Bookin It To Dallas
The Dallas Cowboys selected offensive guard Tyler Booker with the twelfth overall pick in the NFL Draft. Booker played at the University of Alabama for three years and attended IMG High School, which is one of the perennial powerhouses in high school football.
Booker is a mammoth of a human, standing at 6’5 321 pounds. He has eleven-inch hands and has almost thirty-five inches of arm. He possesses a lot of strength, as that is how the game is. Booker is a true mauler. Booker is an elite pass protector as well. He routinely gives no ground when pass protecting and uses those thirty-four-inch arms to keep defenders away. Booker also shows exceptional awareness with stunts, meaning that he is a smart player. Booker is a powerful and brute force in the interior is highly important when considering who Dallas sees this year. Jalen Carter in Philly, Dexter Lawrence in New York, and plenty of other great interior defensive linemen, Booker will be ready.
The Dallas Cowboys are clearly building a new identity. They are going to pound the rock. Hiring Klayton Adams as the new offensive coordinator was just the first piece of many steps they’ve taken to emphasize that this team is GOING to run the football, whether opposing defenses like it or not. Tyler Guyton has a lot of work to do, but considering how raw of a prospect he was, believing he’ll come back into year two better and more knowledgeable shouldn’t be anything out of the ordinary. Tyler Smith is an elite guard who can move to tackle if needed. Cooper Beebe showed great flashes in year one, and he should be even better in year two. Tyler Booker should be a plug-and-play guy at right guard, much less of a project than last year’s first-round pick, Tyler Guyton. So he won’t directly replace the production that Zack Martin gave this team, but Booker should at least be serviceable in year one. Despite all the hate Terrence Steele gets, he’s one of the best ten to fifteen run blockers in the sport. Yes, he struggles in pass protection, but he is a big man in the run game.
Obviously, not every pick is rainbows and sunshine. Booker has his flaws, and the selection in general does too. Booker isn’t necessarily an athlete for his position. He scored a 3.68 on his Relative Athletic Score(RAS). Although he has the power to be one of the best run blockers, he struggles to stay latched onto his man, often getting beaten by linemen who can move well. Blocking in the open field is a concern as well, since he’s not a great athlete, it’s going to be hard for him to get out on screens, as he constantly takes bad angles and misses his man completely. Booker will be a good player, but no prospect is perfect; he will obviously have things to work on, like everyone in this draft will. Where the main problem comes in, however, is the pick itself. Brock Hoffman showed flashes of very good, and has a similar dog mentality to Booker. The interior of the offensive line was the strongest part of the offensive line, and with a lack of weapons at receiver, this pick can be a concern. Even if Dallas didn’t want to go receiver, there were many players graded higher, and some of those players were also at a high position of need. Dallas has changed their identity to a team that wants to run the air out of the football, but who’s going to run the football? Javonte Williams hasn’t been a serviceable runner since his injury, and are they seriously going to trust Miles Sanders and Deuce Vaughn to run the ball? There were players on the defense who could’ve helped more, but they went with the offensive guard.
Tyler Booker WILL be a good player theres no doubt about it. The pick has it’s problems, and Booker has his, but the draft isn’t over after round one. The Cowboys have nine more picks, lets see what they do.
