That's only true if you don's assign any value to draft picks. We used two picks to get Lawrence. If we'd traded down, we would have used one pick and gotten Lawrence and somebody else. The trade is critical to the analysis.
Pick #34 is approximately equal to the 2 picks they gave up to get it. Either he is worth #34 or he isn't.
If you're going to worry about any pick that was acquired in a trade up, then you need to look at all picks and ponder what if they traded down. If #34 had been their original pick? Should they have traded down to get #47 and #78.
The Cowboys have had the best success when they draft players that they were really sold on.
Callahan had personally worked out Fred. Dooley and the scouts spent time with T. Williams.
On the flip side, they didn't even interview Claiborne. They did expect to be in a position to draft him but the Rams called and made a deal directly with Jerry. The scouting dept wasn't prepared for that pick.
I feel good about DLaw because I know they had focused on him and he wasn't just the next guy on the list. I would want them to trade up too often, but sometimes it's the better option.
In 2009 they should have traded away all of their picks to move up to the 1st round and get the player they really wanted, Max Unger. People would have said they over drafted him, but they ended up with about 12 lower picks that all basically failed while Unger went on to Pro Bowls.
