***Mega Merge Grade our Draft thread***

[cml750]

I give us a C right now but only time will tell. I hope it ends up being an A+ three years from now!!!! The Martin pick was solid but I would have taken Manziel due to Romo's health questions and age since o-line was not a huge need and all our defensive targets were gone. I also hated giving up our third to move up although I like Lawrence. As for the 4th rounder, I will reserve judgement and hope our scouting department knows something we don't. As for the later rounds, we did as well as anyone. Hopefully some will pan out and with any luck at all contribute at a high level.

 

[Eddie]

C

Which means we're looking at 8-8 again.

 

[honyock]

Am I the only one having a hard time digesting this draft? Didn't like how the first three rounds broke, and did not like the pick in the 4th. Liked all the other players, though (including our 1 and 2), and got really good value late.

For an overall deep draft, though, and drawing at a disadvantage early, I have a hard time saying we were anything more than average. I'm going with a C, I think.

I'm pretty much in agreement with you. I'll go with a B-. It's not higher partly because we ended up with only two players in the top 100 selections from a deep draft. Some of that was just the way things fell weirdly in round 1, but still, that was a disappointment. Having said that, I like both of those players. Really love the Martin pick, and I understand the reasoning behind the trade up in the 2nd round.

The two glitches - at least they sorta look they were glitches - were the loss of the third rounder and the Hutchins pick. I'll be happy if I have to declare later that they weren't glitches at all. But for now, losing that third rounder lowers my grade a bit.

I have no idea what to think of or how to grade Hutchins. That'll just have to be proven on the field. He was so out of left field, with udfa grades and rumors that the Seahawks were ready to pounce on him and others liked him, that I'm just going to scratch my small-brained head and call I-dunno-how-to-grade-this-pick.

From round 5 on, really nice. If those two 7th round DL can step in and be good rotation players early on, that's just a huge win.

In three minutes I'll edit this and change my grade to a solid B. Or maybe to a C.

 

[Deep_South]

This is a tough draft to grade. I think Martin is an A+ in the first round at 16. Lawrence with our 2nd and 3rd picks looks like a can't miss DE, but he needs some development, so he gets a B+. Gotta give Hitchens in the 4th a C, only because everyone but us thought he would go lower. (If he is good enough to give Sean Lee a breather without getting picked on, he'll get a higher grade retroactively.) Street in the 5th is an A right now because he looks like a steal if he can do for us what he did on tape for Pitt. Give the 7th a B because Gardner looks promising.

If you look at this draft as part one of a two part effort to be continued in 2015, I'll give it a B+ overall.

 

[ThreeandOut]

I'll give it a B- but this is partly because I don't think the draft fell as Dallas hoped it would. In round 1, they came away with one of the four players they had targeted but I think it was their fourth choice. The idea situation would have involved Barr falling to 16. Had this happened, you probably would have been looking at the first three rounds as Barr, Jernigan and Trai Turner.

The Hutchins pick is obviously the most questionable pick in terms of value. He appears to be insurance for Sean Lee in case he is injured. Hopefully, he can be a productive player. But I'm skeptical of these fourth round picks that seem like they could be selected in a later round.

I like the 5th round pick and they absolutely killed it in the 7th. The seventh round raised the overall grade by at least one letter. If this class ends up outperforming my grade, it will be because several of these 7th rounders turned out to be very good players.

 

[Zordon]

C+, giving up a third when you have holes in virtually every position group is insane.

 

[The Natural]

Hard for me to judge a bunch of 7th round picks. In terms of the top 4 it looks like they got two potential solid players with the kid from ND and WR from pitt. Lawrence has to be an immediate impact player for this draft to be worth a damn

 

[ThreeandOut]

Hard for me to judge a bunch of 7th round picks. In terms of the top 4 it looks like they got two potential solid players with the kid from ND and WR from pitt. Lawrence has to be an immediate impact player for this draft to be worth a damn

I agree the Lawrence pick is critical to this draft. If they evaluated the player correctly, then this will be a good draft.

 

[jobberone]

1. Zack Martin: Excellent pick. Easily the BPA and one of the best players in the entire draft. Took a lot of discipline to make this pick. Probably makes our O-line elite for the next 10 years. A+

2. Demarcus Lawrence: I'm not mad about the trade. If Martin was gone at 16, we probably would have taken Lawrence in the 1st. This pick was similar to last year with Frederick. Last year we traded back in the 1st, and this year we traded up in the 2nd. With Lawrence and Martin, we got two 1st round talents. A-

3. No pick: Sucks to lose a 3rd in a stacked draft, but it was necessary. See my previous post about Lawrence. We went in knowing we needed RDE. When Barr was gone, Lawrence was our guy. Atlanta was offering a 4th and a higher 2nd to trade up to get him, so we needed to offer our 3rd.

4. Anthony Hitchens: Really not sure about this one. Maybe he turns out to be a stud. Who knows? I like going for OLB, especially considering we wanted Shazier in the 1st, but there were some OLBs available at the time that I liked better, like Telvin Smith. But only time will tell. C

5. Devin Street: Like the pick. We needed a WR and he was one of the best available at the time. Love his size. Gives us a threat in the red zone. We already have some smaller slot guys, so we needed size. Has a chance to be our 3rd WR this season. Good pick. B+

6. No pick.

7.a. Ben Gardner: Looks good. He was a SDE in college but might play 3-tech in Dallas. I'd prefer he play 3-tech because we don't have anyone behind Melton and we have a traffic jam at SDE. People are calling him Jarred Allen. Great value in the 7th. Good shot to make the roster. B+

7.b. Will Smith: Not so sure about this pick. The two OLBs we picked are kinda head scratchers for me. People are saying he's more of a special teams player. I don't see him making the roster if he isn't a great special teams player because we have a lot of LBs. C

7.c. Ahmad Dixon: Like the pick. Good value in the 7th. But more of a SS. He's a hitter and doesn't have good ball skills. Would have preferred FS because we already have a lot of SSs on the roster. Might not make the roster since we have a lot of guys, but also might push a guy like Heath off the roster. B-

7.d. Ken Bishop: One of my favorites going into the draft. I wanted us to take him in the 4th. Glad we waited. He's a true 1-tech and I'm almost sure will push Hayden's sorry behind off the roster. So happy with this pick. A

7.e. Terrance Mitchell: I like this pick. People say he's a little slow, but he had a lot of 3rd/4th round grades. We definitely need depth at CB. We only had 3 healthy CBs for a lot of games last year. Maybe he pushes Webb off the roster. B

Overall, B+

Great post!

 

[KINGMACK]

I give it a B+

A- Based on needs filled at RE , WR , DT & S...........value of later round picks............... JJ taking Z. Martin over JFB (future bust)!

 

[big dog cowboy]

C

Which means we're looking at 8-8 again.

Holy moly.

 

[Hardline]

Unless you all can see three years in the future you cannot grade this draft class. Since I cannot see into the future I will give you my grade in three years.

 

[LatinMind]

RD1 Zack Martin OL
This pick is going to be a staple for this OL. IMO he is going to be better then any of the OL picked in the first round. He will start at RG but i think next yr he moves outside to RT. This guy can just play anywhere.
Grade A+

RD2 Demarcus Lawrence DE
Good player but IMO not good enough to trade up for and sacrifice a RD3 pick. They wanted him tho, but i think he is going to end up being average. Plenty of guys that couldve been picked in RD2 and RD3 but werent because they reached for this guy.
Grade C+

RD4 Anthony Hitchens LB
When his own agent says he thought he was going RD6 theres a problem. Huge reach.
Grade D

RD5 Devin Street WR
Where he was drafted and where people thought he would this guy is a very good catch. Runs all the routes in the tree and gives you that vertical threat. Could actually challenge to start. Where he was drafted gets added value to his grade.
Grade B

RD7 Ben Gardner DL
Im biast but this guy is a beast. He is going to be one of this teams most consistent players on defense sooner rather then later. The real thing.
Grade B+

RD7 Will Smith LB Texas Tech
Apparently alot of people had him graded as a RD4 or RD5 guy. Looks like a MLB kind of guy. Has some speed and ability to cover. NIce Depth.
Grade C-

RD7 Ahmad Dixon S
If you watched him play you can tell why he dropped right away. He has talent but the guy is a walking penalty in the NFL. Most likely a backup to Church and a ST thug lol.
Grade C

RD7 Ken Bishop DT Northern Illinois
Guy is a mountain of rock. Just bullies G's and C's out of the way, not the mention for his size he is very quick off the snap. McClain and Bishop are going to form one very strong 1tech posistion.
Grade A

Overall i think the Cowboys got better on defense this weekend and got a whole lot better on offense with only 2 picks. I know alot of people gripe because of the FO and the lack of names the team went after in FA. But this team got a whole lot better on the DL from last yr.

DL Additions
DT Henry Melton
DT Terrell McClain
DE Jeremy Mincey

DE Demarcus Lawrence
DL Ben Gardner
DT Ken Bishop
DT Chris Whalen

7 new players who are Marinelli's type of guys. I dont see an enormous amount of sacks from this DL but i see alot more pressure from last yr. Where they had Hatcher and nobody else with consistent pressure. This team now has a solid core for a rotation to keep bodies fresh and keep them coming after the QB.

 

[mugsybows]

Now that the 2014 draft grade has come to an end what overall grade would you give the boys? I'm going to go with a solid B. I like what we did in the first and second rounds but hated what we did in fourth. We've never been a strong fourth round team so why start now. Thought we also made the best of our 7th round too. So what's your grade?

 

[Frosty]

a solid C+..... the trades were painful......Think Martin will be a sure fire starter. Then Lawerance and Street will be productive.... but the rest are hit or miss....IMO Cowboys walked away with 1 starter , 2 situational players and rest special team candidates. C+ material.

8-8 teams draft like 8-8 teams......

 

[StarMan2112]

I'll say B-. Like most, I didn't like the Hitchens pick and giving up the 3rd to move up for Lawrence.

 

[mugsybows]

I'll say B-. Like most, I didn't like the Hitchens pick and giving up the 3rd to move up for Lawrence.

I like the Lawrence pick but I absolutely agree, hated giving up a third for him.

 

[Biggems]

I hate this draft..........I'm not a fan of Martin, but he is a solid pick......and I take him over Manziel. I know we tried to trade back, but found no takers, so I can live with the Martin pick (besides, he can play all 5 positions, so he is versatile).

I hate the Lawrence pick.........I dont like the player, nor do I like giving up the 3rd. We could have used that 3rd to get Phillip Gaines and solidify our CB group.

The rest of the draft was ho-hum to me. I was not happy trading up to get that headcase Street. Yes he has some talent, but he is basically Antonio Bryant 2.0. With the 7th we gave away, we could have gotten Zack Kerr.

Also, in the 7th, we could have gone after Jackson Jeffcoat or Chris McAllister.......we will rue letting Jeffcoat become a Seahawk. McAllister is still out there for the taking, as is OT Matt Patchan (I believe)

BTW, I would have rather we went after Brock Jensen instead at QB after the Draft...

 

[NJ22]

I like the Lawrence pick but I absolutely agree, hated giving up a third for him.

If they believe that the drop off on edge rushers is significant after Lawrence then they did what that had to do. I am ok with it. The points difference on the trade wasn't much. If they went with Telvin Smith or Caruan Reid in the 4th I would have given an A- but I would still go B-. Which by the way i would be happy to take every year.

 

[Szczepanik]

I would say B+ given how the draft fell . We lost the 3 guy we targeted in defense and avoided a massive headache in Manziel.

Martin is a great addition, Lawrence was a much needed pick. If Lawrence went off the board, Dallas would of been in trouble at that spot. Not every DE fits every scheme.. if we lost out on Lawrence we would of been in a heap of trouble.

Didn't love giving up the 3rd but it was necessary to adjust the D I believe.

4th round pick, does not excite me but the draft picks in Street, Dixon, Mitchell, Gardner and Bishop made up for it in a huge way.

Copeland at FB as undrafted also excites me.