Follow your draft board

[Bobhaze]

Watching some of the threads here has been a good reminder to not fall in love too easily with a possible draft pick at a position of need.

Over the years I’ve learned a very important point about draft strategy: Don’t reach for a guy you’re enamored with just because he’s available. Follow the draft board your scouts have spent months, maybe years rating these guys.

For example- if we have the 19th pick, and Jerry loves him some DJ Moore, who is available at 19, but our draft board and scouts have him as the 35th best player in the draft, you are likely making a big mistake if you pick him because you are passing on players you already believe are more talented. Or trade down, pick up an extra pick, and take that guy around the place you have him slotted.

Reaching for a guy in rounds 4-7 is one thing- reaching for a guy in rounds 1-3 is deadly to your team’s talent pool.

The Cowboys have a lot of needs. So good FOs follow their draft boards and avoid becoming enamored with one or two guys at a position of need. It’s ok if we as fans do that, but a well run FO sticks with its scouting work and player evaluations in the flow of the draft.

 

[dwreck27]

 

[Bobhaze]

Yeah like done in 2013 with TFred.

 

[dwreck27]

Yeah like done in 2013 with TFred.

We reached for a guy we really liked in a round that was universally was accepted as "too early"

Look man I get your point but at the end of the day just get the most talented dudes in here and see how it shakes out

 

[RandyOh]

We reached for a guy we really liked in a round that was universally was accepted as "too early"

Look man I get your point but at the end of the day just get the most talented dudes in here and see how it shakes out

well it didn't take dwreck long to dwreck this thread

 

[conner01]

We reached for a guy we really liked in a round that was universally was accepted as "too early"

Look man I get your point but at the end of the day just get the most talented dudes in here and see how it shakes out

I never thought he was a reach
He was the best player in the draft at his position and will he may have fallen I little lower he was never falling where some thought
I thought he was a high second rnd guy

 

[RodeoJake]

We reached for a guy we really liked in a round that was universally was accepted as "too early"

Look man I get your point but at the end of the day just get the most talented dudes in here and see how it shakes out

Generally accepted by pundits, but what kind of grade did he get from the people whose jobs are on the line? If the Kipers, Brooks, etal are that good at talent evaluations, wouldn't they make more money doing it for all the marbles?

 

[dwreck27]

I never thought he was a reach
He was the best player in the draft at his position and will he may have fallen I little lower he was never falling where some thought
I thought he was a high second rnd guy

Lol sure you did.... SUREEEEEEEEEE

 

[dwreck27]

Generally accepted by pundits, but what kind of grade did he get from the people whose jobs are on the line? If the Kipers, Brooks, etal are that good at talent evaluations, wouldn't they make more money doing it for all the marbles?

Idk what his grade was.... Honestly looking back I remember the consensus was that the cowboys board was wiped and they could not trade out of that 31 slot and then decided to take their highest slotted guy who was probably to early for them (Escobars selection would have made better sense)

 

[dwreck27]

well it didn't take dwreck long to dwreck this thread

 

[Sandyf]

Remember the draft boards we all see are only media scouts not real team draft boards. If we go by what McCray said after the draft, Frederick was rated by Dallas Cowboy scouts in the 30 to 40 range and it fits where he was drafted. This notion of being drafted a round or two early was just the media scouts and fans not really what our people had actually rated. The "reach" thing is a non issue because it wasn't a reach to the Cowboys and who appeared to be right the media scouts or the real scouts.

 

[cowboyec]

Isaiah Wynn,OG-Georgia.

 

[dwreck27]

Remember the draft boards we all see are only media scouts not real team draft boards. If we go by what McCray said after the draft, Frederick was rated by Dallas Cowboy scouts in the 30 to 40 range and it fits where he was drafted. This notion of being drafted a round or two early was just the media scouts and fans not really what our people had actually rated. The "reach" thing is a non issue because it wasn't a reach to the Cowboys and who appeared to be right the media scouts or the real scouts.

They can spin it however they want since we werent in the room and will never have access to their big board..

Not bashing Fred as I love the player and has been a cornerstone for us since being drafted... But what ive been attempting to get at was they got stuck and flat out drafted the best dude available which is how I want our draft to be... but if you see value a few picks ahead with a player who has no business being there say at 10-15 I say go get him

 

[Hawkeye0202]

If this same scenario plays out and you can't trade down, then who's the number one or two ranking player at a particular position still on the table. I'm warming to the idea of TE. I know we still have Witten but he's year-to-year. The best TE in the draft can go long ways impacting this offense just as much as another WR.

 

[conner01]

Lol sure you did.... SUREEEEEEEEEE

You know all our post are still out there to see

 

[dwreck27]

You know all our post are still out there to see

I mean Im not gonna look... Im not gonna believe you... but If you wanna spend the next few hours or so looking thats on you

 

[Bobhaze]

We reached for a guy we really liked in a round that was universally was accepted as "too early"

Look man I get your point but at the end of the day just get the most talented dudes in here and see how it shakes out

He wasn’t a reach at 31, because to the Cowboys’ credit, they traded down to get TFred instead of getting him too early. Plus they got an extra pick too.

 

[dwreck27]

He wasn’t a reach at 31, because to the Cowboys’ credit, they traded down to get TFred instead of getting him too early. Plus they got an extra pick too.

To get back to your original premise of this thread OP sorry for the hijacking... but say you are stuck at 19 with no one but DJ more who like you said is maybe ranked 28-35 on your board... No trade back options and you are lined up with a bunch of guys you dont like... do you reach then? I mean this is a very plausible situation just because we would wanna eject backwards dosent mean we will have a trading partner willing to give up assets

 

[hendog86]

I never thought he was a reach
He was the best player in the draft at his position and will he may have fallen I little lower he was never falling where some thought
I thought he was a high second rnd guy

He was dinged for his poor athletic showing at the combine, which is foolish. His tape didn't lie.

 

[Bobhaze]

To get back to your original premise of this thread OP sorry for the hijacking... but say you are stuck at 19 with no one but DJ more who like you said is maybe ranked 28-35 on your board... No trade back options and you are lined up with a bunch of guys you dont like... do you reach then? I mean this is a very plausible situation just because we would wanna eject backwards dosent mean we will have a trading partner willing to give up assets

If you sit at 19 and don’t like your draft options, I can’t imagine not having a good option for a trade down. With 31 other teams in the draft, in round one you always have options. It’s just a matter of which your org thinks is best.

If you sit at 19, and draft a guy that is ranked at best at 28-35 on your board that your trusted scouts worked hard to prepare, you would Have to be pretty certain there was not much of a talent drop between 19 and 28. It’s hard in a hypothetical to know exactly what you should do.

All drafts have risks and subjective opinions built in, but the more you stray very far from your draft board rankings, the more likely you make bad decisions.