Early thoughts

[L-O-Jete]

OUCH

They had zero chance of knowing this when on the clock at 16, but I'll take door number 2 please. Oh well, hind site.....

They knew they wanted Lawrence, they knew they would have to trade up to get him since they didn't wait a second to start to try and move up.

It's not that much "hind site"...

 

[Kaiser]

They also assume five minutes of YouTube makes them equipped to be a scout.

Phooey on you. I spent 12 minutes on YouTube, so I'm a GM. Scouting Director at a minimum.

 

[CF74]

Not sure it matters TBH.
We know they brought in all the guys I listed so they had interest.

But overriding point is in deep drafts you win by moving down; not overpaying to move up.
It is frustrating to me because Dallas pulled it off last year and got a huge win out of the deal by dropping for less than value and then even with what most considered a small reach on TFred.

If Zach Martin was their top target I wouldn't complain either.
But we now know he wasn't top 3 on the board for them of potential draftees and was even below Manziel.

There were a lot of really good players in this draft class and I am greedy enough to have wanted at least 4 of the 100.

Heck yeah 2 DE's and 2 DT's in the early to mid rounds, oh and 2 LB's...

 

[DFWJC]

They knew they wanted Lawrence, they knew they would have to trade up to get him since they didn't wait a second to start to try and move up.

It's not that much "hind site"...

The hind site I was referring to was the regarding players we could have had. We did not know that on day one, only in hindsite

 

[RS12]

Early thoughts

My early thought are, thank god they havent given up any picks in the 2015 draft. They are going to need them.

 

[Ashwynn]

One way to look at this draft,in general terms. After 6 rounds, we have 4 players. Hmmm....considering how bad we were last year, thats does not look good on paper. The drafted players better produce big time to call this a successful draft.

 

[Redball Express]

I wasn't real happy yesterday when we didn't trade down.
Knowing we were getting no better than our 4th option at 16 was a bummer.
Very good player but not at all what we were targeting.
Part of the reason I wanted so badly to move down is we do so many of these mocks we see where the "value" seemed to be.

I thought Lawrence fit to us nicely at 26.
Then we would have still had 47, 78 plus whatever we got to move down.

End of the day it is pretty clear we couldn't trade down.
CLE wasn't interested in going up that high apparently.

But it does suck because the OL in R1 meant a near panic trade to find the RDE.

This may work out and we end up with a couple of Pro Bowlers.

But this team needs a lot of depth and tossing away 3rd rounders to move up 13 spots is a tough pill to swallow.

I would have felt a lot better had it been a 3rd in next years draft instead.

Hey bro..

Don't worry about the 3rd rd. draft pick.

No guarantee they would even make the team.

How many of our players were #3 picks?

Not many.

 

[Tezz]

Not Cowboy related, but I kept hearing how the safety class was weak on this message board clearly not what some teams thought with 4 going round 1. Teams highly value safeties that aren't center field types as well depends on scheme

 

[jterrell]

Not Cowboy related, but I kept hearing how the safety class was weak on this message board clearly not what some teams thought with 4 going round 1. Teams highly value safeties that aren't center field types as well depends on scheme

it was a soft safety class.
they's why the 4 went where they did.
none elite but only 4 of note so there was a run late r1.

the position clearly has value.
San Fran has used 1sts at Safety two years in a row.

 

[ThreeandOut]

1st lets be clear:
CLE traded to 22 and gave up a 3rd rounder.
Worst case that was the deal that would have existed. 16 for 26 and a 3rd rounder.

You do not get to pick and choose your trade details for sure and that is always going to be a challenge.
You also are going to please 100% of the people 0% of the time.

Had we taken the CLE deal this "could" have been the haul before today:
26. Lawrence
47. Timmy Jernigan
78. Kareem Martin
83, Trai Turner

So basically net sum is Zach Martin for Jernigan/Kareem/Turner

The way the draft unfolded, trading down from 16 to take Lawrence would have been the best way to go. I think if the Cowboys knew that Jernigan would be available at 47 and Turner at 78, they would have taken the trade down in a heartbeat.

 

[L-O-Jete]

The way the draft unfolded, trading down from 16 to take Lawrence would have been the best way to go. I think if the Cowboys knew that Jernigan would be available at 47 and Turner at 78, they would have taken the trade down in a heartbeat.

But that is exactly the problem, if it wasn't Jernigan, it could have been Nix, Hageman, Tuitt, Easley, Jones, Sutton, Reid, Ellis... If it wasn't Turner it could have been Jackson, Su'a, Bitonio, Yankey, Dozier... Or another position like they wanted D, but the value wasn't there so they took Zack.
The thing is, if they knew they HAD TO HAVE Lawrence you have 3 options:

a) Pick him at 16 reaching
b) Trade down to an area you feel his a good value even if the trade doesn't seem great value
c) Use other assets to move up to the area where you feel safe you can get him risking overpaying (most likely).

In general in such a team sport as football, it's very difficult for a player to be worth 2 players, some QB's and maybe a few elite guys at certain positions, even elite players are in need of a capable teammate or don't really make a difference.

Now in a draft that's supposed to be the deepest (best) in the last decade I would think what you want is as many picks as possible, especially if your team is considered extremly top heavy and thin.

But hey, maybe that's just me.

 

[Fredd]

people keep saying a trade down gets us Lawrence anyway, but then you don't have Martin...and THAT is why you make that trade....I think the Cowboys did quite well in this draft

* a starting OL
* a starting WDE (a humongous need)
* a 3rd WR that can push for #2 passes/status
* some depth @ LB, DL, secondary (and a few guys will push for time)

What more can you ask for? There is no way of telling if guys like Jernigan, trai turner or Kareem Martin would get significant playing time, but you can be pretty sure that Zack Martin WILL impact this team positively from the start and while I think Lawrence is a smidgeon of a wild card, I think he is that only in that he potentially will be a starter or could turn into something special once Marinelli gets his hand one him...

...I am happy with the increase in bodies on the team (including the 24 UDFAs)

 

[L-O-Jete]

people keep saying a trade down gets us Lawrence anyway, but then you don't have Martin...and THAT is why you make that trade....I think the Cowboys did quite well in this draft

* a starting OL
* a starting WDE (a humongous need)
* a 3rd WR that can push for #2 passes/status
* some depth @ LB, DL, secondary (and a few guys will push for time)

What more can you ask for? There is no way of telling if guys like Jernigan, trai turner or Kareem Martin would get significant playing time, but you can be pretty sure that Zack Martin WILL impact this team positively from the start and while I think Lawrence is a smidgeon of a wild card, I think he is that only in that he potentially will be a starter or could turn into something special once Marinelli gets his hand one him...

...I am happy with the increase in bodies on the team (including the 24 UDFAs)

What more can you ask for? In a 8-8 team which just cut their top 2 DLinemen, had the worst D in the League and has missed the playoffs the last 4 years, in a draft regarded as one of the best in the last decade? I think you can ask for at least 4 players pushing for starting roles.
This team needs a core, not a couple of potential "Pro-Bowlers". I like Z. Martin and D. Lawrence, but I would have liked a draft where I don't "over pay" because I had to have a guy better, and the only way I get there is if I get more players per draft than this.

 

[Fredd]

What more can you ask for? In a 8-8 team which just cut their top 2 DLinemen, had the worst D in the League and has missed the playoffs the last 4 years, in a draft regarded as one of the best in the last decade? I think you can ask for at least 4 players pushing for starting roles.
This team needs a core, not a couple of potential "Pro-Bowlers". I like Z. Martin and D. Lawrence, but I would have liked a draft where I don't "over pay" because I had to have a guy better, and the only way I get there is if I get more players per draft than this.

But what you aren't looking at is the enormous number of games missed by the defense last season...if (big if) the team can stay healthy, the defense as currently constructed is a middle of the road group IMO...in the beginning of the season, they were playing pretty well...and, while losing their two best DL is true, I think the replacement for hatch is there (and better) and the jury is still out if the new demarcus can fill the shoes of the old demarcus at all....

 

[DBOY3141]

I've seen many posts and understand both sides in regards to the trade. To me it comes down to this.....we are talking about 1 player, so instead of drafting 9 players we could have drafted 10, assuming everything played out the same the rest of the way for the remainder of the draft.

Folks are saying we could have had:

Lawrence at 16, Jernigan at 47 and Trai Turner at 78. All good players and I would be very happy to have them, who would contribute day 1.

vs

Martin and Lawerence - again both good players, who will contribute day one.

Maybe this was some long term thinking they had. Don't take the trade down for Cleveland, draft Martin, play him at guard this year, next year he moves to RT and replaces Free. Better player and saves money on the CAP so we don't have to give Free another contract.

2015 draft, odds are better that we find a starting guard in the 3rd round vs having to use one of our 1st two picks on a RT if we had used scenario #1 and drafted Trai Turner. Odds are better that you can find a starting guard later in the draft vs finding a starting RT. Just a thought.

 

[theSHOW]

I wasn't real happy yesterday when we didn't trade down.
Knowing we were getting no better than our 4th option at 16 was a bummer.
Very good player but not at all what we were targeting.
Part of the reason I wanted so badly to move down is we do so many of these mocks we see where the "value" seemed to be.

I thought Lawrence fit to us nicely at 26.
Then we would have still had 47, 78 plus whatever we got to move down.

End of the day it is pretty clear we couldn't trade down.
CLE wasn't interested in going up that high apparently.

But it does suck because the OL in R1 meant a near panic trade to find the RDE.

This may work out and we end up with a couple of Pro Bowlers.

But this team needs a lot of depth and tossing away 3rd rounders to move up 13 spots is a tough pill to swallow.

I would have felt a lot better had it been a 3rd in next years draft instead.

I hear ya, as I also had wishes of a slight to moderate 1st round trade down. But we did get Lawrance and we did get one of the top linemen in the draft...and he is versatile. And we gave up 1 pick. A 23rd rounder. Draft looked pretty decent again.

1. Martin will start day one and give the young linemen confidence to rule the trenches in 2014
2. Lawrence will get lots of snaps and get his sacks on a pretty deep group of average players across the line
3. -
4. Hitchens is a little bit undersized special teamer who can tackle. Back up MLB
5. Street is tall and will be in the mix. Smart player
7. Gardner part of the 53
7. Smith special teamer
7. Dixon will be right there with Church and probably start midseason
7. Bishop part of the 53
FA Boyd part of the 53
FA G. Martin part of 53

 

[DFWJC]

I'm fine with what we did but this saying a trade down gets us 3 in the top rounds are wrong....it gets us 4 players in the first 3 rounds instead of the 2 we got.

 

[JBS]

Hearing how the Browns Eagles trade went down, its no guarantee that the browns were even willing to part with a third while negotiating w us.

Its quite possible they backed out of the deal w us then had a change of heart after JFF texted them and forked over a third w philly.

Never know what happened . The tweet i read today said cle backed out of the deal w us

 

[theSHOW]

Hearing how the Browns Eagles trade went down, its no guarantee that the browns were even willing to part with a third while negotiating w us.

Its quite possible they backed out of the deal w us then had a change of heart after JFF texted them and forked over a third w philly.

Never know what happened . The tweet i read today said cle backed out of the deal w us

 

[theSHOW]

Draft day can get fast and wild. Plans gets nixed with little time to go on the clock. I prefer earlier trades calculated to move down to a spot that can fit needs and be great players BPA. This draft could have netted more starters..that is a fact. If the two 1st round talents we did acquire...do turn out to be ALLPRO...this trade and draft would be considered a Homerun.