A better draft strategy than standing pat in draft order

[JW82]

The Cowboys enter the upcoming draft with 10 of the draft’s 257 picks. With holes at almost every position group on this roster, and with this organization’s refusal to take free agency as a serious way to upgrade the roster, we need a plausible approach that can upgrade this team quickly in the upcoming 2025 draft. Here are the Cowboys current picks by round:

• Round 1: No. 12
• Round 2: No. 44
• Round 3: No. 76
• Round 5: No. 149
• Round 5: No. 174 (compensatory pick)
• Round 6: No. 204 (from Lions)
• Round 6: No. 211 (compensatory pick)
• Round 7: No. 217 (from Titans)
• Round 7: No. 239 (from Packers)
• Round 7: No. 247 (from Chiefs)

It’s great having 10 picks but only 3 of them are in the top 100. That gap between pick 76 and 149 is huge. Having 7 picks in the back end of the draft decreases the chances of immediate impact. Five of those current picks will be in rounds 6 and 7 where most of those players will be STers or deep backups at best.

So…what if we could get aggressive and do a couple of trade downs to give us 5 picks in the top 100 instead of just 3?

• Trade down at 12 to pick up an extra 2nd or 3rd round pick.
• Consider trading a current player on the roster in a draft pick trade.
• Use some of the compensatory picks at the bottom to sweeten a deal.

Bottom line for me: Having only 3 top 100 picks and having 7 picks from rounds 5-7 is not enough help. We should convert some of the compensatory picks and round 6 and 7 picks into less overall picks but more in the top 100.

Without some move ups, our draft picks will mostly be bottom of the talent pool.

I am with you bullet. Give me 5 top 125 picks and anything after that is gravy. Don't want to go completely out of rd 1 and lose that 5th year but based on how it plays out, I'd be very flexible.

 

[KingCorcoran]

Look I know they don't do blockbuster stuff in free agency but don't say they don't when you use the word don't as if they don't even bring in free agents at all none of them that are on your list but I'm pretty impressed with the stuff they've done this offseason compared to last anything is better than last offseason..

You are on here every day do we need to see the transaction list not only free agents that they've already brought in but the ones they made sure didn't become free agents that kept on their own team that's a pretty active offseason so don't act like they sat on their hands I mean last year they brought in Kendricks waited till after the draft and brought in a bunch of fair parts that's not the case this year that's a solid group they brought in so far...

So a better use of the word would be they don't bring in big name free agents they don't do high risk free agents but the word budget doesn't even work either because Kendricks came in here last year but the Eagles did this you want to see the Yang and the Yang two of their defensive players they brought in were allegedly budgeted minded they were kind of like the linebackers we brought in this year I think it was a safety and I don't know a linebacker if I'll say a corner they did pretty well but the $17 million they spent on Huff just got flushed down the toilet last year so they're better picks in free agency we're the ones that they spent less money on it's kind of ironic right?

Look last year was a disastrous offseason and I know they don't do a lot as far as things that would impress a fan base but this offseason has been very active and I'm content with it at this point and it's not over...

To say they're not participating in free agency is acting like only the free agents in the first 10 days with the big names that make the biggest money are the only ones that can make an impact on your team and I'm going to say that's untrue....

When you’re a legitimate contender you can afford to whiff on some free agent signings. When you’re a third place team with numerous glaring holes on your roster you can’t afford to sit out free agency. You miss every shot you don’t take.

The Eagles signed Huff and some other free agents last off season and won the Super Bowl. You can bet they’ll still be active signing them after the draft when they ascertain what holes they did not manage to address in the draft.

 

[Jarntt]

But there wont be a dead cert ALL-Pro at 12. It then becomes a discussion on the differential between the Pick and the Alternative (at say 20) + the additional second Rd pick.
The question is would you take say MacMillan (someone that will encourage a team to draft up) if Golden, Burden, Edbuka are available?
The ability AND DEPTH in our draft needs (WR, RB,1-TECH and CB), indicates that in THIS draft, the Trade Back suggests we can fill all of the needs with good options.

Based on what, mock drafts? I wouldn't take any of those WRs at 12. Possibly McMillan, but certainly none of the others. But, I don't draft for need at #12 on a team with no shot at a SB and I don't know how our scouts have them ranked. Personally I'm hoping that Burden's poor year last year causes him to drop because I'd be all over him at 44 and would even look to trade up for him if he were on the board a few picks before that. I think he is the 3rd best WR in this class and maybe the 2nd best (counting Hunter as a CB).

 

[CowboyoWales]

Based on what, mock drafts? I wouldn't take any of those WRs at 12. Possibly McMillan, but certainly none of the others. But, I don't draft for need at #12 on a team with no shot at a SB and I don't know how our scouts have them ranked. Personally I'm hoping that Burden's poor year last year causes him to drop because I'd be all over him at 44 and would even look to trade up for him if he were on the board a few picks before that. I think he is the 3rd best WR in this class and maybe the 2nd best (counting Hunter as a CB).

I think you need to go and re-read your post I was replying to..... about 'the need for top end talent', 'needing to draft an All-Pro star talent'.....there won't be one at 12.... the only 'star' player that's regularly mocked to fall as far as 12 is MacMillan.
My point is that if MacMillan and Golden, Burden, Edbuka are still there (and we want to draft a WR....I'm not saying we are) then differential isn't great enough not to 'trade down'(away from MacMillan, pick one of the other three and pick up an extra 2nd/3rd RD pick.
I used MacMillan as he's possibly going to be the only guy that could be available at 12 that team's would 'trade up' for.

 

[tomokawan]

This team needs more top end talent. We aren't winning a SB this year. Take a star at #12. Do what you want after that but don't give up on a potential All Pro (with luck) to pick up another guy to "fill a hole". We just aren't good enough to be thinking like that right now IMO. If anything I'm being more aggressive and trading up in any of the first 3 rounds if there is a guy on the board that we feel is worth it.This year is a draft to get us moving in the right direction

I agree!!

 

[Jarntt]

I think you need to go and re-read your post I was replying to..... about 'the need for top end talent', 'needing to draft an All-Pro star talent'.....there won't be one at 12.... the only 'star' player that's regularly mocked to fall as far as 12 is MacMillan.
My point is that if MacMillan and Golden, Burden, Edbuka are still there (and we want to draft a WR....I'm not saying we are) then differential isn't great enough not to 'trade down'(away from MacMillan, pick one of the other three and pick up an extra 2nd/3rd RD pick.
I used MacMillan as he's possibly going to be the only guy that could be available at 12 that team's would 'trade up' for.

No. I'm totally disagreeing with the thought that there won't necessarily be one there (always a crap shoot of course so maybe maybe not) at 12, because I don't agree with mocks as being a predictor of reality. I think that if the team has a player on the board at 12, regardless of position (within reason of course) that they think could potentially develop into an All Pro type player, then they absolutely need to take him. Fans make up their wish lists based on mocks which are just copied from other mocks and are mostly opinions based on opinions.

I'll give you my 3 examples at positions I think the team will ignore but of players that may be there that I think will be really really good and would jump all over at 12: Membou, Jalon Walker and Emmanwori. I fully understand almost everyone will disagree with Emmanwori at 12 and to some extent the other two as well. The point being that is according to my personal ranking. The team has their version of guys ranked that high as well of course of spending months of watching every play and they should take them if they are on the board if they believe them to be that good.

 

[tomokawan]

Been saying all off season. Trade down, get 2 extra picks in the top 4 rounds. Or if only one pick, and a few picks in the later rounds. Package them and trade back up.
Or both.

10 drafts picks will not make the team or an impact. As 5 picks in the first 4 rounds, and a few late round ST development type players will.

Disagree. We need top end talent. Get a star at 12 and move up in the second round. You give them extra picks they start taking stupid risks. How many times have we seen that ? I swear some of you have draft amnesia every year. LOL

 

[CowboyoWales]

No. I'm totally disagreeing with the thought that there won't necessarily be one there (always a crap shoot of course so maybe maybe not) at 12, because I don't agree with mocks as being a predictor of reality. I think that if the team has a player on the board at 12, regardless of position (within reason of course) that they think could potentially develop into an All Pro type player, then they absolutely need to take him. Fans make up their wish lists based on mocks which are just copied from other mocks and are mostly opinions based on opinions.

I'll give you my 3 examples at positions I think the team will ignore but of players that may be there that I think will be really really good and would jump all over at 12: Membou, Jalon Walker and Emmanwori. I fully understand almost everyone will disagree with Emmanwori at 12 and to some extent the other two as well. The point being that is according to my personal ranking. The team has their version of guys ranked that high as well of course of spending months of watching every play and they should take them if they are on the board if they believe them to be that good.

The 'value' for us in this draft is probably in trading back.....especially if your 3 examples are there on the board.
We aren't talking 'stars', we aren't talking your CeeDee's or Micah's, your 3 examples certainly come with 'bust potential' (especially at being picked at 12).

 

[jazzcat22]

Disagree. We need top end talent. Get a star at 12 and move up in the second round. You give them extra picks they start taking stupid risks. How many times have we seen that ? I swear some of you have draft amnesia every year. LOL

No we do not have draft amnesia. We just know what we are talking about.

 

[dacopacabana]

This team needs more top end talent. We aren't winning a SB this year. Take a star at #12. Do what you want after that but don't give up on a potential All Pro (with luck) to pick up another guy to "fill a hole". We just aren't good enough to be thinking like that right now IMO. If anything I'm being more aggressive and trading up in any of the first 3 rounds if there is a guy on the board that we feel is worth it.This year is a draft to get us moving in the right direction

What star is available at 12?

There are maybe 3 bonafide stars this year.

 

[tomokawan]

No we do not have draft amnesia. We just know what we are talking about.

Yea, sure you do.

 

[Bullflop]

In lieu of the talents to be had in the veteran agency process, wise drafting such as Bob Haze suggests here would be a great relief to behold on draft day. Acquiring extra draft picks by way of moving down in the draft would be a blessing that this team could benefit greatly by. H-m-m. Imagine that, if you can!

Let's hope the powers that be on draft day extend themselves to such a level of expertise. This team could finally field a team worthy of playoff success. It'd be well worth the diligent efforts involved.
This Cowboys font office could finally be worthy of praise. Is that realistically possible?

 

[CowboyoWales]

What star is available at 12?

There are maybe 3 bonafide stars this year.

Yep, and there's an argument that we fail, not because of the top end talent, but that we have too many weaknesses and 'holes' which get exploited. When, as you say, there are so few 'STARS' (and certainly not one falling to 12) coupled with the draft depth, especially in areas of need (WR, RB, CB, 1-TECH) it appears the value is to trade down.

 

[Jarntt]

What star is available at 12?

There are maybe 3 bonafide stars this year.

According to who mock drafts? Like every draft, there will be a player drafted at the 12 pick or later who is at a minimum a Pro Bowl level player in his career. The point is you go by what your scouts like. No one knows who our scouts like and don't like. This idea that you decide before the draft begins and you even know who is on the board that you should trade back is bizarre to me. Worse is the idea that the players between 12 and 20 are "the same". There is little chance NFL teams feel that way. Fans feel that way because they see mock drafts from people who don't know football any more than them having the same guys interchangeable at those spots. If your scouts spend all year watching every play of every top player and can't differentiate between them, maybe you need new scouts. Of course it happens from time to time, but not to the extent fans are portraying it this year

 

[blueblood70]

Disagree. We need top end talent. Get a star at 12 and move up in the second round. You give them extra picks they start taking stupid risks. How many times have we seen that ? I swear some of you have draft amnesia every year. LOL

But you say that but we moved down only two spots from 10 to 12 to get Parsons and we picked up OSA in the third round that's what it got us just to move two spots down we got talk to your talent did we not there's top tier talent all the way down to 20 in the first round so you can move down three spots or five spots and get you that extra 3rd or 4th round pick that we need to do further trades or acquire talent.. I think they need to definitely look to moving down if AJ they're running back is gone if TET is gone if most of the top guys that they covered it the most are gone and you can still get one of the 3 each 3 spots down up close to equal talent then you should move down and acquire that extra pig that's all people are saying here...

There isn't a huge gap between TET vs Golden or Burden or AJ and either hampton or henderson etc So if you can come away with one of those choices from those 4 and pick up another high round pick then why would you not do that if their board says one of those players fit better but you can still get them that's the strategy you want to use no one's saying you have to move down but if they come to that position and two of the top guys are gone but yet you could still get one of the other two then sliding down three spots and picking up possibly a low 3rd or a high 4th round pick why would you not do that?

I know people are saying well then we have to look at is Graham going to be there or Johnson but is Will Johnson now have a red flag on him even though he's probably the best corner prospect is he worth staying at 12 versus moving down some spots I mean I get it there's going to be a lot of stuff going in is this what they're thinking about now and teams are overthinking because this process takes too long that's why I've been an advocate this needs to happen in March not April we need to flip how free agency and the draft goes or just simply have the drafted March and keep everything else the same because they're overthinking after the combine there's way too much waffling going on now..

 

[jazzcat22]

Yea, sure you do.

I guess you do have it, you obviously do not remember I posted that I do not.

 

[Robster8989]

There are 32 teams in the league. Almost every one of them will be allotted 3 picks in the top 100 before factoring in trades and compensation picks.

Trading down is always the fan gag reflex but it is not always the right approach. Trading out of talent can lead you to the dirty dozen classes of 1995 and 2009. Just a bunch of stiffs.

There's only one way to properly approach and conduct a draft. The Cowboys shouldn't stray from that to try to make up for what they don't do in free agency. You'll only end up following up a bad free agency period with a bad draft. The answer is to change their approach in free agency not the draft.

This is well said. Our issue is our approach to FA. We have a solid record in the draft.
I like the idea of moving back and collecting another top 100 pick, but at 12, we may be giving up a future CeeDee or Micah, so we need to be careful. Imagine if say we pass on Mcmillan by moving down and get another Taco and a meh 3rd rounder, and Mcmillan becomes a superstar (at a very cost controlled number for 5 years). That's hard to recover from. On the other hand, with all our holes, moving back and getting additional top 100 picks may be the right move. (Imagine moving off 12 and getting a late 2nd, grabbing Golden and a DL who both become starters). That would be a great move.

I look at teams by position groups. An NFL season is a marathon and depth is mandatory IMO.
Offensively, there is QB room, RB, WR, TE and OL, You could even split OL between IOL and T.
On D, there is DL, Edge, LB, S and CB.
There is also ST, kickoff, punt, and return units for each.
I think our ST is strong, as we have excellent kickers and return specialists.
There rest though, ughhhh.
I don't see a strong unit there, and we did not address anything in FA (at least not on top of the rotation players, we did add some meh depth.
Bottom line is we have holes all over this team.
The draft can be huge, we can certainly fill some of these holes and improve these units, but it's unlikely we can fill all our holes (impossible actually).
The idea of getting an extra top 100 in a trade back, or combining later picks to move back up into the top 100, are really solid ideas, but we just don't know how the draft will unfold (one of the things that makes the draft so exciting).
Imagine if we had filled a few holes in FA. Let's say we added a WR and a IDL. Now we have something to be excited about. But of course, we did nothing at the top end of any position group, other than sign Osa, which was just keeping a guy we already had, not improving the unit. The issue is we have a management team with 30 years of failure. There is not one company in the world that could survive that, as the competition will put them out of business. The Cowboys however, seem immune from that, so here we are.

 

[Captain-Crash]

Jerry said his strategy is to see who will give him the most money for our picks. Then take the money and give it to dak. We can't trade him so give him more money. He gets in the, "best shape of his life" when we give him more money. Then we don't have to have the best team ever assembled in the history of the NFL to carry him.

 

[Beaker42]

The Cowboys enter the upcoming draft with 10 of the draft’s 257 picks. With holes at almost every position group on this roster, and with this organization’s refusal to take free agency as a serious way to upgrade the roster, we need a plausible approach that can upgrade this team quickly in the upcoming 2025 draft. Here are the Cowboys current picks by round:

• Round 1: No. 12
• Round 2: No. 44
• Round 3: No. 76
• Round 5: No. 149
• Round 5: No. 174 (compensatory pick)
• Round 6: No. 204 (from Lions)
• Round 6: No. 211 (compensatory pick)
• Round 7: No. 217 (from Titans)
• Round 7: No. 239 (from Packers)
• Round 7: No. 247 (from Chiefs)

It’s great having 10 picks but only 3 of them are in the top 100. That gap between pick 76 and 149 is huge. Having 7 picks in the back end of the draft decreases the chances of immediate impact. Five of those current picks will be in rounds 6 and 7 where most of those players will be STers or deep backups at best.

So…what if we could get aggressive and do a couple of trade downs to give us 5 picks in the top 100 instead of just 3?

• Trade down at 12 to pick up an extra 2nd or 3rd round pick.
• Consider trading a current player on the roster in a draft pick trade.
• Use some of the compensatory picks at the bottom to sweeten a deal.

Bottom line for me: Having only 3 top 100 picks and having 7 picks from rounds 5-7 is not enough help. We should convert some of the compensatory picks and round 6 and 7 picks into less overall picks but more in the top 100.

Without some move ups, our draft picks will mostly be bottom of the talent pool.

We have to pray hard to God, Buddha, Allah, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva that we hit on a crap ton of UDFA’s

 

[conner01]

The Cowboys enter the upcoming draft with 10 of the draft’s 257 picks. With holes at almost every position group on this roster, and with this organization’s refusal to take free agency as a serious way to upgrade the roster, we need a plausible approach that can upgrade this team quickly in the upcoming 2025 draft. Here are the Cowboys current picks by round:

• Round 1: No. 12
• Round 2: No. 44
• Round 3: No. 76
• Round 5: No. 149
• Round 5: No. 174 (compensatory pick)
• Round 6: No. 204 (from Lions)
• Round 6: No. 211 (compensatory pick)
• Round 7: No. 217 (from Titans)
• Round 7: No. 239 (from Packers)
• Round 7: No. 247 (from Chiefs)

It’s great having 10 picks but only 3 of them are in the top 100. That gap between pick 76 and 149 is huge. Having 7 picks in the back end of the draft decreases the chances of immediate impact. Five of those current picks will be in rounds 6 and 7 where most of those players will be STers or deep backups at best.

So…what if we could get aggressive and do a couple of trade downs to give us 5 picks in the top 100 instead of just 3?

• Trade down at 12 to pick up an extra 2nd or 3rd round pick.
• Consider trading a current player on the roster in a draft pick trade.
• Use some of the compensatory picks at the bottom to sweeten a deal.

Bottom line for me: Having only 3 top 100 picks and having 7 picks from rounds 5-7 is not enough help. We should convert some of the compensatory picks and round 6 and 7 picks into less overall picks but more in the top 100.

Without some move ups, our draft picks will mostly be bottom of the talent pool.

No player we could spare. Rings anything in a trade. More bodies don’t mean more talent. 12 gets us a day one starter if we don’t mess it up