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By Calvin Watkins
IRVING, Texas -- For the first time this offseason, the Cowboys acknowledged that left tackle Doug Free and right tackle Tyron Smith could swap positions.
Smith, the Cowboys' 2011 first-round pick, excelled in his first season, while Free struggled at times at left tackle.
When the Cowboys drafted Smith at No. 9 overall, there was a projection that he could switch to the left side if he played well enough. The Cowboys liked what they saw.
"It's certainly a possibility," head coach Jason Garrett said Thursday. "That was a possibility when we first drafted Tyron and one of the many things that was attractive about him was his physical ability to play both right and left tackle in this league. And if you remember, we gave him a chance a little bit early in training camp to have a couple of days playing the left side. He played two years at [Southern California] as a right tackle. He was a 20-year-old kid who didn't have an offseason, so we felt like, hey, we gave him a little snap shot of that, probably best for him right now to stay on the right side and he did a really good job for us this year. But he does have the physical traits as does Doug to play both sides. It's something we'll talk about as we continue to watch the tape."
IRVING, Texas -- For the first time this offseason, the Cowboys acknowledged that left tackle Doug Free and right tackle Tyron Smith could swap positions.
Smith, the Cowboys' 2011 first-round pick, excelled in his first season, while Free struggled at times at left tackle.
When the Cowboys drafted Smith at No. 9 overall, there was a projection that he could switch to the left side if he played well enough. The Cowboys liked what they saw.
"It's certainly a possibility," head coach Jason Garrett said Thursday. "That was a possibility when we first drafted Tyron and one of the many things that was attractive about him was his physical ability to play both right and left tackle in this league. And if you remember, we gave him a chance a little bit early in training camp to have a couple of days playing the left side. He played two years at [Southern California] as a right tackle. He was a 20-year-old kid who didn't have an offseason, so we felt like, hey, we gave him a little snap shot of that, probably best for him right now to stay on the right side and he did a really good job for us this year. But he does have the physical traits as does Doug to play both sides. It's something we'll talk about as we continue to watch the tape."
