What a weird draft . If I hadn't watched it and somebody had done a quick recap the following day telling me that Dallas had picked up J. Williams , R. Brewster , S. McGee , D. Smith , M. Hamlin , J. Phillips , and M. Mickens , I'd have said "COOL" . But I did watch it and said "Uhhhhh" .
It's hard being a draft junkie . You watch NCAA games all year with your little list of guys that you're interested in . You read , study , and plot off your favorite draft sites . You watch men in their underwear weighing in , jumping in sand pits , and leaping in the air to bat at a bunch of sticks at the combine . You take this vast plethora of knowledge and compile word documents , draft boards , and little lime green sticky notes . You know the draft ! You know the payers ! You know what Dallas should do !
Then comes draft day . You wait patiently for your pick to role around striking off your pet cats one by one as they fall . Not to worry...your lime green sticky notes says player X is still available . And now it's your turn ! But wait...who's that guy , what have they done , is this some sort of mistake ? You franticly scan your notes , scroll through your word file , and search your web sites . This can't be right , there must be some sort of mistake , this guy wasn't suppose to go until the 4th round . :-(
The tough part is that the NFL doesn't scout like you . They've probably never heard of NFL draft countdown , and none of your little lime green sticky notes are on their fridge . Instead they have attended the players games and spoke to thier position coaches about them . They've watched and rewound hundereds of hours of game tape looking at the players handling formations that we don't understand . They've conducted private interviews with players in a one on one chat to understand a players mentality . They've even flown across the country to watch a player run 40 yards down a track with no pads on .
In the end my little lime green sticky notes didn't match what the Cowboys did on draft day , and I was disapointed . Only Michael Hamlin's name was scratched on my notes , and I was glad to get at least one . I turned off the ESPN coverage Sunday night feeling pretty poor , and only felt worse after reading through this site .
Then Monday came and I began to sort through the mess that we had accumulated . I began to see that maybe these Cowboys scouts weren't the morons I had once suspected . I began to see a pattern of the type of draft they wanted to have . Instead of bringing in guys to strong arm their current starters out , Dallas brought in guys to compliment them . They brought in important role players that would make our nickle , dime , goal line , and special teams better . They drafted guys who had a certain niche in their game that would allow them to contribute now , even though it might not be as a "starter" .
I'm not one to grade drafts . I don't see how you can grade a bunch of guys who have yet to play on Sunday . All I can do is look at who Dallas selected , and decide if that player makes Dallas a better team , and if that player will still be on the Cowboys roster contributing in 3 years . I see 8-9 guys that I believe will make this team better in their sub packages and special teams . I don't know what I really expected out of this draft , but I don't see how I could ask for a whole lot more .
