The Dallas Cowboys may have won the second day of the NFL Draft specifically.
With the NFL draft in the rearview mirror we now have the benefit of hindsight fully at our disposal. Utilizing our perfect backwards vision we can see clearly that the Dallas Cowboys entered the process with full and express intent on coming away with value.
In a perfect world value through the NFL draft marries with team need in exact harmony. That doesn’t always happen, but we laud the great teams and roster-builders for making it work regardless. We have obviously done this in the past with the Cowboys as they have made lemonade, so to speak, with draft selections like Zack Martin and CeeDee Lamb.
While this disposition can be applied to the Cowboys’ selection of Tyler Booker who went in the first round like Martin and Lamb, it rings most true relative to their selections on Day 2 of the draft. The Cowboys were surely (by all of our estimation) going to come away from Friday with a running back or wide receiver (maybe even both!) and did not address either position until the fifth round when Dallas took Texas runner Jaydon Blue.
Instead of a skill position player on offense the Cowboys selected BC edge rusher Donovan Ezeiruaku and East Carolina corner Shavon Revel in the second and third rounds, respectively. Cornerback was certainly a position of serious need so there was the marriage that we were looking for, but more than anything these picks suggest maximizing value.
This year NFL.com had a tool on their website within their Draft Central called Draft IQ. There were several ongoing assessments and gradings happening of the draft as it was unfolding through Draft IQ, all through their methodology in partnership with Next Gen Stats. One of the levels of analysis this hub carried was the “best value” picks on various days of the draft. Of the five best value picks on Day 2, two belonged to the Cowboys in Ezeiruaku and Revel.
If you ask Cowboys fans for their favorite pick of the draft, we literally did this in our Monday discussion here at the site, then you will find a lot of people offering Revel. Some of that may be coming from the place of need that we referenced. It makes the pick feel bigger.
But consider how impressive the Ezeiruaku pick is in terms of this whole discussion considering who the Cowboys have been for so long. We have seen this team try to force the issue of established value in the second round almost on an annual basis. Ezeiruaku was indeed tremendous value at the 44th overall pick, but it was not because of some setback in the process that led to Dallas drafting him. He simply fell and the Cowboys were able to jump on the situation and capitalize.
While the Cowboys did not come away with an offensive toy within their top 100 selections, they made sure to establish high floors for all players involved. Obviously there is some risk with Revel given that he is coming off of an ACL injury, but beyond that he is the lowest investment of the three the Cowboys have an inside level of knowledge with their team doctor having been the one to perform his surgery.
There is a lot that has been needed to be fixed about this team for some time and this disposition was a good first step in the right direction.