Let's Talk Draft Needs in the first 3 Rounds!

[Prossman]

1 OL 2 OL 3 Qb

[CowboyFan74]

Originally Posted by mgcowboy

Round 1: A Quarterback..
next round do whatever you want

QB
OL
OL
OL

[Avenging Hayseed]

Pick 1......Chance Warmack

Pick 2......Matt Elam

Pick 3......John Simon



Free agency...... T...Sebastian Vollmer, G...Matt Slauson

[Doomsay]

Originally Posted by perrykemp

My vote is two of the three top three draft picks should have missed their entire past season due to major injury -- preferably ACL or possible torn achilles and the other draft pick should be a head case with an extensive posse as well as a well developed rap sheet.

I hear you can get great bargains simply by taking all those 1st round talents who the other 31 teams in the NFL were stupid enough not to draft due to their overly conservative front offices....

QFT

[burmafrd]

if we have a shot at a real good pass rusher take him in the 1st rd. If not and nothing else we need comes up I would look at trading down and trying to get another second round pick. And use them to get O line. Holmes of USC at Center and there are a number of real good guards that will be available in the second

Then look hard at Safety and WR since we really are short at both.

Dez seems to be getting better and I would keep him; but Miles is never healthy. And after them what do we have?

Safety- we have been trying to replace Woody for how many years?

Now in FA if we can get some good players great but this is about the draft.

[Future]

Safety and the trenches. There are too many good safeties coming out this year not to get one early. I'd have no problem going with a guy like Reid or Rambo in the first. In fact, I'd love it. You can get real good lineman in the 2nd and third rounds, but playmaking safeties are harder to find.

Depending on where we pick, I think Rambo would be my target.

[burmafrd]

Originally Posted by Future

Safety and the trenches. There are too many good safeties coming out this year not to get one early. I'd have no problem going with a guy like Reid or Rambo in the first. In fact, I'd love it. You can get real good lineman in the 2nd and third rounds, but playmaking safeties are harder to find.

Depending on where we pick, I think Rambo would be my target.

I am not really all that sure that any safety I have seen this year is really worth a first. But maybe. For sure we need a pass rusher; that should have been a priority for the last 5 years.

[BIGDen]

Originally Posted by tyke1doe

We need another pass rusher too.

I wouldn't mind going OLB/DE and OL in the first three rounds.

Forget the skilled positions unless it's a can't miss, blue chipper. Other than that, let's devote attention to the lines. That's where the game is won.

This. Do not waste a top 3 pick on a running back. Good backs can be found throughout the draft. We need to be stronger in the trenches and need another pass rusher. I think Church is good and still believe in Matt Johnson's potential, but we could certainly use a safety too. I think our roster holes are very fixable. OL needs to be addressed by at least one plug and play FA. Pass rushers are hard to come by (especially in FA) so I would jump on one in the first round if one is available. If not, grab the best OL. I'm not as down on this roster (when healthy) as some, except for the OL. I think our offensive coordinator is a problem and, unless there is some miraculous/drastic change over the next month, I think he needs to be replaced. I would love to see Romo behind an improved OL with a guy like Payton calling the plays.

[Romo 2 Austin]

Too early.. depends where we pick and whos available. I would live Tyler Bray in the second round.

[Hailmary]

Originally Posted by Romo 2 Austin

Too early.. depends where we pick and whos available. I would live Tyler Bray in the second round.

I'd like Bray myself, but if he comes out this year, I don't see him lasting till the 2nd.

[FiveRings]

Originally Posted by Avenging Hayseed

Pick 1......Chance Warmack

Pick 2......Matt Elam

Pick 3......John Simon



Free agency...... T...Sebastian Vollmer, G...Matt Slauson

I'd be ecstatic with a draft like this, I still like BarrettbJones noun of all he Bama lineman, he's the leader of that line and is playing out or poison and still doing it very well.

[Eskimo]

Originally Posted by BIGDen

This. Do not waste a top 3 pick on a running back.

This is true. RBs are part-time players and only the truly dynamic talents (APete, LT in his prime) are worth a first rounder. I"d say anywhere starting in the 3rd round where there is value you can pick up a good back.

I think Church is good and still believe in Matt Johnson's potential, but we could certainly use a safety too.

Johnson can't even make it through a couple of weeks of practice without getting a new malady. I don't think he is cut out for the pro game - body is too fragile. The surgery for the biceps tendon, a common and minor injury, should have been a red flag for the medical dept here (missing the ball yet again). I do like Church but he should be paired with a dynamic coverage player who can play CF and matchup with quick TEs when needed for the Gronks and Jimmy Graham's of the NFL world. I'd ideally like to find a player in the second to third round for this purpose when one is available. We definitely need more depth as I never want to see McCray play another down at Safety for us. Hopefully Peprah can be picked up for depth if the draft doesn't give us a candidate and we can wait it out for another year but this is a major hole in this roster. Ball hurt us greatly in 2010 and McCray has cost us dearly this year but people don't realize it because we got so few games with Church for people to notice what a difference a decent pair of safeties can make for coverage over the middle of the field.

OL needs to be addressed by at least one plug and play FA.

I know everyone wants us to shoot our whole load on OL but that would be a mistake as you suggest. I think LT and LG are set. I also think Center will be okay with Costa, Kowalski and Bernadeau - one can start and the other two can compete at RG. I would only go Center if a great value dropped to us in the second or third round. Otherwise I would concentrate at RG and RT and try to find one player in the top 3 rounds to bring in. We should be able to fill the other spot in FA with the dollars freed up by releasing Free who cannot be salvaged by this coaching staff for some reason. I've never seen an OL play so well in his fourth and fifth season decline for no apparent reason the way he has. He should have been hitting his peak instead of turning into a turnstile. Garrett seems to indicate no true loss in ability so the FO believes they can fix him but I am not convinced. Conversely, Parnell has looked quite good for such a football neophyte and maybe he can be groomed to be a future starter. He just needs a bit of work on his anchor - footwork is good and he has the footwork and athleticism needed for a LT let alone a RT. Maybe we caught a diamond off the Saints' PS. Maybe we should try to steal an OL off of them every year - Loomis has an eye for OL talent.

Pass rushers are hard to come by (especially in FA) so I would jump on one in the first round if one is available.

This may actually be our biggest need. This defense went in the dumps with Rat's decline which began in 2010. Ware needs a complimentary pass rusher and has lacked on the last 3 years. Spencer does get some effort sacks and some when he is not blocked (/sarcasm) but he is not a force as a pass rusher. If there is a candidate in the draft we need to nab him. Ware's production is about to go into the toilet - he is not nearly the force now that he was 2007-11 this year and we can reasonably expect him to be worse next year. Spencer is about to turn 29 and was never great so we can expect this to be his peak with his decline about to set in. Next year will be his 7th in the league and he was no spring chicken when he came in. We need to pass on this potential albatross contract off of a solid year of production (see Free and Austin) and use those dollars elsewhere to solidify the roster.

I think our offensive coordinator is a problem and, unless there is some miraculous/drastic change over the next month, I think he needs to be replaced. I would love to see Romo behind an improved OL with a guy like Payton calling the plays.

I'm not as convinced as others that Garrett is the problem. The biggest problem is that Romo is not trusting the WR's reads apparently and that is making him late on his throws. I don't think the problem is the WR coach. I think the problem is that Dez and Otree are not bright enough to play in this system. Dez seems to be coming around but Otree isn't and he probably belongs in a different system. I really wonder how Romo will do with smarter WRs like Harris, Beasley and Cole.

If I had 3 changes to make to this offense (other than improving the OL) it would be:

1. Run more screens. I think Garrett would like to but this OL can't gel due to injuries and thus he has avoided it. I also suspect Romo just has trouble on short finesse passes - he misses players over and over again or when he does hit them he doesn't lead them enough so the defense is on the players before they get a chance to make a move. I do think this needs to be addressed an we just have to give the OL the resources needed to add this to our offense so defenses don't tee off so much at our QB. There is no other solution in the modern game.

2. More quick throws to RB as the first read in playcalling. I think this would throw a wrench into how teams play us as they always favour attacking Witten and ignore the RBs. When Kitna was the QB we threw to Felix a lot and it worked.

3. Get WRs in there that Romo can trust. If he is waiting for the WR to make the right read before releasing the ball he is holding onto the ball too long so that even when he releases it the defense has converged onto the WR making the window too tight and exposing the WRs to many big hits. Additionally, since he has held onto the ball too long and the DBs have converged he needs to pull the ball down and this leads to excessive hits and sacks. This offense just cannot work with 2 of the 3 WRs having trouble reading the defenses.


I'd be fine with bringing in Payton if he were available. I'm not convinced he would duplicate his success here without his GM, Loomis. However, I'd love to bring in both of them as a package deal. I'm actually mostly interested in their GM but I agree that Payton is a good coach. The catch is that I think Payton said he would not coach if Loomis were no longer his GM and Jerry won't give up the reigns at GM. I really don't think many coaches want to coach with Jerry at GM as they know they won't get the personnel needed to win. Most coaches either want a good GM or they want to be the GM themselves (better job security that way). The only trouble is not many coaches can be good GMs because they require independent skill sets and both take a lot of time to do properly.

Sadly, I believe the team may be doomed to failure with Jerry as GM. Even with being spotted a young great QB and the best pass rusher in the current generation with just one non-top 10 first round pick invested he still couldn't build a consistent winner here. He just isn't good enough at his job (GM that is) to let any coach have consistent success here. He then speaks glowingly about all the talent he has collected and is dismayed when they go out and get spanked by better rosters who are stronger in the trenches. He keeps believing in spending on the skill players and coaching up UDFAs and low draft picks because it worked once twenty years ago with Gesek, Gogan, Tuinei and Nate Newton - well that was pure luck and took a lot of QBs taking a lot of lumps to accomplish and probably won't be duplicated again here anytime soon.

[robert70x7]

Don't draft for need. That's what free agency should be for.

BPA.

[burmafrd]

Yeah Jerruh got lucky in the 90's with our O line and has been trying to duplicate that ever since. And has failed, often badly. But this last year or so even worse.

I have no problem with lietting Davis go- he was getting more and more immobile.

But cutting Gurode and thinking Costa could play was just plain STUPID. WHOEVER thought Costa was good enough to start needs to be kicked RIGHT NOW.

Then going dumpster diving and getting Bernie and Livings. and thinking that would fix the problem.

[CopenhagenCowboy]

Originally Posted by MichaelWinicki

I don't think you should go into any draft saying or thinking, "OK, I'm definitely taking a "blank" in round 1".

You let the draft come to you.

That being said here are some need position:

Level 1 (Biggest need):
Offensive tackle (I wouldn't be surprised to see Free cut)
Offensive guard
(For me Costa lives another day)
OLB (to replace Spencer)
DT/NT (can't rely on Ratliff)

Level 2
WR (I wouldn't be surprised to see Austin cut)
RB (Felix won't be back & Murray hasn't proven he's durable enough)
Safety

Level 3
CB (Jenkins is gone)
QB (have to start thinking about a replacement for Romo)
TE (have to start thinking about a replacement for Witten)

That's 9 spots.

Obviously the best draft in the world will not cover those 9 spots.

[View Full Quote]I would think the team would hope to fill 4 of the spots through free agency.

Pretty much how I see it.

Hopefully they can add a proven vet to the interior OL. Someone to inspire and take leadership over the gang. Tyron is still very young, and they have to find a starting rookie.