The Cowboys under Schram almost always drafted the BPA and they had 20 consecutive winning seasons despite constantly drafting at the bottom 25% as a result of those winning seasons.
in fact, the Cowboys went to five Super Bowls during those 20 seasons which means that 25% of the time they had the last or second to last pick in the draft.
I did say they "almost always" drafted the BPA. Thee was this one significant time that they didn't.
During the 1979 draft, the Cowboys turn came up in the 3rd round and their board had a QB as the BPA. Well, the Cowboys had Staubach, Danny White and Glen Carrano. They felt set at QB. However, they were short on TE's and their 2nd best player was a TE.
Therefore they decided not to take the BPA. They took TE Doug Cosby, who had a pretty nice career.
A few picks later the 49ers selected the QB that had been the BPA when the Cowbosy were up, a guy by the name of Joe Montana.
A year later, Roger Staubach unexpectedly retired, citing his numerous concussions.
There were times when it seemed like a little overkill. During the four year span of 1969 to 1972, they drafted three RB's in the 1st round. In fact, during one of those drafts they selected a RB in the 1st and 2nd round.
It turns out that three of those four RB's played an importan trole in a Super Bowl championship season. Calvin Hill, Duane Thomas and Robert Newhouse all have Super Bowl rings.
Drafting for need?
Jerry would have stepped right over Micah Parsons to take Patrick Surtain Jr. had he been available.....just before the season in which Diggs made All Pro with 11 INT's. Micah graded out better than both CB's the Cowboys were considering. However, the "need" was for a quality CB which turned out to not be a need.