This is the fifth part of a series examining how the Cowboys have addressed each position group via the draft.

Before Cowboys owner Jerry Jones made an unprecedented move last April, he first had to take a significant leap of faith. As he and his advisors inside Valley Ranch contemplated whether to select tackle Tyron Smith with the ninth overall pick of the 2011 draft, history could have easily colored their convictions and swayed them to pursue a player who would fill a completely different role.

After all, the Cowboys had never taken an offensive lineman in the first round since Jones had owned the club. That trend seemed to be as much a byproduct of Jones’ unwillingness to invest the team’s highest picks in players at positions that lacked pizzazz as much as the fact that the Cowboys had a rather unimpressive track record when choosing guards, tackles and centers in the second and third rounds.

Jones didn’t need to be reminded that since 2000 Jacob Rogers, James Marten, Stephen Peterman, Al Johnson and Robert Brewster all bombed after being among the first 90 prospects in their respective draft classes to be chosen.

The failed tenures of those players loomed over the organization like black clouds as the Cowboys were forced to cobble together an offensive line from a variety of sources because they were unable to successfully develop the guys they plucked from the college ranks. In 2010, three-fifths of the Cowboys’ aging front had begun their careers with different organizations.

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