Grade the Dallas Cowboys Draft

Grade the Cowboys 2022 Draft

  • A

    Votes: 16 5.8%
  • B+

    Votes: 55 20.0%
  • B

    Votes: 84 30.5%
  • B-

    Votes: 39 14.2%
  • C+

    Votes: 31 11.3%
  • C

    Votes: 23 8.4%
  • C-

    Votes: 14 5.1%
  • D+

    Votes: 8 2.9%
  • D

    Votes: 4 1.5%
  • F

    Votes: 1 0.4%

  • Total voters
    275

Wezsh0T

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I admittedly don't know much about this draft, but it would appear that we drafted a lot of athletes with some attitude. I don't want us to get bullied around anymore. I want intelligent players that will finish the play. And that seems to be what we've drafted.
 

charron

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Not a single starter in this draft. They get a C. Big over reach in round 1. Drafting 2 tackles who can't play overall. Maybe Smith is teachable and they decide to force him to start at guard but he's so raw you better hope he doesn't continue with the penalties. Tolbert is my favorite pick so far, he should atleast be able to contribute early. Williams might hit the field in 3rd and long situations but offers nothing else.
 

CouchCoach

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I still haven't graded the 2021 draft. They need more than Parsons to show up on that one.
 

morasp

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Until proven otherwise an A. Build the trenches and defensive front 7. Two OL, two DL, two LB, and TE. All of these guys are nasty.

Tyler Smith With our NFC East Rivals drafting Jordan Davis and Phidarian Mathis I feel a little better having a power guard that can move people on the OL
Sam Williams Can't have enough pass rushers. He could have more sacks his rookie year than Gregory had last year.
Jalen Tolbert. Favorite pick, teams were reaching for WRs the entire draft and we got him later than we should have. There were 10 WRs in the top two tiers and we got one of them.
Jake Ferguson We've needed him for a long time, our offense is the most effective out of the 12 personnel and he should play early
Matt Waletzko Four OTs since MM took over and one of them scheduled to start this season. Should be good competition for the swing tackle position.
Daron Bland I think he was a 30 visit and has the traits to play DQs defense
Damone Clark If his back is good he was a steal ranked 64 picked 176. I like the day 3 risks much better than round 2. In two seasons they've completely revamped the LB group.
John Ridgeway Great value pick ranked 132 picked 178. Not Davis, Jones, or Mathis but hopefully he can help improve the run defense
Devin Harper Special teams ace with a penchant for getting to the QB.
 

CowboyoWales

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Not a single starter in this draft. They get a C. Big over reach in round 1. Drafting 2 tackles who can't play overall. Maybe Smith is teachable and they decide to force him to start at guard but he's so raw you better hope he doesn't continue with the penalties. Tolbert is my favorite pick so far, he should atleast be able to contribute early. Williams might hit the field in 3rd and long situations but offers nothing else.
This draft will live or die on the coaches ability to develop the potential. It appears we've changed emphasis away from the 'names' (sorry is Anae still with us) and given coaches the players they like....Quinn untapped a very good Micah into unanimous ROY, and he wanted Williams ‍♂️.
Similarly Philbin, we all criticised the O-Line drop off, but they weren't his guys and we've got rid of two of them (and doesn't he get a slight round of applause for Steele).
At least we are trying something different.
 

Ranched

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B-minus

My favorite Cowboys pick: Damone Clark, who won’t even play this year. Projected as a top-40 pick before surgery for a herniated disk, the Cowboys got the LSU LB in the fifth. For once in this draft, the Cowboys didn’t reach.
 

NotForLong

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This draft will live or die on the coaches ability to develop the potential. It appears we've changed emphasis away from the 'names' (sorry is Anae still with us) and given coaches the players they like....Quinn untapped a very good Micah into unanimous ROY, and he wanted Williams ‍♂️.
Similarly Philbin, we all criticised the O-Line drop off, but they weren't his guys and we've got rid of two of them (and doesn't he get a slight round of applause for Steele).
At least we are trying something different.
Ghis is a great assessment. . . I have Faith in Philbin . . . Cowboys never should have drafted Connor and Collins didn't have His mind in the Game.
 

charron

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This draft will live or die on the coaches ability to develop the potential. It appears we've changed emphasis away from the 'names' (sorry is Anae still with us) and given coaches the players they like....Quinn untapped a very good Micah into unanimous ROY, and he wanted Williams ‍♂️.
Similarly Philbin, we all criticised the O-Line drop off, but they weren't his guys and we've got rid of two of them (and doesn't he get a slight round of applause for Steele).
At least we are trying something different.


Sure he gets praise for Steele but shouldn't he get criticized for all other OL taking a step back. They all had down years. So he's 1 for 10ish...oh I get it now. Steele like other guys they brought in are rated so low they can only go up. Then they can say look how awesome we are at training guys up.
 

Blackrain

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Way too early to grade but it looks like we're depending on our top pick to get coached up and for the one player that was coached up in Steel we basically had the rest of the o-line regress so I'm not bowled over.

I'll make an assessment when I see Tyler Smith take on Jordan Davis and hold his own.
Till then all I'm really excited about is Ridgeway
 

chicago JK

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I give it a D. I am not a draft expert but I have read a lot the last month, so my take on the prospects is limited. I can certainly see the attractive traits of the first three picks. I also think the arguments of trust in Quinn and the Cowboys have drafted well in the first round recently (for the most part) have some merit.

But I have decades worth of experience that drafts like this from the Cowboys very rarely work out. I am not saying the draft experts are all knowing, because they aren't. But when Dallas takes players who the experts have much lower grades on, it typically doesn't end with dallas being the smart one.

Add this to the complete inaction in Free agency and it looks even worse. Sure Dallas picked a G, DE and WR that they lost this offseason, but I can't say any of those spots will be better next year. In an NFC East where a team never repeats, if I was a betting man I would certainly not be picking Dallas to repeat at NFC East Champion.
 

LittleD

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Why would we get rid of Shultz if we got rid of jarwin

Because he's not worth a long term contract of 8-10mil per year when you can fill the need for TE with 1st contract players. Duh!!!
 

LittleD

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I gave it a C-

Tyler Smith was a high-risk reach for need, when we had two great low-risk need guys (Linderbaum and Jermaine Johnson) sitting right there. That pick's simply a miss.

Sam Williams was another high-risk gamble. He has the talent to justify his pick, but I'm just done with the character red flag guys, they bite us every single year. Travis Jones was right there.

Jalen Tolbert was a fine pick. Good measurables, great production.

Day 3 went really well. Jake Ferguson fills a need, Damone Clark is a zero-risk huge-reward gamble, and John Ridgeway will be playing snaps this year.

I'm OK with rounds 3-7, but our first two premium picks were just bad calls.

I would trust Quinn on selecting players any day of the week rather than your evaluation. Tyler Smith was the last big boy OL tackle/guard left in the draft. You can't get the best players when
you draft at position 24.
 

Frosty

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C-

Why, the Jones are JUST replacing players lost in FA with cheaper players in the draft/FA. Its a money game to them not about championships.

Tyler Smith = Conner Williams 2.0. (still issues with penalties)
Sam Williams = Dante Fowlers and Randy Gregory Replacement
Jalen Tolbert. = Cooper replacement (4th WR at best)
Jake Ferguson = Dalton Schultz replacement in 2023
Matt Waletzko = Practice squad - don't expect to see the field anytime soon
Daron Bland = Special teams player
Damone Clark = expected to redshirt in 2022 and hopefully healthy to play in 2023
John Ridgeway rotational player at best...
Devin Harper Special teams players
 

CowboyoWales

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Sure he gets praise for Steele but shouldn't he get criticized for all other OL taking a step back. They all had down years. So he's 1 for 10ish...oh I get it now. Steele like other guys they brought in are rated so low they can only go up. Then they can say look how awesome we are at training guys up.

Was it the coaching or was it injuries and decline in play? Now it may be purely co-incidental, but the decline in the O-LINE seemed to coincide with Tyron's injuries??? Especially damaging as the swing Tackle we drafted was also out injured and we then got confirmation (if it were needed) that Steele's a RT and should/can never venture left.

Connor starts getting penalised for holding (and the word and tape gets out) what realistically can the o-line coach do.... a) scheme around the weakness....what with, Tyron was injured and banged up (he only played 5 of the last 11 games), Biadasz who is still trying to master his own game b) bench Williams, who for McGovern (Really !!!)....the only thing he could of tried (with the players available, would of been to move Smith to LG and McGovern to his more preferred RG.

There isnt a never ending line of excuses, but we've seen the problem and acted accordingly....let the guy have some time to put it right.
 

CowboyoWales

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C-

Why, the Jones are JUST replacing players lost in FA with cheaper players in the draft/FA. Its a money game to them not about championships.

Tyler Smith = Conner Williams 2.0. (still issues with penalties)

:huh:...isnt that what's supposed to happen? Then when youre in a position of having one or two holes, you spend big in FA or make a big trade?

I'm interested that you've seen tape on Tyler Smith played Guard or are you assuming that the holding at Tackle will follow him to Guard?? If it's the latter then you must be a better talent evaluator and developmental coach than the whole of the Cowboys outfit could employ, maybe drop a CV?
 
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