Cowboys Country

'Stupid!' Cowboys O-Line Plan for Terence Steele Ripped by Coach

The Dallas Cowboys have some interesting plans for fourth-year blocker Terence Steele but one of his training supervisors isn't on board with them.

Geoff Maggliocchetti

In this story:

Terence Steele has formed a lasting bond with the Dallas Cowboys since joining the team as an undrafted free agent in 2020. The Texas Tech alum has apparently built a solid enough rapport on the Dallas offensive line, one where the Cowboys are placing an apparent trust in him to switch from his usual dwelling of tackle to guard, potentially creating a battle with new veteran arrival Chuma Edoga. 

However, Steele's offseason coach, longtime offensive line developer Duke Manyweather, made his dissenting thoughts on the idea quite clear with just a single word.

Quoting a tweet from Calvin Watkins of the Dallas Morning News, Manyweather simply declared the plan "stupid." 

Perhaps no one knows Steele better than Manyweather, with whom he has worked throughout his professional journey.

The trainer makes several defenses of Steele in subsequent tweets, combating "highlighted narratives" such as Jason Peters' supposed success after seeing a jump in his snaps later in the year. The way he sees it, Steele's best fit is at right tackle next to Zack Martin. His ideal starting five in terms of protection features Tyler Biadasz back at center with the unrelated Tyler and Tyron Smith rounding out things on the left side.

He also fights back against claims that Steele suffers in pass protection, sharing film of his pupil handling Haason Reddick, Brandon Graham, and Josh Sweat, fearsome pass rushers from the lauded blitzes of the Philadelphia Eagles. Manyweather hopes it makes viewers forget about Steele's trying freshman season back in 2020.

And as a run blocker?

"Steele may be the best run-blocking tackle in league,'' Manyweather said, asserting that he's even much better than Tyron in that department.

Earlier this week, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones appeared to agree with Manyweather's assessment of keeping Steele on the outside, albeit in a swing role that would complement the Smiths.

“To me, what Steele does (well) is be a part of a three-man position look when you look at the tackles,” Jones told reporters, including CowboysSI.com's Mike Fisher at the NFL Owners Meeting in Phoenix this week. “That is the best that we’ve ever been fixed. We have Tyron when he’s available and we have Steele there that’s going to get his snaps. And may get a lot of snaps. And then you have your young (player) Tyler who is just outstanding and has nothing but upside ahead of him.”

But then came talk from the Cowboys of a possible shuffle that might mean Steele is not only a tackle backup, but also maybe a guard. Coach Mike McCarthy stressed to us that it's early in the process, but Manyweather would like to stress something else about the process ...

That it's "stupid.''

Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags

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Geoff Maggliocchetti
GEOFF MAGGLIOCCHETTI

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