(Editor's Note: Time to check the mail! The DallasCowboys.com staff writers answer your questions here in 'Mailbag' presented by Miller Lite.)
How hard is it to evaluate what you have on the defensive interior line when every day those guys have to go up against a pretty stout group in Tyler Smith, Cooper Beebe and Tyler Booker? Conversely, could we be getting fooled about how good the offensive line interior really is? – Russell Phillips/Amarillo, TX
Patrik: I'm of the opinion that you don't truly know how good something is until you put it through its highest and most intense paces, so it's pretty easy to tell what the potential of the defensive tackle could be when assessing their reps against stout interior offensive linemen. That is definitely the easy part, because either they can get the job done against some of the best or they can't right now, and if the latter is true, you can bet the odds of improvement are high considering they're sharpening their sword on a rock. Inversely, however, it's a little less simple when the O-line is supposedly better than their defensive counterparts. It doesn't mean we're being fooled. It just means we have to keep it all in context.
Tommy: You can see flashes on both sides of the ball in practice, just like we've seen up to this point. At the end of the day though, I don't think you can definitively and absolutely judge a group until they go up against a team that isn't wearing the same helmet as theirs. You can get good feelings about guys, but things are different come Sunday in some instances. That said, I do think the Cowboys interior offensive line is going to be a good group this year and they've shown flashes of being that so far at camp.
The ÃÛÌÒTV are ready to rumble as they take the field in Oxnard, Cali.
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