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

Whyjerry said:
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?
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So Jerry is stupid when it comes to drafting DL, he must be a genius when it comes to drafting OL!
 
Whyjerry said:
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?
Click to expand...
Predominantly the struggles have been at DT, while DE they've hit on several players outside of some more recent guys like Taco Charlton and Sam Williams. The first issue is lack of premium picks at DT. If my memory serves me correct Mazi Smith was the first DT selected by the Cowboys in the 1st round since Russell Maryland. Other than that they just invested a small handful of picks in the 3rd round at DT and Trysten Hill in the 2nd round. They haven't taken enough swings as they haven't valued the position until recently. Secondly, they drafted some guys that largerly lacked college production, but had the measurables they were looking for. Hill was a fairly raw talent, but had no motor or real interest in football. Mazi took a long time to carve out a role in college and had low production. It's on those who scouted those players that didn't pickup the red flags.

Other players like Osa and Maliek Collins were actually pretty solid finds, while Neville Gallimore has hung around as a rotational player.
 
Whyjerry said:
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?
Click to expand...
We’d be much closer to contending had JJ done the smart thing and launch McCarthy after the Green Bay playoff disaster. That was COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE.
 
gimmesix said:
We've drafted two defensive tackles in the first two rounds since the 2005 draft, when Parcells not only drafted Marcus Spears in the first, but Chris Canty in the fourth and Jay Ratliff in the seventh, after getting DeMarcus Ware in the first. The picks we used were 58 in 2019 (Trysten Hill) and 26 in 2023 (Mazi Smith).

In contrast, the Philadelphia Eagles have drafted two DTs in the top 13 in the past five years (Carter and Davis). Before that, they took Fletcher Cox at 12 in 2012.

The Washington Commanders took Jonathan Allen at 17 in 2017 and DaRon Payne at 13 in 2018. Since then, they've missed on Phidarian Mathis at 47 in 2022 and seemed to have done OK with Jer'Zhan Newton at 36 in 2024.

The New York Giants did well with Dalvin Tomlinson in 2017 (the lowest draft pick among the absolute success stories at 55) and then found a star in Dexter Lawrence at 17 in 2019.

So I would say that the main problem is investment. To hit on top DTs, you've usually got to do it inside the top 20 picks of the first round or get lucky in the second.

As far as DEs go, yes, Taco was a miss but Parsons was a find and DeMarcus Lawrence was a solid pickup. I'm not going to go through the other teams' drafts like I did for the DTs, but I'd bet our success rate is similar to theirs depending mostly on the draft position.
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Fletcher Cox should have been a Cowboy. Our guys screwed that one big time.
 
Also don't forget Trysten Hill who is currently sitting on the Colts practice squad
 
kskboys said:
If you add in that they are beyond awful at player evaluations, I will agree w/ you!!!!!
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Who exactly has final approval on our draft board? If it is McClay then it is on him
I think our scouts are good enough. Its those right above the scouts where I think on of the big problem is
 
I would love to have two things: the name of the scout on Mazi and exactly what his scouting report said
 
StarOfGlory said:
Fletcher Cox should have been a Cowboy. Our guys screwed that one big time.
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Considering that we ended up with Mo Claiborne, there's a lot to complain about there. But yeah, if our focus has been trenches first, we would have made the right pick. ... Or maybe not; we probably would have ended up with Dontari Poe, which would have still been much better than Claiborne.
 
I think it's really just a mixture of inconsistent schemes, no true group identity, and giving your coaches way too much juice in the war room.

It's not like the scouts don't know who the impactful defensive linemen are. They were all over Aaron Donald and wanted to draft him.
 
Hardline said:
Most of the time they don't pick low enough in the first round of the draft to get the top DL prospects.
The Aaron Donalds of this world don't fall to the 20's
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Agree! When Aaron Donald was falling down draft boards Jerry should have traded up from 15 to 11 to get him before the Rams took him at 12. But oh no that would have cost Jerry too much.
 
Whyjerry said:
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?
Click to expand...
No eye for talent at the DT position.
 
First-round defensive tackle (DT) draft picks have a 52.63% success rate for earning at least one Pro Bowl selection. According to historical data from picks 1–10, 10.53% of first-round defensive tackles have gone on to earn multiple First Team All-Pro selections.

When analyzing the entire first round (picks 1–32), the day-one hit rate for defensive interior linemen (DI/DT) is 63.2%, which is slightly above the average expectation for that position group. However, selecting a DT in the first round carries a notable risk, as they have the second-highest bust rate in the second round of any position group, trailing only quarterbacks (excluding punters and kickers).
 
Rockport said:
The Cowboys haven’t prioritized DT for years until just last year. That’s the answer for DT for DL, they’ve been prioritizing other positions. Teams can’t draft high for every position so it’s pick your poison.
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Yup. And they picked the wrong poison. They picked as a casual fan would've picked.
 
kskboys said:
Terrible talent evaluators. Once you start looking at everything through that scope, it all makes sense.
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And that all points directly at Will. He’s been the one constant along with our owners during this stretch.
 
Ranching said:
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
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Yep, and it’s McClay. He’s been the one constant throughout feeding Jethro.
 
kskboys said:
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.
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Yep. And on several cases we over reached on OL in 1st round . Yea, they turned out but we drafted per need and some of them would have gone later either in 1st round or early in 2nd round .

Cant blame Will in these cases. He’s just looking for players positions of need per his instructions from Jethro.

McClay is probably nothing more than our chief puppet and why he’s stayed put in Dallas. Not GM material.
 
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