Grading out the Rooks

[xwalker]

RD1 Travis Fredrickou can see him open alot.
He was the guy from day one that solidified the middle of the OL. Had the strength to stand up to bigger DTs and suprised everybody in the ability to get to the 2nd level and block Lbers and at times even get to the 3rd level and take out a safety. But we did see the difference from college to an NFL season. Fredrick looked like he got tired towards the end of the yr. Draft Day Cowboys fans especially in this forum were calling this a monumental bust and reach. How is that sitting for you nasayers?

Grade A-

RD2 Gavin Escober
I think this was a good pick, Its just sad that this coaching staff dont seem to want to play younger talent on this team unless injuries arrive. You could see he had a knack for getting open when he was on the field. Thats the key prase "when he was on the field". Towards the end of the yr he was on the field and he got open all the time but for whatever reason Romo never went to him.

Grade C-

RD3 Terrance Williams
Great pick, will team up for Dez for years to come. Showed he is a solid #2 but does drop passes because he doesnt catch the ball with his hands but lets it hit his body. Good route running but needs to work on coming back to the ball when his Qb is in trouble.

Grade B+

RD3 J.J wilcox
I said this from the time he was drafted, Bad pick. Because the Cowboys already had a Wilcox and that was Barry Church. Wilcox is a hitter but has little range. Worse then Church. He couldnt even get heath off the field and heath was bad.

Grade F

RD4 BW Webb
Another pick that made you scratch your head. Small school kid that flashed athletic ability but still was a small school kid that saw inferior talent. And in the NFL playing a spot that the NFL limits on what they can do. This was a bad pick and it showed.

Grade D

RD5 Joseph Randle
He just doesnt do anything well. He's avg but he needs to develop. You can see he will turn into a decent RB but never a starter. He will be a guy who can spot start if need or go into a game to spell your starter. Decent pick for a 5th round guy.

Grade C-

RD6 Devonte Holloman
He couldnt stay on the field. And he has a bad knee so who knows how much he can give you or how long his career will be. But Dallas found a guy who can backup any of the 3 LBer spots. And the best spot for him will probably be in the middle. Solid depth guy

Grade B-

UDFA Jeff Heath
He wasnt supposed to start. He was supposed to be a practice squad guy and next yr probably a ST guy. But injuries brought him along faster then what they probably wanted. Atleast you know what you have in Heath. Going to be a special teams stud, and a solid backup. More Depth

Grade C

Dallas had a decent draft but really lost in the 2nd RD3 and RD4 picks. Those two were some bad pick. I understand why they picked them because they had needs in those spots but they were just bad fits.

Hindsight 20/20
RD3 A pick that Dallas could've used more came the pick following the Wilcox pick
Damontre Moore DE

Wilcox is a much better athlete than Church. He was terrific in 1-on-1 coverage drills against WRs at the Senior Bowl practices. He was better than many of the CBs including Webb. Wilcox is a small school rookie that only played defense for 1 year in college. His mother died during training camp and then he injured his knee. It's not surprising that he was inconsistent this season. Heath at least had played Safety throughout college.

Webb is the only pick that I didn't like. Even if he develops, he is small. They need to have BIG developmental CBs due to the increasing number of monster sized WRs in the league.

 

[LatinMind]

I would switch Webb and Wilcox grade. Give Webb the F.
Wilcox the D. But mine would be C.
He looked decent first few games he started. Once he was injured, and maybe being a rookie, and trying to recover. Just took it's toll. I will wait and see, just as with all the rookies, or most of them.
If you say Frederick getting tired toward the end, then same goes for Wilcox.

The grades overall I have no issue with.
Everyone will have their opinions, where and who should have been picked. Like Risen Star said, Warford over Escobar. And I can see that and can agree with that. Considering the lack of use of Escobar, for whatever reasons. That doesn't matter right now. I'm basing this on what they did, not what they should have done anyway. Isn't this what the thread is about.

Also, another thought. These rookies like Wilcox, even Webb. When playing with a mix of veteran players, can look decent when the team is healthy. As those better players can make up for a weakness. But when you have just about all rookies mixed with street players. Then the flaws will be shown. Hence, why they are later round picks.
One can argue to draft better players too. But much easier said than done, for most, probably all teams.
A lot of it is luck too.

Ill say, Leary and Mack are just fine and i see no use in reflecting on Warford. I would say that Dallas couldve used Jonathon Hankins more.

 

[jterrell]

I would switch Webb and Wilcox grade. Give Webb the F.
Wilcox the D. But mine would be C.
He looked decent first few games he started. Once he was injured, and maybe being a rookie, and trying to recover. Just took it's toll. I will wait and see, just as with all the rookies, or most of them.
If you say Frederick getting tired toward the end, then same goes for Wilcox.

The grades overall I have no issue with.
Everyone will have their opinions, where and who should have been picked. Like Risen Star said, Warford over Escobar. And I can see that and can agree with that. Considering the lack of use of Escobar, for whatever reasons. That doesn't matter right now. I'm basing this on what they did, not what they should have done anyway. Isn't this what the thread is about.

Also, another thought. These rookies like Wilcox, even Webb. When playing with a mix of veteran players, can look decent when the team is healthy. As those better players can make up for a weakness. But when you have just about all rookies mixed with street players. Then the flaws will be shown. Hence, why they are later round picks.
One can argue to draft better players too. But much easier said than done, for most, probably all teams.
A lot of it is luck too.

Forget the Warford stuff. He was not ever on our radar. If we hadn't taken Escobar they go TWill there.
But Escobar was a hard target. They wanted a guy to eventually take over for Witten, and a TE is vital to the offense.
If Escobar averages 60 catches over text four years his critics look silly. And that's an easy mark for him to hit unless Witten has magic powers.

Warford and Moore looked good and plenty liked them but Dallas never did.

 

[TheCount]

I think the fact that you gave Wilcox and F and Webb a D is showing heavy bias. Webb was awful. How can you give Randle a C and then describe him as someone that does nothing well?

 

[tm1119]

1st- A-. Travis helped the entire o line play better.

2nd- F. Stupid pick then and stupid pick now. Even if he can eventually be a reliable receiver he still can't block to save his life.

3rd A- B-. His shaky hands scare me. If he hasn't learned to catch with his hands yet will he ever?

3rd B- D. Looked like what I expected, a guy who has no clue how to play his position. Wouldnt mind him in the 5th but 3rd is too early for that much of a project.

4th- C. I think he has potential to be a solid slot corner. Ok 4th rounder.

5th- C-. Neither fast nor big. Not sure he'll amount to anything.

6th- B. Hurt but don't mind him as a solid depth guy going forward.

C- seems appropriate overall even though the draft isn't a lost cause or anything. 8 months later is still a little early to tell.

 

[jazzcat22]

Ill say, Leary and Mack are just fine and i see no use in reflecting on Warford. I would say that Dallas couldve used Jonathon Hankins more.

Yes agree very much. I actually wanted then to select Hankins.
I was ok with the Escobar pick, but was just making a comment, people still use that pick, as opposed to the OL. At the time I was wondering why not OL, if not DL. But not being critical of what they did.
Obvious they knew much more at the time than what most of us know.

 

[jazzcat22]

Forget the Warford stuff. He was not ever on our radar. If we hadn't taken Escobar they go TWill there.
But Escobar was a hard target. They wanted a guy to eventually take over for Witten, and a TE is vital to the offense.
If Escobar averages 60 catches over text four years his critics look silly. And that's an easy mark for him to hit unless Witten has magic powers.

Warford and Moore looked good and plenty liked them but Dallas never did.

I forgot about that after the draft, and thought more of it. Was just using that as an example.
I knew Escobar would take a year or so, learn under one of the best TE's ever. Agree, TWill would have been 2nd round, and getting that 3rd round in the Frederick trade proved to be great.
I am pleased with the way the OL turned out this year.

 

[TonyRomo17]

webb was the only bad pick..hes going to bust so hard

 

[JoeyBoy718]

I don't have a problem with the Escobar pick IF we cut Witten this offseason to free up cap space and sign one or two DLmen to a cheap one-year deal like Seattle did with Bennett last year. I like Witten but I think Escobar will fill in just fine and we need to fix other areas of this team. The pick is pointless if we continue to not use Escobar in 2014. Cut the old fat off this roster. Escobar makes Witten expendable and Williams makes Austin expendable. Now we have to draft someone who makes Ware expendable.

 

[AmishCowboy]

I think you are very wrong on Wilcox. He was a small school guy that was never going to meet year 1 expectations. He was clueless out there but at least had natural coverage skills that Heath lacked.

He was bad this year but a mediocre not bad pick with a bright upside IMHO.

Escobar and TWill should both flourish next year. They flashed big play potential but both need to add reliability.

This was a very strong draft class. Hopefully we can hit this mark again.

I agree

 

[mahoneybill]

No its based on he was healthy but could never force the coaches to get heath off the field. And heath was bad.

Heath has a pretty good vertical, but doesn't use it in the right way. He could benefit by learning how BB rebounders time their jumps and attack the ball.

 

[Corso]

Wilcox is a much better athlete than Church. He was terrific in 1-on-1 coverage drills against WRs at the Senior Bowl practices. He was better than many of the CBs including Webb. Wilcox is a small school rookie that only played defense for 1 year in college. His mother died during training camp and then he injured his knee. It's not surprising that he was inconsistent this season. Heath at least had played Safety throughout college.

Webb is the only pick that I didn't like. Even if he develops, he is small. They need to have BIG developmental CBs due to the increasing number of monster sized WRs in the league.

Man- you are absolutely one of my favorite posters on this site.
Bar none. Your knowledge of the team and the game of football along with your ability to convey that knowledge to us is simply invaluable to this board.

I wanted to take a moment to say thank you and show a little appreciation to the contributions you make here.

 

[reddyuta]

What's wrong with Hollomans knees?

 

[conner01]

All of that in a nutshell is precisely why he was a terrible pick.

This team doesn't have time to wait for a guy to learn how to play. Sit behind a starter on another team that has functional safeties? Sure.

Not the case here. Not even close

thats the problem with fans. they expect every pick in every round to be a day one star. thats not how it works.players take time to develope and thats something, as a team we need to do. you are'nt picking 7 starter ready players in the draft. it aint happening

 

[Denim Chicken]

I wish you could put Church's tackling ability/fundamentals into Heath's athleticism. THat would be a nasty and fun to watch safety.

I though Heath was one of the better tacklers on our team. His coverage skill are what was lacking.

 

[SacramentoKing]

I believe Esco could put up numbers similar to Wittens if he was the #1 tight end.

 

[Alexander]

RD1 Travis Fredrick - A-

Struggled like all rookies, but by the end of the year he looked like an All Pro. Might even be better long term than Mangold.
RD2 Gavin Escobar - D-

Only thing that keeps this from an F is the brief glimmers of hope. But part of the concern is that his lack of production was not all his fault. If we knew he needed a year to "get stronger" we probably had no business drafting him. We also failed to design plays where he could contribute even without the additional development.

RD3 Terrance Williams - B

Needs to refine some things route-wise and get better at catching with his hands. Otherwise no complaints. Was a bit surprised how he seemed to have Romo's attention this early.

RD3 J.J Wilcox - D

Injuries and what appears to be a learning disability far outweighed the tools he has. It was shocking he was unable to take his job back from Heath. Another case where we knew the player needed development (RB conversion) yet we took him anyways.

RD4 BW Webb - F

Most disappointing player of the class. A passive cornerback in a system that needs an aggressive tackler. Did not respond to benchings or cuts in playing time. I would not be shocked if he is cut in the next camp.

RD5 Joseph Randle - C

Average player. Will always be average as there is really not anything exceptional about what he does. Easily replaceable.

RD6 Devonte Holloman - C+

Would have been interesting to see how he would have done were it not for the neck injury. He needs to play a lot next preseason, even more than he did this year.
Looks like a two player draft where we might get a late round keeper in Holloman. The middle round players all seemed to have mental issues that go beyond inexperience.

 

[Verdict]

Wilcox is a much better athlete than Church. He was terrific in 1-on-1 coverage drills against WRs at the Senior Bowl practices. He was better than many of the CBs including Webb. Wilcox is a small school rookie that only played defense for 1 year in college. His mother died during training camp and then he injured his knee. It's not surprising that he was inconsistent this season. Heath at least had played Safety throughout college.

Webb is the only pick that I didn't like. Even if he develops, he is small. They need to have BIG developmental CBs due to the increasing number of monster sized WRs in the league.

I think it is very possible that Webb ends up being cut and may not be on the opening day roster next year. I don't think his upside is very high at all.

We might find an instant upgrade over Randle in this draft, or even off of the UDFA scrap heap. Unless Randle improves in the off season, I think his roster spot is definitely in jeopardy. If we take a running back high (top three rounds) I think you can start warming up the fat lady to sing for him.

I'm going to reserve judgment on Wilcox. I think he is the one guy from this draft class who has a lot of potential. He may be coached up into the real steal of this draft class.

 

[al124]

I wish we could've selected a DT in the 2nd but I have a good feeling about Escobar. The huge drop in production by Witten this year wasn't a fluke -- the guy is on his last legs. Escobar will be his eventual replacement.

Just look at that touchdown he made against the E-gals in the last game of the season. Heck, I could live with that.

 

[arglebargle]

Premature evaluation.....