After a forgettable debut in high altitude, the redshirt freshman has had two adequate-to-solid performances, giving up a TFL last week in LA, and a sack last night.
It's not enough, imo, to crown him starting LT on a team that has legitimate SB aspirations. It's really not even enough, imo, to anoint him as your swing tackle. He's too green to be given that level of responsibility.
But soberly, if you reframe the picture as-if you had Tyron ready to go and you had some other vet ready to go as your swing tackle, you couldn't help but look at your new offensive lineman's first three pseudo-NFL games and say, "Damn, we might have ourselves a long-term asset here."
Unfortunately, reality is that we "cannot not" frame the picture as reality frames the picture.
Look. Josh Ball is good. He's going to be even better with more time and experience.
But he's not ready for that starting LT level of expectation week-in-week-out. It's unfair to him to put him in that position, and it's unfair to Dak and the rest of the team to put him in that position, too.
Can he handle the swing tackle? I'd rather him not, but on the other hand, if fate were to allow the starting five linemen some good health for the first month or two of the season, I'm bullish on Ball being up to that role eventually. Just not immediately. Soon. Not yet.
It's just too bad he got no time last year to develop… think we'd be feeling a bit (not a lot, but a bit) less alarmed with Tyron going down.
