Dallas City News

The 2024 NFL schedule release is on Wednesday. However, as is always the case, leaks are starting to come out, and it was revealed on Monday that the Dallas Cowboys will travel to play the Cleveland Browns in Week 1. The Browns are coming off of a playoff season and have a talented roster, so it will be a challenging opening assignment for the Cowboys.

Speaking of assignments, rookie left tackle Tyler Guyton will have as challenging of a task as any offensive lineman in the league to start the season if he wins the left tackle starting job. He gets to bang in the trenches against edge rusher Myles Garret, the reigning Defensive Player of the Year.

Every player has their welcome to the NFL moment, and this will be Guyton’s. Garrett is arguably the best pass rusher in the league, and he does it in several ways. He can beat opposing offensive lineman with power on a bull rush or his quick first step that allows him to bend around the edge quickly. Also, if Garrett’s initial attack doesn’t work, he has a pass-rush plan that gives him the ability to go to a second or even third move to get to the quarterback because of excellent use of his hands.

Per Pro Footbal Focus, Garrett hasn’t had a pass-rush grade under 90.0 since 2018. Over the past three seasons, Garrett has 236 pressures, 149 hurries, and 37 quarterback hits. Simply put, he’s a menace at disrupting the rhythm of quarterbacks even when he’s not getting sacks. By the way, he’s racked up 46 of them since 2020 (six consecutive double-digit sack seasons).

That’s a lot to deal with, right?

Guyton will be responsible for protecting the blindside of quarterback Dak Prescott. Coming into the league, some of the knocks on Guyton were his hand placement and his pad levels being high at times. Going up against a guy like Garrett, who can win with power or speed off the line, it’s going to be a huge challenge for Guyton. After all, if an offensive lineman can’t get their hands on a defender or get their pad level low enough, especially in Guyton’s case being 6’8, they’re chopped liver.

Guyton has a few things to lean on.

He has an 82.25-inch wingspan (nearly seven feet) and 10.25-inch hands. The former helps Guyton in terms of being able to recover if he gets beat off the edge initially in passing sets because his long arms will allow him to still be able to get hand on a defender to disrupt their path. As far as Guyton’s hands, although they need improvement, he can control guys with his grip, and when adding in his power, that makes him a force once he’s locked in on a defender. None of that will be easy going up against Garrett.

Many will say Guyton got a bad draw with Garrett being his first battle in the NFL. However, what’s better than going up against one of the best edge rushers in the game? All this can do is help Guyton and build his confidence while letting him learn from his mistakes. As long as he does enough to keep Dak Prescott upright for most of the game.