Terence Steele has come a long way in the past year. Last season, when he was asked to fill in for an injured La’el Collins, Steele struggled early and often. The coaching staff was patient with the young undrafted rookie but Cowboys fans were up in arms, demanding for Zack Martin to slide over to right tackle to stop the bleeding. As the Cowboys struggled through a disappointing 2020 season in which they won a total of 6 games, Terence Steele was public enemy number one for Cowboys fans. It didn’t matter to Cowboys fans that Steele had improved significantly in the second half of the season. He very quietly started to actually play well down the stretch but still, Cowboys fans were too scarred from his early struggles and they couldn’t cut him any slack.
During the offseason, Terence Steele must have taken all that criticism to heart. He was singled out by the coaching staff as a player who had worked extremely hard in the offseason strength and conditioning program. He had shown a level of comfort and confidence in the understanding his role that even despite looking shaky in the pre-season, he was called upon to fill in for La’el Collins once again. La’el had incurred a five game suspension following the Cowboys week 1 loss the Buccaneers and alarm bells were going off amongst Cowboys faithful at the very mention of Terence Steele’s name. Terence silenced his critics immediately with a strong performance against Joey Bosa and the Los Angeles Chargers in week 2 and has continued to play well for the duration of Collins’ suspension. He has played so well in fact, that some of those same Cowboys fans who were blasting Steele a few weeks before were now wanting to trade away La’el Collins for defensive help.
The trade talks are a bit premature, especially for a team that has struggled to find a dependable swing tackle for several years. Cowboy fans seem to have forgotten that there is also another tackle on the other side who has dealt with his fair share of injuries these past years. Tyron Smith is an All-World, elite player but let us not forget the name Chaz Green. That name is synonymous with the Cowboys inability to adapt to the loss of key starters because of a serious lack of depth at certain positions. The Cowboys would be wise to take advantage of that depth that they now finally have at the offensive tackle position.
Since a trade is not a viable option, the only question is, should La’el Collins get his job back? The simple answer is, “Yes”. Terence Steele has performed well during this 5 game stretch, but La’el Collins is the better player. Collins should be inserted back into the starting lineup with Steele now solidifying the role of swing tackle. There are some clues though that suggest that it may not play out that way at all. First of all, when asked if La’el Collins will be starting this week against the Vikings, neither Jerry Jones nor Mike McCarthy said that would be the case and neither ruled out Steele as a possible starter. Those responses started to peak the interest of Cowboys media and fans. What has really gotten a lot of peoples attention is that as the team returned to practice following the bye week, the Dallas Cowboys unofficial depth chart has Terence Steele listed as the current starter. With Steele starting at right tackle during practice, Collins got some work in the interior at both left and right guard. That development has Cowboys fans wondering if Collins will move back to Left guard where he played during his rookie season. Connor Williams is the current starting left guard and has had to endure a fair amount of criticism himself from the Cowboys faithful. Whether or not that is deserved is a discussion for another day, but needless to say there are a quite a few Cowboys fans that would love for things to play out in such a way.
There are a good number of reasons to justify starting Terence Steele over La’el Collins. The biggest reason is cohesion. An offensive line is not simply 5 individual players that play their positions independently. It is a group who must communicate with each other, anticipate and react to each other, and operate as a single unit. Throwing another guy into the mix, regardless of how talented, could upset the synergy that has been created by the group that has started the last 5 games. After all, the Cowboys have just won 5 games in a row. The expression “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” is applicable in this situation. Another reason to start Steele is to promote a positive culture within the organization. It makes sense to reward a player like Terence Steele who worked extremely hard in the offseason, improved as a player, and has performed well when given the opportunity. La’el Collins on the other hand, had reportedly showed up to training camp last season out of shape, and incurred a suspension that many deem to have been extremely avoidable this season. The Cowboys could be making an example out of La’el Collins and they may believe that he should now have to earn his job back. The last reason I could think of to justify starting Terence Steele over La’el Collins is simply to give La’el more time to get up to speed and get into game shape. It is not easy to come off of a 6 week layoff and then be thrust into game action.
As the weekend approaches, Cowboy fans will keep a close eye on this situation. While we debate if Terence Steele SHOULD start over La’el Collins, the Cowboys will in time reveal the answer of who WILL start on Sunday against the Vikings. We Cowboys fans tend to passionately disagree over what decision is the right decision; and, in some cases, turn on one another. We do tend to believe that we know better than anyone else does, especially the team that has disappointed us for the last 25 years. While it is our nature to feel that way sometimes, we must try to remember one thing; The team is 5-1 right now and this so called problem…it is a good problem to have.
*Photo by Joe Glorioso; https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/legalcode