National Recognition, NFL Talk Follows as Cowboys’ O-Line Hits Third-Highest Mark Since 2021

STILLWATER — When OSU interim Doug Meacham helped coach TCU to the College Football Playoff Championship Game in 2022, the Horned Frogs had a talented roster, but they also benefited from good luck in the health department, especially where the quarterback and offensive line were concerned.

“It is like they say, the most important ability is availability,” Meacham said when that TCU team came up on Monday.

Two ongoing quarterback injuries and two ongoing offensive line injuries later, and it’s safe to say the Cowboys aren’t having anything remotely resembling good luck in the health department.

And yet, it’s possible one of those injuries (which are unequivocally always bad) has led to one of the team’s shining stars in the making.

Right tackle Grant Seagren earned an overall offensive PFF Grade of 82.3 for his performance against the then-No. 24 Cincinnati Bearcats on Saturday. With a grade that high, the right tackle earned a spot as one of the top tackles on both the PFF national team and the Big 12 Team.

The former Nebraska walk-on wasn’t even supposed to play a meaningful role for the Cowboys this season.

That changed when left tackle Markell Samuel suffered a freak accident during a hotel walkthrough.

On Monday, Meacham said that Seagren had exceeded expectations since joining the starting lineup only hours before the Oregon game.

“He’s been a really consistent player,” Meacham said. “He’s very athletic. He’s got some good length. He’s just gonna get better. And he really cares. He listens, pays attention, takes notes. He wants to get better because he’s a kid that is probably gonna be a draft guy. And I know we’re way ahead of ourselves here, but he’s got a lot of the intangibles, a lot of the size and the length, and a lot of the things that everybody’s looking for.”

OSU hasn’t seen an offensive lineman drafted since Teven Jenkins went in the second round back in 2021. Seagren has two full seasons after this one to improve his stock if he’s going to prove Meacham’s prediction true.

Even if the 6-foot-6, 311-pounder doesn’t meet those lofty expectations, his growth this season could turn the former walk-on into a priority re-recruitment for the next OSU coach. Seagren’s PFF grade represents a 14-point jump from his second-best showing and a 30-point improvement from his showing against Houston when he finished with a season-low grade of 52.1.

It would be easy to dismiss all of this as a soup of meaningless numbers, but Meacham said he uses PFF grades to help establish a baseline when deciding which transfer portal targets are worth watching on tape. Seagren’s recent grade definitely puts him into the camp of guys Meacham would break down for evaluation.

Speaking of PFF grades, Oklahoma State finished with a season-best run-blocking grade of 72.9. It’s the team’s third-highest run-blocking performance in the last 3.5 seasons.

“You would prefer, when you start a season, for those five to stay in the same position, the same five the best you can,” Meacham said. “The communication, and you stay next to somebody long enough then you get good as a tandem. … You kind of juggle it some and can still kind of perform pretty well. I’m really pleased with those guys. I think as a unit, the five of them, have really held their own.”

Of course, as Meacham eluded to, “the five of them” has been something of an evolving group. Right guard Jakobe Sanders became the eighth different lineman to start for the Cowboys over the weekend, and injuries forced three of those guys to rotate positions.

The OSU interim coach said the Cowboys’ three offensive line assistants (former Cowboys Cooper Bassett, Andrew Mitchell and Grant Garner) make the most of the team’s individual periods to work on fundamentals during practice. All that work positioned Sanders to finish as the second-highest graded offensive lineman in his first career start on Saturday.

“Probably the most unique O-line coaching staff in the country,” Sanders said. “I mean, I have three former players, they know exactly what you’re going through. And I mean, they each have different insight to the game and the way they combine it together.”