This feels very much like a "my guy" draft instead of a BPA draft. Instead of playing the board as it fell to them, Dallas walked in with a short list of guys they wanted, and they were going to be damned if they miss out on them.
Linderbaum and Jermaine Johnson were sitting there at #24, both could have gone in the teens without anyone blinking. You think Johnson would have taken some of the sting out of losing Gregory? That was BPA at a big position of need, but Jerral had backed himself into a corner at LG and had been sitting dead-red on Smith for a month.
Same thing in round 2. You have Travis Jones, the kind of huge, athletic 1T this team has been missing for decades. You have Nakobe Dean, the quarterback of CFB's arguably most sophisticated defense. Sam Williams wasn't the best player there, but he was the most Cowboys player there. Will McClay liked the big-school production and elite athleticism. DQ liked the speed-rush potential. Jerry liked the felonies. It was just too clean of a fit.
Jahan Dotson wasn't the reach the other guys were, but he was another guy the Cowboys had brought in and interviewed, and played a position that Dallas had backed themselves into needing.
I don't like how this draft is going. When Dallas just takes studs that fall to them, it usually works out pretty well. When Dallas reaches for positional need, you get guys like Taco. This draft has been reaching for Cowboys guys and need rather than taking what the league gives you.