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Do Cowboys Need To Trade for Ravens Starting O-Lineman?

Is the interior O-line of the Dallas Cowboys really a "major liability''?

FRISCO - Dallas Cowboys left guard Connor Williams' biggest problem is that he's not Dallas Cowboys right guard Zack Martin.

That's the biggest reason we can come up with as to why so many Cowboys critics spend so much time seeking to displace Williams, with the latest idea being conjured up by our buddy John Owning of the Dallas Morning News, suggests Dallas acquire offensive guard Ben Powers from the Baltimore Ravens, shoring up what Owning labels a “major liability — the interior offensive line — going into the 2021 NFL season.

The issues to be wrestled with here:

*Is the interior O-line really a "major liability''? Or, with Williams at guard and second-year guy Tyler Biadasz at center, is that just relatively so because Martin, Tyron Smith and La'el Collins - three blue-chip talents - make up the rest of the line?

*What is the value of Powers? Owning raves about him, but then suggests Dallas surrender a late-round draft pick in exchange for him. But if he's so good (and we trust Owning while at the same time not pretending to know that he is ...) ... why is Baltimore dealing him for a low-value pick?

*Additionally, if he's so good, why, as Owning wrote, might he be "the odd man out'' of Baltimore’s guard competition this summer?

*And wait: John says that Powers, 24, could be added as "premium depth'' behind starters Martin and Williams.

So ... he wouldn't even be starting?

Owning, in a sense, is thinking one chess move ahead here, as he points out that Williams is scheduled to become a free agent after this season, and that therefore Powers could then compete for the job in 2022. But Dallas already has Connor McGovern (and others) waiting in the wings for that starting position, should Williams indeed leave.

What are we really doing here? An exercise to replace Williams while acquiring a Ravens player who isn't actually a full-time starter in Baltimore (he started only half the season) and who if he came to Dallas wouldn't start, either?

Our sense is that Cowboys critics' searches for O-line help aren't really about the Ben Powerses of the world, but rather about the perceived shortcomings of Williams, the 2018 second-round pick out of Texas who to his credit has made himself substantially bigger and stronger and who is almost an ironman in the way he shows up for work every day.

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Connor Williams' biggest problem isn't that he's inferior to the likes of Ben Powers. It's that he's inferior to the likes of Zack Martin, which may simply mean he's like 99 percent of the guards who have ever played football. Which maybe isn't so bad.