F
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys let Fitzgerald fall and pounced. Final grade: F.
by Him ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 33 picks
· 18 steals
· 10 reaches
They will call it conviction in the building and a reach everywhere else: Thor Griffith, 81 picks early at pick 198. The warnings were there, and the F is the bill.
The Fitzgerald pick is the one they will point to when this weekend is judged. Overpaying at the table undid a lot of the good work elsewhere. The bill for those future picks comes due whether the class hits or not.
On the needs board they went 8 of 8, with wide receiver the one that mattered most.
There is no soft landing here; this class has to massively overperform just to matter.
Pick-by-Pick
In the Round 1 slot they get a lockdown presence outside at fair value. The biggest hole, addressed.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Luther Burden III at No. 27. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Kenneth Grant at the 33rd pick is the sort of value that quietly wins a weekend. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
A quiet steal in slot 44: Tate Ratledge for less than the market said. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
A clean, defensible pick in the 51st overall pick with a little surplus value in Colston Loveland. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
They left a pile of value on the table to take Will Howard this early at pick 60. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Tez Johnson in No. 67 is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Donovan Jackson at pick No. 76 is a conviction pick that outran the value. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
No drama and no debate, Jake Majors went about where he belonged in the 85th pick. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They went early on Cam Skattebo in Round 3, Pick 30, and the value did not follow. It fills a real need, too.
They robbed the room for Dylan Sampson here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. The roster fit checks out.
Steal is underselling it; Jack Bech at the Round 4 slot is a heist with the alarm still ringing. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
They will replay Kevin Winston Jr. at slot 148 for years; that is how good the value is. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
Somehow Smael Mondon Jr. was still sitting there in the Round 5 slot, and they pounced on premier linebacker value. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Rod Moore at the 170th overall pick is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. Stacking talent where they were already deep.
They read the board right and James Burnip was the payoff at pick 173. They doubled down on a strength rather than a need.
Lathan Ransom in the 174th pick is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. Nice player, but the depth chart did not need him here.
Kalel Mullings in No. 177 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
They barely believed it either: Cody Simon still on the board at pick No. 186. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Circle this one: Kobe King at Round 6, Pick 14 is a fall that decides a draft. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
You do not let a linebacker like Jay Higgins reach Round 6, Pick 15 and blink. They did not. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
The board fumbled Robert Spears-Jennings all the way to the 194th pick, and they scooped it up. Insurance at a position that did not really ask for it.
Good things come to war rooms that wait, and Elijah Arroyo at slot 195 is the proof. A need, and now a little less of one.
They reached a country mile for Thor Griffith at pick 198, and the board is aghast. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Ryan Fitzgerald in pick No. 209 is a gift, value that borders on unfair. Depth on depth, at a spot that was hardly crying out.
Jaishawn Barham in No. 214 is a bargain the rest of the room will envy. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
They did well to land Jared Wilson in the 215th overall pick, just ahead of his grade. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
They reached into another round for Jalen Travis, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Nick Nash in pick 228, miles early. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Makari Paige in slot 243 is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. A want more than a need, though you can never have too many.
Shilo Sanders in the 244th overall pick is exactly on the number, no argument either way. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.
Value said wait; Joey Slackman in pick No. 248 says they were not listening. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
A wild overpay on Hudson Card in No. 256, the sort that defines a class for the wrong reasons. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.