Why do you think Dallas is so bad at drafting DLinemen?

[CowboysLakerBamaFan]

This baffles me. I know Jerry is a world class dummy but Dallas has been terrible at drafting on the DL. In my opinion here's why?

1. Position has been a focus historically especially DT

2. Dallas thinks they are too smart and often go for the projectable athlete rather that productive college stars

3. Dallas does too many small school guys. Draft SEC DLinemen and see what happens

4. Culture is not built on toughness and DL needs to be tough

5. Coaching carousel has been a hot mess

6. Just plain stupidity from Jerry as he will always choose flash over the sure thing

What do you guys think?

This is a great post...but you could some up the "why" with one word.

One wrinkly, liver spotted, alcoholic, hard boiled egg eyed, narcissistic word that starts with a J and ends with an "uh"

 

[Whirlwin]

I went back 15 years:

Year	Player	Pos.	Round	Pick
2014	DeMarcus Lawrence	DE	2nd	34
2015	Ryan Russell	DE	5th	163
2016	Maliek Collins	DT	3rd	67
2016	Charles Tapper	DE	4th	101
2017	Taco Charlton	DE	1st	28
2018	Dorance Armstrong	DE	4th	116
2019	Trysten Hill	DT	2nd	58
2019	Joe Jackson	DE	5th	165
2020	Neville Gallimore	DT	3rd	82
2020	Bradlee Anae	DE	5th	179
2021	Chauncey Golston	DE	3rd	84
2021	Quinton Bohanna	DT	6th	192
2022	Sam Williams	DE	2nd	56
2022	John Ridgeway	DT	5th	178
2023	Mazi Smith	DT	1st	26
2023	Viliami Fehoko	DE	4th	129
2024	Marshawn Kneeland	DE	2nd	56
2024	Justin Rogers	DT	7th	244
2025	Donovan Ezeiruaku	DE	2nd	44
2025	Jay Toia	DT	7th	217
2025	Tommy Akingbesote	DT	7th	247
2026	Malachi Lawrence	DE	1st	23
2026	LT Overton	DL/DE	4th	137

And if you separate them by premium picks:

1st round: Taco Charlton, Mazi Smith, Malachi Lawrence

2nd round: DeMarcus Lawrence, Trysten Hill, Sam Williams, Marshawn Kneeland, Donovan Ezeiruaku

3rd round: Maliek Collins, Neville Gallimore, Chauncey Golston

Omg. Taco, it seems like yesterday we were complaining about him.

 

[DCreppinBoysfan]

The biggest issue is the cowboys draft undersized linemen typically and then the strength and conditioning programs gets them smaller.

 

[Coogiguy03]

This baffles me. I know Jerry is a world class dummy but Dallas has been terrible at drafting on the DL. In my opinion here's why?

1. Position has been a focus historically especially DT

2. Dallas thinks they are too smart and often go for the projectable athlete rather that productive college stars

3. Dallas does too many small school guys. Draft SEC DLinemen and see what happens

4. Culture is not built on toughness and DL needs to be tough

5. Coaching carousel has been a hot mess

6. Just plain stupidity from Jerry as he will always choose flash over the sure thing

What do you guys think?

#2 sums everything up lol lol oh my gosh do they love project players for a lot of positions. Look at the guys we've drafted

Taco, mazi, hill, fehoko, OSA,Toia

Let's see how LT overton ends up

 

[Bullflop]

Poor defensive coaching giving bad advice then inability to coach said player

It's my fervent hope that's in the past. Let's hope Christian Parker introduces better judgment.

 

[Ranching]

McClain....he's in charge of drafting. Should start with him. I know, Jerry won't let him, if that's true, he should have dropped a pair a long time ago and left. If it's not true, it's his fault, plain and simple

 

[ArtClink]

Perhaps it could be attributed to our part time GM, who is too busy with the following.

1. Brokering the next motocross, boxing match, or concert at AT&T stajum
   
   
2. His GM duties
   "He doesn’t evaluate players. He certainly could not tell you all the starters’ names on the Lions’ defense or the top five tight ends in college football for the 2025 draft without being prepped the question was coming. Every other GM in the sport could, by the way, without any prep time.
   
   But, we all know he watches no film, writes no reports, and after 35 years still has very little deep knowledge of the league’s personnel."
   
   - Bob Sturm [ref: Founders' Choice: The Airing of Grievances]
   
   
3. Constantly doing radio and TV interviews
   
   
4. Holding his post game press conference at the same time as the "head coach", to ensure our HC knows his place
   "Jerry has never respected the office of head coach enough to allow them to run their program. Because along the way, he has never allowed them to do something as basic as “name their own staff."
   
   - Bob Sturm [ref: Founders' Choice: The Airing of Grievances]
   
   
5. Working with his dream team of attorneys to avoid any accountability for groping women without their consent
   
   [ref: https://www.fox4news.com/news/jerry-jones-sex-assault-trial]
   
   
6. Constantly crowing about going to the Super Bowl when our team is 0-7 in divisional games the past three decades
   
7. Scapegoating our head coaches to pay for his complete lack of accountability

 

[817Gill]

This baffles me. I know Jerry is a world class dummy but Dallas has been terrible at drafting on the DL. In my opinion here's why?

1. Position has been a focus historically especially DT

2. Dallas thinks they are too smart and often go for the projectable athlete rather that productive college stars

3. Dallas does too many small school guys. Draft SEC DLinemen and see what happens

4. Culture is not built on toughness and DL needs to be tough

5. Coaching carousel has been a hot mess

6. Just plain stupidity from Jerry as he will always choose flash over the sure thing

What do you guys think?

I think it’s mostly the coaching to scouting pipeline on defense. We haven’t had a real dominant DC in ages. Quinn was good but had flaws. The FO listens to the DC’s opinion heavily and picks guys they like (Taco over Watt).

Without a DC/staff who can really evaluate talent on that side of the ball, you’re going to miss a lot.

It seems so far that Parker has a better feel but we’ll see.

 

[charron]

Jerry wants sacks. A guy who stops the run has no value here so they are told to look for guys who can rush. Remember this is about Jersey sales and entertainment into the casual fan or people who barely watch any football. A guy who just clogs up to offensive lineman in the middle of the defense isn't all that exciting. He might have one tackle in the game but has a huge impact that's not seen in the stats. That's not exciting that doesn't sell tickets and that is all that Jerry cares about

 

[Flamma]

This baffles me. I know Jerry is a world class dummy but Dallas has been terrible at drafting on the DL. In my opinion here's why?

1. Position has been a focus historically especially DT

2. Dallas thinks they are too smart and often go for the projectable athlete rather that productive college stars

3. Dallas does too many small school guys. Draft SEC DLinemen and see what happens

4. Culture is not built on toughness and DL needs to be tough

5. Coaching carousel has been a hot mess

6. Just plain stupidity from Jerry as he will always choose flash over the sure thing

What do you guys think?

As you well know, the Cowboys have had a build through the draft model. The one position that will fall through the cracks with that model is DT. Especially if you're not considering a good one in free agency. Most of these really good DTs are picked high in the draft. Not late first round.

A lot of these DTs like the Eagles have or when the Giants picked up Dexter Lawrence, Dallas was picking in the mid 20s. You got to move up to get them, and the Cowboys don't do that. So what's left? Trade.

 

[buybuydandavis]

This baffles me. I know Jerry is a world class dummy but Dallas has been terrible at drafting on the DL. In my opinion here's why?

1. Position has been a focus historically especially DT

2. Dallas thinks they are too smart and often go for the projectable athlete rather that productive college stars

3. Dallas does too many small school guys. Draft SEC DLinemen and see what happens

4. Culture is not built on toughness and DL needs to be tough

5. Coaching carousel has been a hot mess

6. Just plain stupidity from Jerry as he will always choose flash over the sure thing

What do you guys think?

I wonder if dline is just harder than oline to get right. More busts.

 

[shabazz]

30 years between drafting a DT in the 1st round.....they just don't value some positions.

37 years since they've drafted a Qb in the 1st round.

The MO is pretty predictable around here.......and the results have been too

 

[Ironicalicon]

They try too hard to be clever, thinking they see things others don't.

 

[kskboys]

This baffles me. I know Jerry is a world class dummy but Dallas has been terrible at drafting on the DL. In my opinion here's why?

1. Position has been a focus historically especially DT

2. Dallas thinks they are too smart and often go for the projectable athlete rather that productive college stars

3. Dallas does too many small school guys. Draft SEC DLinemen and see what happens

4. Culture is not built on toughness and DL needs to be tough

5. Coaching carousel has been a hot mess

6. Just plain stupidity from Jerry as he will always choose flash over the sure thing

What do you guys think?

All you have to do is listen to some of the guys on this board. They think DT's just have to be big. They don't understand the difference between Q and the Vanilla Gorilla. They're both big and strong, must be the same player.

That's how Jerry thinks. And he's so obsessed w/ CBs and WRs and TEs, that DT is most left to the mid/later rounds.

So, when when we do finally take a 1st round DT, we take Mazi, who lacked the burst and lateral agility to be good.

Jerry does not comprehend "traits". Traits are what generally dictates success or failure. Jerry does not understand that. That is why we can't draft DTs.

 

[kskboys]

Great research thanks ! It validates what the OP said the Cowboys are terrible at drafting DL last 15 years or so .

On the flip side whoever is scouting premium picks 1-3 for offensive Linemen is doing a much better job .

Not really, it's just easy to take OL's, especially OG's. Topnotch OGs are generally taken in the 2nd and 3rd rounds, so we simply take them in the 1st and beat the other's to them. It's easy, because most teams drafting later in the draft are smart enough to already have a good OL and can find them in the mid/late rounds, so they're not looking for OGs.

 

[kskboys]

Don't let the busts distract you from the hits. We really aren't as bad at drafting DL as Zoners tend to think.

Parsons is a 4x All-Pro in 5 seasons. DeMarcus Lawrence is a 12 year starter with 5 Pro Bowls. Maliek Collins is a 10 year starter. Osa is a 5 year starter, and for all the crap fans gave him about his $20M/yr contract, the 49ers gave us a 3rd for the right to pay him that. Gallimore and Golston got second contracts and are kicking around the league as spare parts.

The busts have been spectacular, but we take the hits for granted, and the rate of hits vs misses has actually been pretty good.

And there's another thing. When we do get quality DTs like Collins/Gallimore/Canty, Jerry lets them walk so he can pay his Cbs and Wrs.

 

[Verdict]

I can’t tell you WHY, but I wish we would do a better job of consistently acquiring them. Something tells me that our propensity to throw away second round picks year after year has a lot to do with it.

It still pisses me off that we took Bossman Fat instead of Creed Humphrey. That type of thing is what really burns me out.

I think also selecting has been coaches (Marinelli) also didn’t help.

 

[Bullflop]

McClain....he's in charge of drafting. Should start with him. I know, Jerry won't let him, if that's true, he should have dropped a pair a long time ago and left. If it's not true, it's his fault, plain and simple

It's certainly a reasonable problem to ponder. Parker might help the situation for now . . . what might happen if and when he gets an opportunity to become a head coach for some other team? The awful fact that we haven't had better defensive help for so long is a scary problem, no doubt. Jerry doesn't think and act bold enough to consider such things, evidently. For the longest time, DTs hardly meant anything to him.

 

[Aerolithe_Lion]

Don't let the busts distract you from the hits. We really aren't as bad at drafting DL as Zoners tend to think.

Parsons is a 4x All-Pro in 5 seasons. DeMarcus Lawrence is a 12 year starter with 5 Pro Bowls. Maliek Collins is a 10 year starter. Osa is a 5 year starter, and for all the crap fans gave him about his $20M/yr contract, the 49ers gave us a 3rd for the right to pay him that. Gallimore and Golston got second contracts and are kicking around the league as spare parts.

The busts have been spectacular, but we take the hits for granted, and the rate of hits vs misses has actually been pretty good.

Micah doesn’t really fit here. While he masquerading with DE title for a bit, he’s not a lineman.

It’s like Marshall Faulk: he was an excellent pass catcher and even lined up out wide on occasion. But any wide receiver list with him on it has lost the plot.

 

[gtb1943]

I think our biggest drafting problem is thinking by our so called brain trust that they are smarter then anyone else in the NFL

Which of course they are not

and fixating on athletes NOT PLAYERS

Get people who REALLY PRODUCED in college is not something they seem to think is important

Like with Guyton: he had not done much
Maxi had not done much