying them out which really was his downfall during camp in 2012. The zone scheme appears to be a nice fit for a player that was a left tackle at Memphis. He is making quality reach and cut off blocks while also getting to the second level. In some of the short yardage plays, Bill Callahan has called his number on pulling plays to the right and Leary appears to have a feel for how to search his man and make contact.”
This should be really exciting news to Cowboys fans because it looks like the Cowboys have found a player capable of doing the things they want to do on offense. It’s also a great sign that the offensive coordinator is trusting Leary enough to call plays to his side of the field. Maybe he’s doing it to test Leary or maybe it’s being done because he’s capable of handling it, but either way it’s a positive sign.
The Cowboys struggled at guard last year and an upgrade is badly needed. Ronald Leary needs to win a starting guard spot for the Cowboys in 2013 because they cannot afford to go into another season with Mackenzy Bernadeau and Nate Livings in the starting lineup; it would be the very definition of insanity.
If the Cowboys want better line play in 2013, they should be ‘Leary’ of letting Ronald start. See what I did there?
Ben is a Cowboys writer for www.Rantsports.com and you can chat with or follow on twitter @BenGrimaldi, or add him on Google+
