The Dallas Cowboys surprised everyone on Thursday when they made Alabama guard Tyler Booker their 12th overall pick of the 2025 NFL Draft. This was the third time in four years that the team took an offensive lineman in the first round. Oddly enough, this line rebuild resembles the same decisions they made a decade ago when they selected Tyron Smith, Travis Frederick, and Zack Martin in the first round, all within four years from 2011-2014.

One by one, that group of All-Pros started deteriorating. That seems like a harsh word, but it’s fitting considering how these once elite players started to wear down. Starting with Travis Frederick’s unfortunate diagnosis of Guillain-Barré disease, his career was cut short. He only played six years in the league, earning Pro Bowl honors every year except his rookie season.

Tyron Smith lasted much longer, but started having health issues after year five. He went from a player who only missed one game over his first five years to someone who never played in more than 13 games over his last nine seasons in the league. And twice during that time, he was out for most of the season. Smith was always banged up.

Zack Martin was a lot more resilient. Over his 11-year career, he never had a season where he played less than 10 games, and played in at least 14 games in all but two. Martin played at an All-Pro level in all nine of the seasons he played at least 14 games. But sadly, his decline was more sudden. Last year was brutal for him. Not only was he injured, but when he was on the field, he just wasn’t the same guy anymore. As they say, Father Time is undefeated. Both Martin and Smith retired over the last couple of months.

A new era of the offensive line has already begun as the Cowboys have taken action to fortify the trenches. Starting with Tyler Smith in 2022, the team found an All-Pro guard despite receiving heavy criticism for selecting a player that draft pundits thought was a mid-second-round pick. Smith is one of the most powerful guards in the league and has become the new cornerstone of the Cowboys’ offensive line.

Next to him is Cooper Beebe. A college guard, Beebe transitioned to center to replace Tyler Biadasz, who left in free agency last season. Unlike Smith, his selection was met with strong praise as his skills made him an absolute steal in the third round of last year’s draft. Beebe is a powerful running game mauler and a wide and squared-up pass protector. He’s coming off a strong rookie season and could be one of the better centers in the league this season.

The rookie Booker will be sandwiched between Beebe and veteran right tackle Terence Steele. The undrafted free agent Steele has been an inconsistent wild card on the edge these last couple of seasons, but that’s because gradually recovering from a bad knee injury. Before the injury, he played at a strong level, which earned him a nice second contract. With more time removed from his injury, Steele could return to his old self and solidify the right tackle position. There was once a time when Steele and Martin were absolute forces on the right side before health affected both of them. Now, Steele has a chance to re-create that powerful run-blocking duo with Booker.

The weakest link on the Cowboys’ offensive line is Tyler Guyton. He was the team’s first-round pick last season. Between health and rawness, he didn’t have a good rookie campaign. Guyton’s progress isn’t unusual. He was a player who needed development and dealt with injury setbacks. In contrast to other first-round linemen the Cowboys have selected, he feels like a miss, but that’s far from the case. He remains on a normal trajectory that could make him a reliable tackle at the NFL level. The Cowboys’ coaching staff has high expectations for Guyton in year two.

And that brings us to Booker. The Cowboys selected the best guard in the draft, who not only brings more power to the interior offensive line but is also very smart and has a fire in his belly where he wants to crush those in front of him. In a short time, the Cowboys have gone from smaller, agile interior blocks like Biadasz and Connor Williams to an immovable wall in Smith, Beebe, and Booker.

The Cowboys have a quarterback who needs to stay upright.
They have a new head coach who wants to run the football.
They have a new offensive coordinator who is masterful at doing it.

And now, this is their new interior offensive line. Who’s mad? pic.twitter.com/xTBdXma8os

— Dan Rogers (@DannyPhantom24) April 25, 2025

The Cowboys are adamant about not letting weakness in the middle hold them back anymore. They have hit the upgrade button, and it’s a big upgrade. As OCC mentioned a couple of days ago, the Cowboys have the youngest offensive line, a title they had for most of the 2010’s, but hadn’t achieved since 2018. They’re back now and they’re as strong as ever with the addition of Booker.

The Cowboys will inevitably still have areas they’ll need to improve, but at least we should no longer complain about Dak Prescott not having time or running backs not having clean rushing lanes. The team has taken action to correct that with a heavy investment in draft capital, and now they should be set for many years to come.