The Dallas Cowboys committed fully to a youth movement along the offensive line on Monday, when, following the release of five-time Pro Bowl center Andre Gurode, head coach Jason Garrett told reporters that the team would enter the regular season opener with the same lineup they’ve played with for the preseason.
That means that Doug Free and Kyle Kosier will be the only holdovers from 2010 group--and Kosier has changed positions, moving from left to right guard. Rookies Bill Nagy (LG) and Tyron Smith (RG), and second-year guy Phil Costa (C) will round out the new look line. Veteran Montrae Holland will likely return to his role as a reserve swing guard.
"That's just bound to happen,'' quarterback Tony Romo said of the changes, per the Dallas Morning News. "We need these young guys to step up and play. They've been working hard.
"It's happened before. At one point Miles Austin, we needed him to step in and play good. We needed Doug Free to step in. It's time for some of those guys to step up and play or the guys [front office] wouldn't have done that if they didn't feel confident.''
The team will readily admit that bumps in the road are inevitable with such a young group, but they are committed to the youth movement.
"Yeah, it's not going to go perfect,'' Romo said. "Obviously when you have new people there are going to be mistakes here and there. The whole idea is to continue to get better every time we step on the field and every game we play.
"So that will be the goal for this team to continue to improve each week and each day and if we continue to do that this team will get better as the season progresses.''
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