News: Should Cowboys use draft to further build strengths or fix weaknesses?

[Bullflop]

Every team tends to address their weaknesses with the best player available at that position. They do this, despite usually professing to select the "best player available, regardless of position." When push comes to shove, going strictly BPA is a myth, unless any given team has no obvious weakness. In today's NFL, such a situation simply doesn't exist. Any team's leadership will normally choose to lie about what they've done to pacify their fanbase. The Cowboys are no exception. It matters not what we, as fans, tend to favor. This year, we, once again, have a handful of needs.

Every NFL team has at least one weakness or normally, several that should be addressed. They routinely tend to favor positions of need with the best player available at that position, despite claiming they've picked the best players available, period. If they forego addressing a position of need with the best player available at that position, it will very likely be because another need can be addressed with someone considerably better than the player available at a more urgent need. It's safe to say that the Cowboys will tend to follow that pattern, as usual, in the upcoming draft, like it or not.

 

[kskboys]

Exactly. It always baffles me why this is so difficult. Unless someone is so blocked at a position that you just wont be able to get them on the field you have to go BPA. It's way more important to get a really good WR for example than it would be to reach for another Taco Charleton at #17 this year.

Take the player you think has the best chance of being successful and move on to your next pick. Counting on a rookie to fill the biggest void on your roster, especially a pick outside of the top 10 is a huge gamble.

Taco wasn't a reach.

 

[TexasHillbilly]

And don't let any coaches talk you out of it in the war room.

This year it will most likely be the living room/home office instead.

 

[Tangle_Foot]

That's how we ended up w/ Taco.

Not sure if they thought Taco was the best player available or not, I know they saw him as a better scheme fit for a 4-3 defense. I personally saw him as a left defensive end and not a right defensive end, but let's just hope we don't swing and miss like that again anytime soon. A raw prospect with maturity issues doesn't speak well for due diligence.

 

[kskboys]

Not sure if they thought Taco was the best player available or not, I know they saw him as a better scheme fit for a 4-3 defense. I personally saw him as a left defensive end and not a right defensive end, but let's just hope we don't swing and miss like that again anytime soon. A raw prospect with maturity issues doesn't speak well for due diligence.

He was rated right around where the other players still on board were.

Since he was a project player and a slow learner, I was surprised we took him.

 

[Stash]

Not sure if they thought Taco was the best player available or not, I know they saw him as a better scheme fit for a 4-3 defense. I personally saw him as a left defensive end and not a right defensive end, but let's just hope we don't swing and miss like that again anytime soon. A raw prospect with maturity issues doesn't speak well for due diligence.

I'm curious, as to who you would consider "they"?

 

[Oz-of-Cowboy-Country]

Both.

^^^^This^^^^

 

[Adreme]

Right now they NEED secondary. Its a giant glaring red light of danger that if not addressed will put a tight ceiling on the Cowboys record next season. Its a giant glaring problem and the draft is about the only place left to address it.

 

[Tangle_Foot]

I'm curious, as to who you would consider "they"?

They when it's a bad pick
We when it's a good one

 

[CowboysFaninHouston]

I'm with you all the way on that.

I have a hard time believing that the Cowboys will not be able to find a comparable defensive player on their board at every point a wide receiver would be available. And defensive players are needed more than what would be a #3 receiver, at the very least for the first 3 rounds of this draft.

I cannot help but to feel that this idea is a fan reading and hearing about how "deep and talented" this year's wide receiver group is and feeling compelled to 'get in on the action'.

That's what stuff like this feels all about.

defense wins championships and offense gets you to the playoffs. but I am sure everyone will point to KC-SF... but forgetting that KC invested in their defense after losing in the AFCCG to new England. and their defense was 31st in 2018 and jumped to 17th...and their scoring defense jumped from 24th to 7th. improving by about 8 points per game, and their offense scored about 7 points less per game. which all points to the fact you are not going to win a championships by shootouts

 

[Stash]

They when it's a bad pick
We when it's a good one

 

[Chocolate Lab]

Take the best available player and don't force it either way.

Anyone else remember when Garrett was just getting started and a lot of the board experts insisted that building a great offense even if you have a bad defense was easily the way to go? Never understood that then, and it proved to be a fail. At some point this team needs a good defense again even if it isn't as pretty on the other side of the ball.

 

[Stash]

defense wins championships and offense gets you to the playoffs. but I am sure everyone will point to KC-SF... but forgetting that KC invested in their defense after losing in the AFCCG to new England. and their defense was 31st in 2018 and jumped to 17th...and their scoring defense jumped from 24th to 7th. improving by about 8 points per game, and their offense scored about 7 points less per game. which all points to the fact you are not going to win a championships by shootouts

And I'll go back to this, where I never get an answer.

To those advocating for drafting a receiver in the 1st round this year:

• Given that this team has its two starting receivers already set, that draft pick is essentially your slot receiver, either they're playing it or they're forcing Cooper to play it in 3-receiver formations.
• I can get myself a #3 slot receiver in free agency, for cheap - today
• Can anyone show me the #1 pass rusher to replace Quinn's 11.5 sacks I can also sign for cheap today?
• Or the #1 cornerback to replace Byron Jones that I can sign for cheap today?

 

[Stash]

Take the best available player and don't force it either way.

Anyone else remember when Garrett was just getting started and a lot of the board experts insisted that building a great offense even if you have a bad defense was easily the way to go? Never understood that then, and it proved to be a fail. At some point this team needs a good defense again even if it isn't as pretty on the other side of the ball.

A great point, to which I would like to add:

This team has drafted exceedingly well when using their top picks on offense:

1. Tyron Smith
2. Travis Frederick
3. Zack Martin
4. Ezekiel Elliott
5. Amari Cooper

But when they've done the same thing on defense, for the most part, the results haven't been nearly as successful, and in the cases of Taco and Trysten Hill recently, they've been miserable failures. So as a result, the team continues to have needs on defense to fill, to say nothing of the fact that their two biggest free agent losses this year have come from defense as well. So yes, this team very much to not only make a concerted draft investment to make up for recent mistakes, they need to have a high success rate in doing so.

 

[quickccc]

err. do we really have a choice besides the NFL draft at this choice ? ... do we have another Robert Quinn like brilliant trade in our back pockets that
we can execute to help us out as well? ,,Because a Cooper or Quinn like trade is all that we have left at this point.

 

[fivetwos]

And I'll go back to this, where I never get an answer.

To those advocating for drafting a receiver in the 1st round this year:

• Given that this team has its two starting receivers already set, that draft pick is essentially your slot receiver, either they're playing it or they're forcing Cooper to play it in 3-receiver formations.
• I can get myself a #3 slot receiver in free agency, for cheap - today
• Can anyone show me the #1 pass rusher to replace Quinn's 11.5 sacks I can also sign for cheap today?
• Or the #1 cornerback to replace Byron Jones that I can sign for cheap today?

Totally agree logic wise, but the way this first round appears to be headed, WR may very well be BPA at 17.

With the amount of time a WR3 spends on the field, that player can at least contribute this year.

Just really cant force position due to need.

 

[Stash]

Totally agree logic wise, but the way this first round appears to be headed, WR may very well be BPA at 17.

With the amount of time a WR3 spends on the field, that player can at least contribute this year.

Just really cant force position due to need.

What your preference were this situation to present itself (which I regard as unlikely anyway). But hypothetically, the top defensive players are all gone, would you prefer to take that wide receiver or to trade down for additional picks and more chances to get those defensive players later in round one, or round two and afterwards?

 

[blueblood70]

weakness = defense

1st and second round =Defense BPA on board stud day 1 starters

3rd maybe a WR speed slot guy
4th JHurts or another QB
5th a swing tackle?
6th Lb depth
7th a punter

shove in the comp picks and 4 pick 2 comp-7 can be in any order of position by BPA really

however 1-4 should be close to what I laid out..

 

[Swagger]

Fix weaknesses. Quarterback, corner back and safety being the biggest needs.

 

[OmerV]

There is no set answer. It depends on how strong the strength, and how weak the weakness, and how important the team sees the position to the success of the team, and how quickly a player can be ready to contribute, and future needs as contracts expire … there are a lot of factors beyond the scope of the question that make the question impossible to answer.