News: BTB: A 2016 redraft has three Cowboys as first-rounders

Both these guys are involved, of course. | Photo by Andrew Dieb/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

We have some good, some meh, and some bad when looking back at the 2016 draft.

Ah, there’s nothing like a little confirmation bias. When you see some kind of analysis that supports your own opinion, you really like to latch onto such perceptive and intelligent work. One of the latest examples of something that can be taken as putting a very favorable light on the Dallas Cowboys is a recent article at NFL.com where Adam Rank redoes the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft. He has three players that were actually taken by the Cowboys that year going in the first 31 picks. (The New England Patriots forfeited their first-rounder that year.)

With these exercises, largely conceived to help us while away the time while waiting for real football news to come along, part of the enjoyment is judging them. So how does Rank do? Well, his first overall pick immediately builds a strong basis for remarkable perspicacity on his part.

Pick 1 Los Angeles Rams (original pick Jared Goff): Dak Prescott, QB Mississippi State


It’s been five years now, and the entire football world seems to have reached an obvious consensus that Prescott was the best option available in the entire draft class. It is just as evident that he is well overdue getting signed to a top of the market contract.

Well, everywhere but in offices at The Star that are occupied by people named Jones, apparently.

Now to the next player that landed in Dallas.

Pick 4 Dallas Cowboys (original pick the same): Ezekiel Elliott, RB Ohio State


Rank thinks the Cowboys were right in their original selection.

And thus ends the confirmation bias, because I totally disagree with his reasoning. First off, his cavalier dismissal of the “running backs don’t matter” crowd misstates and distorts the real argument about why Elliott was over-drafted. Running backs are just so much easier to find and have much less effect on the performance of a team than a player at a high-value position like Ramsey, who Rank has going next as he did in real life.

However, Rank would probably have been right, because the Dallas brain-trust is still headed by Jerry and Stephen Jones, and running backs definitely did matter to them back then. Remember that Elliott was not drafted to pair with Prescott. He was supposed to help out Tony Romo. We sadly recall how that worked out.

So you have to award points for this pick for being what would have happened even with some knowledge of how things played out. It still was in reality a misuse of a first-round selection.

The above is a personal opinion and does not reflect the official stance of Blogging The Boys, Dallas Cowboys media in general, or many of our fan base.

Now to the final member of the trio teased in the headline.

Pick 20 New York Jets (original pick Darron Lee): Jaylon Smith, LB Notre Dame


Say what? Smith missed his entire rookie year, had one good season, and looked absolutely lost last fall. There is a strong argument to be made that his selection by Dallas in the second round was a mistake, so this looks even worse. Had he been taken later, it would have been a more reasonable gamble that may have been far more justifiable, but there seems no way he could be considered as worth a first-round pick. Just the fact he was unable to play as a rookie, and that it was completely foreseen, is all the justification that needs. If the Jets were all in for a linebacker, Rank has Matt Judon and Myles Jack going just a few picks later. His reasoning in elevating Smith this high completely eludes me. The evaluation of it will be presented in the form of a movie quote.


So, as far as keeping score, we have one Cowboy who was the only correct answer, another who was, but only so far as the thinking of the the team’s ownership, and a complete and total miss.

There is also one other pick that caught my eye. It doesn’t involve a Dallas player, but one that is for several reasons closely related to the Cowboys.

Pick 8 Philadelphia Eagles (original pick Jack Conklin, by the Tennessee Titans via trade): Carson Wentz, QB North Dakota State


I have to give Rank some credit for his logic here. There’s no doubt that this alternative would have left the Eagles in far better shape now, while they would still have that one glorious season to carry them for hopefully decades of futility to come.

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