Dallas Cowboys: Is expecting Jonathan Cooper to start realistic?

Many are penciling in Jonathan Cooper as a starting guard for the Dallas Cowboys in 2017 but are high hopes realistic?

The Dallas Cowboys boast three of the best offensive linemen in the NFL. Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick, and Zack Martin are All-Pro talents just entering the primes of their careers so the needle is clearly pointed up. But it’s the other two positions on the Dallas Cowboys line that may be cause for worry.

With the free agent departure of guard Ronald Leary and the retirement of tackle Doug Free, the Cowboys have two spots to fill on their team’s most important unit. Maintaining dominance on the offensive line is a must in 2017 making these position battles some of the most important to watch throughout training camp.

First Round Talent

Two players, attribusted with first round talent, have been penciled in as starters in 2017. Those players are La’el Collins and Jonathan Cooper. Collins has flashed those skills at guard already but has begun the transition to the right tackle spot. Right tackle is generally considered more important and, while challenging, offers Collins the best future going forward.

Jonathan Cooper, a former seventh overall draft pick, has been understandably penciled in as a starter as well. His pedigree says he’d be a fine replacement to Ron Leary, despite being a colossal bust his first four years in the NFL.

Jonathan Cooper’s Injuries and Performance

Many are pointing to Jonathan Coopers injury history as the primary cause of his poor play. They say if he can stay healthy he may realize some of that potential that once made him a top-10 draft pick. While there is certainly logic to that, it’s considerably more wishful thinking.

Jonathan Cooper has been nothing short of bad the past few seasons. His 2013 rookie campaign was obviously wiped out from a broken leg in the preseason, so that can’t be held against him. But he’s never successfully bounced back from that setback. Even when completely healthy.

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In his second season he graded out in the bottom half in the NFL. In 2015, Pro Football Focus gave him the 58^th worst pass blocking grade among NFL guards.

Reminder: there are only 64 starters.

He was so bad he was benched and began preparing for a position switch to center before he was eventually traded.

The New England Patriots traded for Cooper hoping he could improve their 25^th ranked offensive line. He didn’t and it wasn’t long before he was playing in Cleveland with the Browns.

Last season Cooper only logged 183 snaps with the Browns, earning high scores in pass-protection and low scores in run blocking. Overall PFF gave him a 73.2 score which would have ranked him 41st in the NFL had he played more snaps.

Hope

Despite the poor track record this is not a hopeless situation for Jonathan Cooper. At 27-years-old he’s still a young enough man to significantly improve his game – provided the desire is there to do so.

It’s strength and tenacity that are missing from Cooper’s game, though. It seems dominating at the collegiate level was all-too-easy for Cooper and when forced to dig deep and work at in the NFL, Cooper failed. The lost rookie season and ensuing injuries thereafter did little to help the situation.

Jonathan Cooper can be an NFL player if he builds up the strength and plays with fire — two things that have otherwise been missing entirely from his game. He’s physically blessed as an athlete so if he used the offseason right, he has hope at re-writing his story.

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But four years in he hasn’t shown anything that could be considered starter-worthy. Cowboys coaches certainly won’t hand him anything and he’s going to have to battle up the depth chart to even claim a roster spot in 2017.

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