It's an even better strategy pretending you're good enough every year. Been working real well. If the team is no longer in the playoff hunt then the following year should be priority #1 not not the usual crap wins we've grown accustomed to. That was a Garrett staple. You been watching for a quarter of a century? This team stinks.... regularly. But remember that win against the Commanders last year? Good times!! What an amazing performance!! Really accelerated this team to new heights lol The usual. People talk about building through the draft and then pretend draft position isn't more important than a win that amounts to absolutely nothing. You already stunk up the season to the point where the playoffs are a pipe dream but some Cowboy fans love a good moral victory!
You would like to have the highest draft spot possible, regardless of any other factor. No question. If for no other reason than there's more players available to pick from, pick of the litter so to speak.
But how have the Cowboys done in recent years, drafting other than very high? Did they get a bunch of NFL failures? Well let's look at some mid to late first rounders (as in 1-10 would be early, 11-21 mid and 22-32 late):
2009 Dez Bryant - 24th. All time Dallas touchdown leader, multiple Pro Bowler.
2013 Travis Frederick - 31st. Multiple Pro Bowler.
2014 Zack Martin - 16th. Multiple Pro Bowler.
2015 Byron Jones - 27th. Not so great at Dallas, but one Pro Bowl, and Dolphins paid big bucks for him.
2020 Cee Dee Lamb - 17th. Too early to really tell, but has shown great promise.
Point is if you don't try for the higher pick, it's not the kiss of death for your team, there are, and you can get, great players even late in the draft, and Dallas has done so.
Not drafting early hasn't been the issue with Dallas, they have gotten plenty of good players later, it's poor free agent signings, the giving of big contracts to players after only a year of good play, drafting "project" players, poor coaching hires and other things that have contributed more to the poor records than not drafting high.
And this year, with so many needs and so few top-notch players in key spots like defensive tackle available, trading down imho is the way to go, assuming willing partners...
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