Well its a little more than two weeks till the NFL draft and that should have us all excited and hopeful. This is where you make or break the future of the team. The Cowboys have hit big on picks the last few years in the first round and last year was easily the best in many, many years from top to bottom. We saw the impact of Zeke, Dak, Collins & Brown.
We also have two drafted players from last year that didn’t touch the field in Jaylon Smith and Charles Tapper. High hopes sit with Smith, while we’d be content if Tapper can be a nice rotational player. If Smith can return this year and play at a high level, it can be a great start with our “new” talent pool for this year.
Given that we lost four players from the secondary (Church, Wilcox, Claiborne & Carr) we need to find their replacements in the draft and maybe, just maybe they’ll be upgrades. The body count is the loss to me, not the production lost. None of them were shut down defenders! The Carroll signing may be an upgrade over Carr as he appears to be better in press man. We lost a few guys on the D line and two depth linebackers as well. Further development of Wilson and return of Nzeocha should make the losses a non issue.
Where do we go in the draft? We face a serious need on defense, but which position takes precedent? Then where do guys sit on our board? Will CB Tre’Davious White from LSU be still available or Gareon Conley of Ohio State? I’d be hard pressed to pick one or the other, but happy with either!
For my two cents we need two corners in this draft to build our secondary to being a young and dynamic group of guys who can go get the ball. We’ve lacked playmakers on the back end for over ten years. That has to change. I put more emphasis on CB’s than DE’s, mostly because its rare that a DE turns superstar in their rookie year. Bosa was a rare find that can get near double digit sacks in his rookie year. No matter what DE we might grab in the 1st round, 6 sacks would be the likely height they’d reach. Check the numbers of all the DE rookies from last year. Maliek was 7th best rookie in sacks at 5. See the point? Taking CB’s who can be productive out of the 1st round, is my preference, but it wouldn’t hurt if we went rounds 2 & 3 or 2 & 4 with CB’s. Would like one ready to start on day one. Just get two corners!
Depending how the team feels about Kavon Frazier and to a degree, Jeff Heath, may determine if they need to go for a safety. Deep class so its possible. But hey, if they put up with Wilcox for four years we can look at Heath for one year and bypass drafting a safety.
A position causing some concern is at RT with the probable retirement of Doug Free. The downside is that its one of the weakest tackles groups in recent memory. Which is why they signed Byron Bell a few weeks ago. My guess is that they look at the draft class at the position and feel he’s better than maybe all of them, with NFL starts under his belt.
Now the next question we’ll have which deserves it’s own full discussion is do we move up or move down in the first round? Stay tuned!
DT ……..
