The Cowboys are guaranteed to get, at absolute worst, the 24th-best player on their board if they simply do nothing at all. Jerry Jones no doubt believes they can do better, but he caused some confusion as he explained his thought process.
The Cowboys owner was asked Wednesday about the possibility of working a deal to move within the first round of the NFL draft later this month. With a relatively low slot in the current draft order, that position could be improved- at a cost- to get a higher-caliber prospect even earlier.
“I would trade up this draft,” Jones told reporters at The Star in Frisco during a press event put on to announce the team’s partnership with cryptocurrency company Blockchain.com, “just going in, as much as you can say about it, until you see what’s there, who’s on the other end of the line. But yeah, I would trade up since we’re down as low as we are in those first two or three rounds if we had a chance to and somebody that we had really coveted was sitting at the bottom.”
Jones then offered Travis Frederick as an example, the All-Pro center taken by Dallas in the first round in 2013.
“We were sitting down there at the bottom, and we were able to trade up and get him.”
Jerry Jones said the Cowboys would be interested in trading up in this month’s draft pic.twitter.com/AJbXijPJY8
— Jon Machota (@jonmachota) April 13, 2022
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Except that’s not how it went down.
The Wisconsin product was seen as the best center coming out in his draft class, but he was considered more appropriately a second- or third-round selection. The Cowboys actually traded down in the first round that year, giving their original 18th pick to San Francisco in a swap that awarded them the 31st selection and an additional third-rounder instead.
The Cowboys used that 31st pick on Frederick, a move that earned widespread criticism at the time, since he likely could have been had quite a bit later.
Obviously, the gamble worked out; Frederick went to five Pro Bowls and is likely a Hall of Famer who ended up being well worth a first-round selection. They may have reached to take him earlier than anyone else would have thought to, but it’s some serious Texas-sized spin to say the Cowboys traded up to get him.
The last time Dallas moved up in the first round was 2012, maneuvering to get LSU cornerback Morris Claiborne with the sixth overall selection.
In 2022, conventional wisdom suggests the Cowboys, if they were to move off the 24th pick at all, would be better served by moving down to collect more assets.
Maybe that’s what Jones meant. But it’s not what he said.
The headlines will shout that Jerry wants to trade up, presumably in the first round. But that’s not what he said, either.
Perhaps he was really hinting at a potential trade up from the club’s second-round position to get a player they love “at the bottom” of the first round.
Or maybe it’s all worthless word salad, just a part of the pre-draft smokescreen.
Cowboys fans will shake their collective heads at Jones once again seemingly revealing too much strategy to yet another live microphone. But in reality, nobody actually has any more idea now of what the Cowboys will do on draft day than they did before the 79-year-old opened his mouth on Wednesday.
Trade up? Trade down? Stay put?
Yes. No. Maybe. To all three options.
Jerry is undoubtedly open to discussing all offers from all comers, just like always.