D+
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys finally solved quarterback, and it carried them to a D+.
by Boke ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 18 picks
· 7 steals
· 5 reaches
If confidence were a draft strategy, the Cowboys would have aced it. KJ Jefferson at slot 186 is 110 spots clear of where he belonged. Put together, it is a D+.
Whatever else happened, they won the night they took Mondon Jr.. Overpaying at the table undid a lot of the good work elsewhere. Everything downstream of Shedeur Sanders depends on Shedeur Sanders, and the building knows it.
Spending an early pick on safety with cornerback and tight end open is the decision the grade keeps circling back to. The cornerback hole is the one line item this class does not answer.
Add it up and it is a weekend the front office will hope everyone forgets, cornerback very much included.
Pick-by-Pick
In the 2nd pick they get their guy under center for the next decade at fair value. A clean fit for the roster.
In Round 1, Pick 12 they get a building block for the line. Exactly the need they had to hit.
Emeka Egbuka at pick No. 33 nudges the ledger their way without any fuss. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Nick Emmanwori at the Round 2 slot is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. A quiet depth add at a thin-ish spot.
A conviction pick on Armand Membou at No. 57 that the board grades a round light. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
They went early on Jayden Higgins in the 67th overall pick, and the value did not follow. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
They took Kyle Kennard at par in slot 76, which is nothing to complain about. It adds depth where they could use a little.
Of all the spots to shop, they chose safety. Kevin Winston Jr. in the 94th overall pick leaves cornerback and tight end for later.
Demetrius Knight Jr. at the Round 4 slot is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Rylie Mills in Round 4, Pick 8 is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. It fills a real need, too.
Savion Williams in pick No. 112 lands just on the right side of the ledger. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
You do not let a running back like Cam Skattebo reach the 148th pick and blink. They did not. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
They robbed the room for Vernon Broughton here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
Taking Smael Mondon Jr. in No. 170 is close to grand larceny; a linebacker that good had no business lasting this long. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Raheim Sanders in the 173rd overall pick is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
KJ Jefferson at the 186th pick is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. The roster fit checks out.
Ja'Quinden Jackson in slot 209 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
A real head-scratcher, Jamaree Caldwell in No. 248 is miles ahead of his ranking. A need, and now a little less of one.