Igor Olshansky And What He Brings To Dallas

The Dallas Cowboys last week went out and found the replacement for the departing  Chris Canty. The question is was this an upgrade? or was it a downgrade? Well let’s take a look!

Igor  Olshansky was drafted by the San Diego Chargers with #35 overall selection in the 2004 draft. This was the same draft class as players such as; Roy Williams, Ben Rothlesberger, Eli Manning, and Larry Fitzgerald. This class was one of the deepest drafts in history, with many of the stars in today’s league being drafted in this class. Igor was the fourth Defensive Tackle selected, behind Tommie Harris(#14), Vince Wilfork(#21), and Marcus Tubbs(#23). This was a tough draft for the Cowboys, as only one player remains from this class (Patrick Crayton).

Now where your drafted has absolutely nothing to do with what type of player you become, what is interesting though is to go back years later and see how those ahead of you stack up! Now as far as I can Igor should have been the third maybe even second tackle selected, as his numbers are equal to that of Wilfork and slightly less than of Harris. Both of those guys play in a different style defense than that of Olshansky. Tommie Harris is a pass rushing nose tackle so his sack numbers are many more than that of Olshansky. Vince Wilfork plays the Nose as well but in a much different realm. The Patriots use him as a run stuffer, and do not ask him to rush the passer, and he fills that need very well for the Pats.

Igor plays with tenacity, some might even say he plays with an angry streak! Chris Canty plays exactly the way he is, a nice guy! You will never hear anyone say something derogitory about Chris Canty, when it comes to what kind of person he is. So which personality would you rather have down in the trenches, trying to eat up blockers so that D-Ware can run crazy?

Numbers wise Igor and Chris are going to give you about the same. The intagibles is what makes this an upgrade in my opinion! Chris was a Parcells guy! he never really took to the new style defense, and let’s be honest he never quite lived up to what any of us thought he could be. Chris was what they call in basketball a guy!(a.k.a Jujuan Smith) Now this term for those that do not know references players that you never know what your going to get, meaning one day they are a bad ass and the next they are not heard from! This was Chris Canty. With Igor you get the complete other end of the spectrum! You will get the same output and energy on every play of every game from Igor. The thing that everyone will look at though with him though is that he did not have a very productive year last year. There is a reason for that. Igor needs a star beside him (see Shawne Merriman) and last year with the Chargers star linebacker sidelined for the year with injury. This had a profound effect on Igor. Do not worry though friends this guy is a maniac, and I would be highly suprised if not only he has a great year, but make no mistake he will also elevate the play of our favorite son DeMarcus Ware!