GettyCowboys potential free-agent target David Bakhtiari
The Cowboys, undoubtedly, have pressing concerns entering the start of their 2024 training camp, and while most of the focus is—rightly so—on the drama around paying the team’s stars with new contracts or extensions, there is still the small matter of potential roster holes to clear up. One of those holes could be problematic despite the Cowboys giving it an inordinate amount of attention in the NFL draft: the offensive line.
Stalwart left tackle Tyron Smith is out, after 13 seasons and eight Pro Bowl appearances, allowed to walk away in free agency. Replacing him is, ideally, rookie Tyler Guyton, the team’s first-round draft pick this year. Guyton has upside as a long-term answer at left tackle, but there is concern that he might not be ready to assume the blind side duties in Year 1.
That could force the Cowboys to scramble. Tyler Smith, who has been solid as a left guard, could move back to tackle with someone else—rookie Cooper Beebe? 2023 supersub TJ Bass?—filling in at guard. But the preference is to keep Smith in place.
The Cowboys, then, should be open to a stopgap solution. And the analysis site Blogging the Boys has a star suggestion: oft-injured former Packers tackle David Bakhtiari.
Cowboys Could Need an Emergency Option at LT
The downside of Bakhtiari is obvious. He can’t stay on the field. Since tearing his ACL in 2020, Bakhtiari has had nine surgeries and appeared in only 13 games in three years. But the upside is obvious, too. Bakhtiari will come cheap, and if you can wring a full season (or something close) out of him, he’s still one of the best in the business.
As analyst Brian Martin wrote in an article titled, “4 free agents Dallas Cowboys should have on standby”:
“They drafted Tyler Guyton in the first round (29th overall), but there are concerns he may not be ready to step in immediately as a rookie. And, unless the Cowboys are willing to move Tyler Smith back to LT, the other options on the roster leave much to be desired.
“While injuries have hit him pretty hard the last few seasons, David Bakhtiari might be somebody the Cowboys want to have on standby if they don’t like what they see from the LT options they currently have on the roster in training camp/preseason. When healthy he’s still one of the better blindside protector’s in the league, and if nothing else, could potentially fill-in until Tyler Guyton is better acclimated to life in the NFL.”
Bakhtiari, a three-time Pro Bowler, played only 55 snaps last season, but did rack up an excellent pass-blocking grade of 89.9 from PFF. In his NFL career, he never had a season in which he rated below 72 in pass-blocking from PFF, and rated an 86 or higher eight times.
David Bakhtiari Was Drafted by Mike McCarthy
Back in March, before the NFL draft, coach Mike McCarthy said that the plan for the offensive line was to keep Smith in place at guard.
“Let’s fill up the room, and then we’ll look at it,” McCarthy said, per NFL.com. “I mean, the goal’s always get the best five on the field, but we’ve had this conversation every year since I’ve been here. So when does that occur, you know?
“Just look at our training camp last year. You know, we didn’t have the five starters practice together until the week of the first game, so it would be nice to have all five of your guys that you feel are going to be starters practice throughout April, May, June and into training camp.”
That would seem to rule the Cowboys out of a late free-agent addition on the line. But it’s possible that the group the Cowboys have assembled won’t quite be ready.
McCarthy knows Bakhtiari well—he drafted him in 2013 and coached him for five years with the Packers. Bakhtiari was critical of the lack of discipline enforced by McCarthy on the Packers after he was fired in Green Bay but still, McCarthy knows well how good a healthy (even a healthy-ish) Bakhtiari can be.
