Cowboys Drafting

I'm probably just being a fan, but after really reading up on the Cowboys' picks from this weekend, I'm cautiously excited.  We were lucky that this year's strength in the draft played into what we needed.  I expect that Awuzie, Lewis, and Woods will all be on the field next year.  If Brown is really a player, it has some promise.  Charleton will obviously play a lot.  He will have to convince me, but those DB's I think may rebuild that secondary.

Overall I'm so gratified that the Cowboys have started to look like professional drafters.  One of our favorites, Rick Gosselin gave the weekend a  glowing stamp of approval.  Imagine following your board and staying calm and improving your weaknesses.  They look like a real front office of late.

The stat we saw about the pro bowl players the Cowboys have drafted in the last 15 years was interesting.  I looked back over these last 25 years.  When Johnson left it got truly awful and remained that way for more than a decade.  Even after getting Ware and Ratliff in 2005, they still struggled with lots of pure misses.  People like Witten (2003) and Ware made it look better, but they still whiffed on entire drafts as late as 2009.

Since 2010 it's gotten somewhat better, although still too many misses.  Those rounds 2 - 4 where Gosselin always talks about the great teams putting together their rosters were still iffy for the Cowboys.  Bringing in Dez, Sean Lee, Tyron Smith, and Demarco Murray in 2010/2011 gave way to a horrible 2012 class.  2013 was not a lot better after Frederick.  Martin, Lawrence, and Hitchens came in '14, while '15 is going to depend somewhat on whether Chaz Green is going to hold down the right tackle spot going forward.  Taking Randy Gregory and Jaylon Smith in round 2 in 15/16 was too risky.  2016 could be one of 2 or 3 best drafts in team history.

The best teams repeatedly find solid starters in the first 3 to 4 rounds.  We may get that out of 2016 and 2017 with the new crop of DB's along with the health of Jaylon Smith being the key to whether we can capitalize on the ridiculous wealth of offensive stars on this team.  What I feel good about is that if Stephen Jones continues to take on more influence in the front office, his draft philosophy is beginning to take root.  Scout well, put your board together, and let the picks come to you.

S