From disaster to dominance, how the Cowboys built the next Great Wall of Dallas

Wrote about the best offensive line in football. An excerpt:

It’s difficult to say who the best player on the Dallas offensive line is, but the foundation of it was built on the massive, sturdy shoulders of All-Pro left tackle Tyron Smith.

All the way back to high school, Smith was considered one of the best tackle prospects in the country, if not the best. He was viewed as a five-star recruit by both Rivals.com and Scout.com and was named an All-American by every scouting service imaginable. It wasn’t a surprise when the Los Angeles native landed at USC.

After apprenticing as a left tackle under future second-rounder Charles Brown as a freshman, Smith took over as USC’s starting right tackle for his sophomore and junior seasons. He quickly emerged as one of the best linemen in the then-Pac-10, eventually winning the Morris Trophy as the conference’s top offensive lineman, as voted on by the conference’s defensive linemen. After winning the award, he declared early for the 2011 NFL Draft.

Standing 6-foot-5 and weighing just over 300 pounds, Smith was viewed as the prototypical NFL tackle prospect. He had massive 36 3/8-inch arms and 11-inch hands, and he bench-pressed 225 pounds 29 times at his pro day. He tested off the charts both at his pro day and the NFL Combine, and was considered the most athletic tackle in the draft.

There was a degree of mild concern that Smith was both young (20 years old) and light (307 pounds) for a tackle, but the Cowboys nevertheless made him the №9 overall pick. It marked the first time in Jerry Jones’ 22 years as the owner of the team that the Cowboys had drafted an offensive lineman in the first round.

Read the full story at CBS Sports.