I do not believe in judging drafts 3 years down the road because it's an erroneous view as to what goes into the draft. To me, the draft is about finding a consensus of draft grades on a player and seeing what teams had the most 'good value' picks. So getting a 1st round graded player in the 3rd round is a great value. You can do some grading by waiting in the future such as a player like Jourdan Lewis and waiting to see if he stays out of trouble. Or in the 2013 draft which was very O-Linemen heavy, but come to find out that the O-Linemen that didn't play with their hand in the dirt in college fared poorly while those that did play with their hand in the dirt played well.
But, for the most part...I think you can reasonably grade drafts right now. A draft class for a team may be a terrible one even though they got great value on players. That would likely be a case of that class suffering a lot of injuries and/or poor coaching development. That's not the fault of the drafting, that's bad luck and bad coaching.
This draft will be interesting to see how it pans out because it was extremely heavy on DB's. Many scouts were saying that this is the best DB draft class of all time and that players with 4th round grades in this class would have late 1st round grades in other classes. The average team in the NFL takes just under 3 DB's per draft class. CB's in particular are the most oft-injured position in the NFL, so when it comes to drafting the DB's are very important position to consider. This draft had to have made GM's life easier because there were so many DB's out there.
I had an inkling that many teams would go with the theory that the other positions outside of DB's would be more critical to go after because you could always end up with a great DB talent in the latter rounds. That premonition was correct as teams like the Bears, Titans, Bengals and even the Cowboys got away from the BPA methodology in favor of picking up a player in a position of need and thinking they could get DB's later on.
I try to avoid having players 'grow on me' before they play. The more I see of Taco, the more I like. You can't deny his productivity in the past 1-1/2 years in a conference that is very run oriented with good O-Line schools like Ohio State, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc. His hand technique is what the Cowboys will really focus on and I tend to think they like his spin move so much that it enticed them to draft him because even if the hand technique presents a large learning curve, he has the spin move. In the end, he went about where he was projected to go (late first round, early 2nd round) and it filled a need for the Cowboys.
I've been begging for years for the Cowboys to get more physical and better tackling corners. If you look at the schematics and pass charts of the league, it's really changed over the past 10 years. The passes are shorter, quicker and more out to the perimeter. That stresses the CB's because the pass rush isn't likely to get there when the ball is out of the QB's hand in 1.5 seconds or less. You need a DB that can press to take away the screens, you need a DB that can tackle so they can play zone and protect against those pick routes and you need a DB that can plant his foot and drive into the receiver when he plays off.
If there's one thing I've liked about Marinelli's takeover of the defense is that he's a big believer in that philosophy. While he hasn't had a lot of DB talent to work with, every CB we've brought in is a pretty good tackler. Whether it's Terrance Mitchell, Tyler Patmon, etc....they can tackle.
And we got 2 more athletically gifted CB's in Awuzie and Lewis that can really tackle. Particularly Lewis who I had as the best tackler in the draft. It's hard not to root for the guy given he's only about 175 pounds, but he tackles, particularly against the run, like Rhonde Barber did. That takes a lot of guts and determination at his size to do so. Awuzie tackles well, too. Now we have a CB crew of Scandrick (good tackler), Brown (good tackler), Carroll (above average tackler) and Awuzie and Lewis. If you want a physical, tough and nasty defense, it starts with having physical, tough and nasty CB's.
Awuzie was one of those DB's that had a 2nd round grade in this draft but likely a 1st round grade in other drafts. Lewis probably had a late 1st to early 2nd round grade in this draft, but dropped due to the assault accusation.
Switzer is an interesting pick, but I like it for many reasons. He had a 5th-6th round grade, but the league is notoriously poor at rating slot, pivot route WR's. Wes Welker went undrafted and then was sold to the Patriots for only a 2nd round pick. He was insanely productive and more importantly incredible efficient. Julien Edelman was a 7th round pick and Beasley was undrafted. I think the league has struggled to figure out the measurables for these receivers and there's always the fear of them getting hurt because they are smaller in stature.
We already have Beasley, but that doesn't mean we can't use Switzer and Beasley together on the field at once. It also helps us out if Beasley needs a breather or if, god forbid, Beasley gets injured. In the meantime, we got what looks like an excellent punt returner.
I really like the Xavier Woods pick. I don't think he'll be a great player, but he may be a very good role player which is important in the league. He can play corner and safety as well as special teams. I expect him to be in dime packages and some nickel packages and fulfilling Wilcox's role on special teams.
I think Marquez White is a CB that they liked after his junior season and fell after his senior season. He's the type of CB you take a shot on with hopes he figures out how to go back to his junior season play. Ivie seems like a Marinelli type in that he doesn't 'loaf' and is a RKG type of person. I think he lacks the upper body strength to play in the pros, but Marinelli couldn't get enough of Nick Hayden and that's who Ivie reminds me of.
I like the Noah Brown pick because of his youth and his size/speed combo. Also, playing at Ohio State it's not like you have Johnny Unitas throwing you the ball and you have a large crop of WR's going to OSU and you can get lost in the shuffle. It's hard to always tell because of the camera angles, but he looks like a very good blocker and with his size and speed, he could force Lucky Whitehead out if Switzer becomes the punt returner and Brown can play in special teams coverage.
I don't really know anything about Jordan Carrell. I expect him to play at DT and he's got decent size and athleticism, so they probably took a shot.
Overall I would give this class a grade of a B. They got some good value out of this draft other than perhaps picking Switzer a tad high, but again the scouts continually rate these pivot route WR's too low. The team also fulfilled some needs to boot. The only player I would look after 3 years to judge is Lewis, just to see how his off the field issue turns out.
YR
