The Dallas Cowboys have long touted themselves as a “draft and develop” organization. Of the roster construction methods, the Cowboys place the strongest emphasis on finding talent in the draft.
The rewards to this method are obvious. Finding young players at the height of their athleticism, ready to be molded in their first pro system while carrying cheap price tags is hard to argue against. The risk is just as obvious as the reward. There’s no guarantee the players being added to the roster will be formidable at the pro level.
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“If you’re going to be successful, it’s a must for that draft class to really carry a lot of the heavy lifting and, certainly, live up to expectations,” Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones said at the annual league meeting earlier this month. “You have to do a really good job there because of the nature of not only draft at the collegiate level with the amount of talent there is but also the impact of those collegiate players on your salary cap. They’re very salary-cap friendly. It’s how you have significant dollars invested in veterans, and it’s how you offset that.”
The rewards of hitting the jackpot on a draft, or an individual draft pick, can be instantaneous.
Tyler Smith’s ability to be a Day 1 impact player as a rookie helped the Cowboys deal with Tyron Smith’s injury in 2022. One year prior, Micah Parsons slid in and became the face of a defensive turnaround. The consequences of missing on draft picks, however, are often not fully felt until a few years down the road.
When the Cowboys drafted in 2023, neither Dak Prescott nor CeeDee Lamb was at the record-level cap hit they are now heading into 2025. Ideally, the 2023 draft class would make a big impact as rookies, but the most important thing was for them to have developed into legitimate NFL-caliber talent by 2025 to balance the cap hit-to-talent ratio. It’s the way 2021 third-round pick Osa Odighizuwa was playing far above his cap hit the past two years on his rookie deal, before cashing in with a major extension this offseason.
Unfortunately for the Cowboys, their 2023 draft class has matured in a disastrous manner. Of the eight players selected, two are no longer on the roster. Fourth-round defensive tackle Viliami Fehoko didn’t last beyond his rookie year. Sixth-round cornerback Eric Scott Jr. made noise occasionally in training camp practices, but he failed to make it past a second summer. When the injury bug bit the Cowboys last year, cornerback and defensive line were two of the most depleted positions.
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While Fehoko and Scott are the ones Dallas had to cut bait with, the players still in the building have hardly been much better.
• Defensive tackle Mazi Smith (Round 1, Pick 26) has had two disappointing years in two defensive schemes. The Cowboys are hopeful that third time is the charm under defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus, but there’s enough reason to believe that the issue may just be with the player over his scheme fit.
• Tight end Luke Schoonmaker (Round 2, Pick 58) dealt with injuries as a rookie and fell out of the rotation at times in Year 2, losing snaps to undrafted rookie Brevyn Spann-Ford.
• Offensive lineman Asim Richards (Round 5, Pick 169) has come together as a decent swing tackle option but isn’t a game-day impact player.
• Running back Deuce Vaughn (Round 6, Pick 212) and receiver Jalen Brooks (Round 7, Pick 244) are on the fringes of the depth chart at their positions. Both are at risk of not making the final roster entering 2025.
DeMarvion Overshown (Round 3, Pick 90) is the saving grace of the 2023 draft class but he’s had two major injuries in as many years and is not expected to be available for at least a portion of the upcoming season.
The 2023 rookie class was somewhat rescued by the work the Cowboys did after the draft. Undrafted free-agent guard T.J. Bass has developed into a solid interior offensive lineman and will be in the running to replace Zack Martin as the team’s starting right guard. Fullback Hunter Luepke has held a role, though it’s worth monitoring how much that carries over from Mike McCarthy’s philosophy on the value of a fullback to Brian Schottenheimer. Wide receiver Jalen Moreno-Cropper and tight ends Princeton Fant and John Stephens Jr. have flashed at various times but nothing to the point of including them in any success stories yet. All-Pro kicker Brandon Aubrey serves as the crown jewel of the 2023 undrafted rookie class.
Forming conclusions on the 2023 draft class may still be a bit premature, but the bulk of how it will hold up is coming into focus. The results haven’t been glowing. It’s definitely too early to issue a verdict on the 2024 draft class, but it was not a banner rookie year for that group, either.
First-round pick Tyler Guyton struggled in his transition to left tackle and the final four picks — CB Caelen Carson, WR Ryan Flournoy, OL Nathan Thomas and DL Justin Rogers — were non-factors. There was at least a strong Day 2 showing with C/G Cooper Beebe, LB Marist Liufau and DE Marshawn Kneeland. The undrafted free-agent class wasn’t as rich as the 2023 group, with Spann-Ford the only worthwhile contributor.
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The Cowboys promote their draft approach when discussing roster construction, and for good reason. For a long stretch, they found pillars in the draft. In 2014, their first two selections landed Martin and DeMarcus Lawrence. Two years later, they came out with Ezekiel Elliott, Dak Prescott and Anthony Brown. In 2020, they found Lamb, Trevon Diggs and Tyler Biadasz, followed by Parsons, Odighizuwa and Chauncey Golston in 2021. Their last hit class came in 2022, with Smith, Jake Ferguson, DaRon Bland and, to a lesser extent, Sam Williams.
Those are the sort of draft classes that served as the foundation for the team’s success when it put together three consecutive 12-win seasons from 2021 through 2023.
One of the main reasons it helps for a team to exhaust all avenues of roster building — free agency, the draft and trade market — is that it affords a wider margin of error in each method. Some years, draft misses are lifted by free-agency hits; other years a big trade can mask a contract mistake in free agency. With the Cowboys routinely putting all of their eggs in the draft basket, they can’t afford to whiff on a draft as they did in 2023.
With Prescott and Lamb already beginning their massive contract extensions, and Parsons, Smith and Bland all potentially due soon, the pressure to hit on this draft class is extremely high. At worst, the Cowboys need to draft a collection of talent that can contribute significantly on Sunday. Ideally, they need to find quality players at premium positions who offer a lopsided advantage on cap hit-to-talent ratio.
Their present and future depend on it.
(Photo of Mazi Smith: Kevin Jairaj / Imagn Images)
This news was originally published on this post .
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