Dallas Cowboys tackle Tyler Guyton had a tough rookie season. The raw, athletic first-round pick was also making the move from the right side in college to the left in the pros, and things did not go well. He also had an illness during training camp and dealt with knee and shoulder injuries during the regular season.
Right from the jump, there were major issues. He yielded 11 pressures and four sacks during the Cowboys’ first four games while also being whistled for an incredible seven penalties. By the time he got injured early in the team’s Week 5 game against the Steelers, the Cowboys were seemingly better off once he hit the bench.
Of course, Dallas is counting on Guyton over the long term, so he still got a chance to redeem himself through the rest of the year. But he continued to struggle, later dealing with another injury and then essentially being benched in favor of Chuma Edoga and Asim Richards before taking over as the starter again in Week 18.
“I didn’t do too good last year,” Guyton said last week, via ESPN. “I want to do better. I want to be a guy that can be depended on.”
Dallas is again counting on him to be the starter at left tackle, so he’s going to have to do a lot better in several different areas if he wants to be a guy that can be depended on. If he doesn’t improve quickly, it will be hard for him to avoid the bust label — especially given the Cowboys’ track record of developing first-round offensive linemen like Tyron Smith, Zack Martin, Travis Frederick and Tyler Smith over the last 15 or so years.
The first of those first-rounders, Tyron Smith, is the one for whom Guyton is taking over. And he has a degree of confidence that Guyton can get better this coming season.
“He wants to put in the work,” Smith said, via the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “He just needs a little technique work, which he’s doing right now. I feel like it’s going to be a different type of year for him to slow the game down and get the rookie nerves out. I think he’s building more confidence in his technique because he’s learning a lot more now.”
As for where, exactly, Guyton can improve in Year 2, let’s take a look at three specific areas.
Penalties
This is the biggest thing. If Guyton can’t get it under control, he probably can’t be on the field at all and therefore any improvements he might be in individual areas won’t really matter.
Guyton was one of the most penalized players in the NFL last season, regardless of position. During the regular season, the only player on either side of the ball who was whistled for more fouls than Guyton (18) was Laremy Tunsil (19). When you consider that Guyton only played 668 snaps while Tunsil played 1,026, you begin to see just how big of an issue penalties really were for Guyton during his rookie season.
To really hammer it home: There were only three tackles in the entire league who were called for penalties on more than 2% of their snaps, per Pro Football Focus. Guyton (2.7%) was one. The other two were Jedrick Wills and Michael Jerrell, but they combined to play only two-thirds as many snaps as did Guyton. They were barely on the field. So Guyton really was in a league of his own when it came to rule-infractions.
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Pass blocking
Guyton particularly struggled in pass protection, which is obviously a problem when you are playing on your quarterback’s blind side.
It’s not like just one thing gave him trouble, either. He got beat around the edge and to the inside, with speed moves and with power. He struggled with both his feet and his hands, which are obviously the two areas where you need to win when playing in pass protection.
As a result, among the 82 tackles who were on the field for at least 300 snaps, Guyton ranked 62nd in PFF’s pass-blocking grades. He routinely allowed both pressures and sacks: Among the 64 tackles with at least 300 pass-blocking snaps, Guyton checked in 43rd in pressure rate (he gave up a sack, hit or hurry 6.5% of the time) and an abominable 58th in sack rate (1.5%).
If those numbers don’t dramatically improve this season, he won’t be counted on to protect Dak Prescott for much longer.
Run blocking
In case you haven’t noticed, “penalties,” “pass blocking” and “run blocking” basically covers all of an offensive tackle’s responsibilities. So there’s a lot of work to be done as an all-around player.
Guyton checked in 72nd among the aforementioned 82-tackle group in PFF’s run-blocking grades. The Cowboys averaged just 3.84 yards per carry when running to the left side, which ranked 25th in the NFL. That figure was just 3.73 with Guyton on the field and it was 3.96 with him off it. That’s quite bad, obviously. But it’s not all about him. The rest of the line contributes to that, as do the backs. (And the Cowboys gave a ton of carries to one of the league’s least effective runners in Ezekiel Elliott.)
When you try to narrow things down more and isolate Guyton’s role, Dallas had an abysmal 25% rushing success rate when running the ball to the left and outside of Guyton (i.e. off tackle) and a 29% success rate when running it between Guyton and left guard Tyler Smith. (Again, these figures only account for plays where Guyton was on the field.) Things didn’t change much when you isolate the non-Elliott carries, with the Cowboys sporting a 26% success rate on off-left-tackle runs and a 35% success rate on runs between the guard and the tackle.
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Author: Jared Dubin
July 8, 2025 | 1:21 pm
