Cowboys’ winners and losers: Brian Schottenheimer knocks it out of the park

Sports

add

For Dallas Cowboys fans, the three days of the NFL Draft are the pinnacle of the offseason. As a draft-and-develop organization that generally takes an optional approach to free agency, the draft is where much of the roster talent is acquired.

Evaluating a draft class takes much longer than a few days. However, some immediate impact comes from the selections. Let’s examine the Cowboys’ winners and losers in the draft fallout.

Winners

Brian Schottenheimer

This was Schottenheimer’s first draft as a head coach. He has been in the draft room plenty over his three decades in the NFL as an assistant coach and coordinator, but there’s a different level of authority that comes with running a draft as a head coach. As hands-on as the Cowboys’ front office is when it comes to daily happenings, Jerry Jones and Stephen Jones have always given a legitimate seat at the draft table to the head coach. In transitioning from Mike McCarthy to the new regime, it’s clear Schottenheimer had a say in which players were selected.

“I’d have to say this, kudos to the coaching staff, too,” Cowboys’ vice president of player personnel Will McClay said. “You got a new staff that comes in together, you’re building that staff and the process that we’ve started is everybody communicating. Jerry and Stephen — they push us to do that. So, you got a new staff that comes in and we’re asking to know these players. Again, they’re putting up playbooks and they’re trying to get to know our players, but they spent an inordinate amount of time also in this process helping to know and understand the players so that we had a great feel for who we are bringing in.”

Jerry Jones joking about picking another interior offensive lineman early in the draft: “You put (Tyler Smith with Cooper Beebe and Tyler Booker) in there and we might be able to tush push.” pic.twitter.com/ywMaykj6yq

— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) April 25, 2025

Schottenheimer has preached the importance of winning in the trenches on both sides of the ball since his opening news conference in late January. The Cowboys drafted their starting right guard in the first round, then added another offensive lineman and three defensive linemen. Although Schottenheimer was in the building the past two seasons as a coordinator, he plans to bring a different element to the team as the coach, and his fingerprints were all over this draft.

Aside from the work that netted tangible results in the draft over three days, Schottenheimer participated in four news conferences — five in the week if you include the pre-draft news conference. The more Schottenheimer speaks, the easier it is to see why the Cowboys bought into him as head coach. Whether it’s firm knowledge of what he’s trying to do, talking X’s and O’s, or simply relating at a human level — multiple times Saturday, he shouted out the many Cowboys scouts who don’t get public credit — Schottenheimer made a strong impression throughout the week.

Dak Prescott

Prescott may have been the ultimate winner if the Cowboys had a solution for their No. 2 receiver, but we’ll get to that. Still, the Cowboys’ draft should help their franchise quarterback. Prescott will turn 32 in July and is coming off a hamstring injury that ended his season two months prematurely. Drafting a stellar guard in Round 1 to offer him protection in the pocket is significant. It’s something that likely wouldn’t get much attention until Prescott would have to start breaking the pocket two seconds after the snap because of pressure coming up the middle. The Cowboys got ahead of that.

The Cowboys could have done more at running back, but they did draft two guys who could be playmakers in the run game. Jaydon Blue is a Tony Pollard-esque elusive back with receiving skills, while Phil Mafah is more of the downhill runner.

Jake Ferguson

Tight end was not high on the Cowboys’ draft needs, but Ferguson is coming off an underwhelming season and entering a contract year. Tyler Warren was available when the Cowboys were picking at No. 12, and it would have been conceivable to take a tight end there (or later in the round) and sell it as upgrading the pass and run games, along with getting more security at the position for 2026.

Dallas has plenty of competition in the tight end room with 2023 second-round pick Luke Schoonmaker, a priority undrafted free-agent signing last year, Brevyn Spann-Ford, as well as John Stephens Jr. But Ferguson is the main guy in that room, and leaving that position alone ensured it’ll stay that way in 2025.

Losers

Veteran Cowboys guards

So much for the competition at right guard to replace Zack Martin. T.J. Bass and Brock Hoffman were prime candidates to take over, and both drew high praise from Martin, as well as the coaching staff. The Cowboys also signed a handful of guards in free agency. Now, all of those players are competing for a backup role.

Last year, when the Cowboys drafted left tackle Tyler Guyton in the first round and center Cooper Beebe in the third round, they advertised a training camp competition at both spots for the starting job. Neither began as the starter, even though both eventually claimed starting roles.

This year, there’s no such ambiguity. Hours after selecting Tyler Booker at No. 12, the Cowboys made it clear that the Alabama guard would step in and immediately be their starting right guard.

Sam Williams

The Cowboys’ 2022 second-round pick is coming off a torn ACL and is now two defensive regimes removed from the Dan Quinn-led staff that drafted him. Since then, Dallas drafted Marshawn Kneeland in the second round last year under defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer and drafted Donovan Ezeiruaku in the second round on Friday under new DC Matt Eberflus.

Williams is still expected to have a significant role this season, assuming his recovery goes well. The Cowboys said Williams may be limited in OTAs this spring but could be ready to go for training camp. Although Williams has flashed talent, he’s also made head-scratching mistakes throughout his young career and is entering the final year of his contract. With Kneeland and Ezeiruaku in the fold, Williams’ margin for error is much slimmer if he wants to continue his career in Dallas in 2026.

Cowboys’ approach to free agency

Many fans came out of this draft still feeling a sense of incompletion. The sentiment is understandable, but also unfortunate. The Cowboys acquired some quality talent and did a good job of sticking to their philosophy of picking the best players available. The day after the draft is the first day fans get a look at their team’s outlook in what the depth chart will look like in the fall.

For the Cowboys, major question marks remain, namely at wide receiver.

While it’s true, it’s also not the fault of the work done in the draft. If Tetairoa McMillan fell to No. 12, he likely would have been Dallas’ pick, and the feeling around receiver would be much better. However, the secure feeling with right guard wouldn’t be there. Perhaps the Cowboys could have reached for a running back in the third round before the run on the position happened in the fourth, but the Cowboys would have missed out on Shavon Revel Jr., and there would have been a void at cornerback.

The Cowboys had too many holes going into the draft to realistically patch up with three top-100 selections and take the best player available. The only solution for the Cowboys is to be more active in free agency. They’ll have to do that anyway if they want to find a legitimate No. 2 receiver. Instead of waiting until after the draft, when the options dry up, they should consider being active when the league year begins in March.

(Photo of Tyler Booker: Kirby Lee / Imagn Images)

This news was originally published on this post .

Share on

email

Previous

trending_flat

Panthers post-draft depth chart: Tetairoa McMillan steps right in, defense has questions

Sports

Next

trending_flat

What’s next for Kirk Cousins, Falcons after QB-needy teams filled spots in NFL Draft?

Sports