D
Dallas Cowboys
McCarthy is the Cowboys' new face under center. Grade: D.
by UKNOW ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 21 picks
· 0 steals
· 12 reaches
Some picks age like wine; Marcus Harris at slot 213 will need to, sitting 32 spots clear of his grade. A weekend that fought the value and lost, hence the D.
The dealing is the wound this class cannot quite close. Everything downstream of J.J. McCarthy depends on J.J. McCarthy, and the building knows it.
It is not that Braswell is a bad player; it is that the Cowboys had louder needs to answer first. For all the activity, cornerback went untouched, which is hard to explain.
Bottom line, they will be counting on several picks to beat their grades.
Pick-by-Pick
In the Round 1 slot they get a disruptor off the edge. More want than need.
They left a pile of value on the table to take J.J. McCarthy this early at slot 24. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
In the 27th pick they get a building block for the line at fair value. The biggest hole, addressed.
A big swing on T'Vondre Sweat at No. 35, well ahead of any board in the building. The roster fit checks out.
They paid a round early for Edgerrin Cooper in pick 47, more than the board wanted. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
A curious use of pick No. 56. Cornerback needed the pick; an edge rusher in Chris Braswell did not.
A premium they did not need to pay, Cooper Beebe a notch or two before his time. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Junior Colson in slot 69 is exactly on the number, no argument either way. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They did well to land Trey Benson in the 75th overall pick, just ahead of his grade. A need, and now a little less of one.
No edge and no loss on Sedrick Van Pran in pick 87; it is a wash and a sensible one. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They reached a country mile for Leonard Taylor III at pick No. 90, and the board is aghast. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
They bypassed pressing needs at cornerback to take Darius Robinson, an edge rusher that was not the priority.
The needs board was loud and they turned it down, spending No. 111 on Justin Eboigbe with cornerback unsolved.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, Ben Sinnott well ahead of where he belonged. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Nothing to complain about; Malik Washington went a shade earlier than his grade, which is fine. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
A wild overpay on Jaylen Wright in the Round 5 slot, the sort that defines a class for the wrong reasons. It fills a real need, too.
Kitan Oladapo at slot 173 nudges the ledger their way without any fuss. It adds depth where they could use a little.
Marcus Harris at the 213th pick is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Nathaniel Watson in Round 7, Pick 2, miles early. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
A market-rate running back, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Jase McClellan. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
A conviction pick on Matthew Jones at No. 242 that the board grades a round light. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.