It seems like guard or bust for most Cowboys fans.
At present time there are a handful of logical choices for the Dallas Cowboys with their first-round selection. The Cowboys own the 24th overall pick in the 2022 NFL Draft although team owner/president/general manager Jerry Jones did recently express an interest in trading up. To be fair, Dallas could move at a time that isn’t the first round. They have shown a tendency to do so in later rounds at times in the last 10 years, but it has been a decade since they climbed in the first round to draft Morris Claiborne.
Should the Cowboys pick at 24 then the position they pick seems limited to a handful of directions. There is the path of wide receiver to replace the loss of Amari Cooper who was traded away, a defensive end could help mitigate the absence that Randy Gregory leaves behind, but the most pressing need is arguably along the offensive line, and specifically at the guard position.
An overwhelming majority of Dallas Cowboys fans want guard to be the pick at 24
While there is logic to a handful of options for the Cowboys, the consensus among many has been that guard seems to be the best choice for the team as currently constructed. Should Dallas go that route then Texas A&M’s Kenyon Green or Boston College’s Zion Johnson represent the best possible options.
SB Nation Reacts users were polled last week here at BTB about which position they felt would be the best utilization of Dallas’ first-round pick and guard won out in an overwhelming fashion with 78% of the vote. The next-closest option was wide receiver with 11% of the vote.
As things stand the offensive line is the only position on the team where the Cowboys have experienced a loss and not brought in a player to compensate for it. Not to say that Dante Fowler can completely replicate Randy Gregory as just one example, but from a quantitative standpoint the Cowboys have brought in what they have lost at defensive end and wide receiver, but not along the offensive line.
The Cowboys saw Connor Williams (their starting left guard for a majority of the last four years) leave in free agency and also released right tackle La’el Collins. While Terence Steele should replace Collins, there is no ready answer at guard, which is why it feels like such a pressing concern at the moment.