B+
Dallas Cowboys
A franchise passer in Daniels headlines a B+ weekend for the Cowboys.
by Grumpy ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 20 picks
· 5 steals
· 7 reaches
They will call it conviction in the building and a reach everywhere else: Jordan Davis, 133 picks early at Round 7, Pick 9. Call it a sensible B+, earned the boring way.
Jayden Daniels gives the offense a face and a plan, and the grade leans heavily on whether he hits. The McCormick steal is the beam this whole class leans on.
The dealing alone would carry a lesser class. The cornerback hole is the one line item this class does not answer.
With cornerback and tight end unsolved, spending premium capital on edge rusher is the choice that costs them.
A tidy weekend of work that should hold up just fine.
Pick-by-Pick
In Round 1, Pick 4 they get the face of the franchise. A real need, handled.
In pick No. 13 they get a double-digit-sack hope at fair value. Need was not the driver here.
In the 24th pick they get a go-to option on the outside. Exactly the need they had to hit.
A reasonable price with a little left over, Jordan Morgan in the 44th overall pick. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
They took Payton Wilson at par in No. 56, which is nothing to complain about. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
By-the-book stuff, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. at pick 66 squarely in line with his ranking. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Trey Benson at Round 3, Pick 7 jumps the queue by a touch more than is comfortable. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
Hard to square with the roster. With positions of obvious need still on the board, Brandon Dorlus adds an edge rusher and leaves cornerback and tight end untouched.
Zak Zinter in the 87th overall pick 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.
They reached a country mile for Maason Smith at No. 90, and the board is aghast. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Taking Javon Foster in the Round 5 slot is close to grand larceny; an offensive lineman that good had no business lasting this long. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Good price on Tommy Eichenberg in the 148th pick, a hair ahead of his grade with no real quibbles. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
They talked themselves into Tanor Bortolini at pick 162, and the board did not agree. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They robbed the room for Mason McCormick here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Good things come to war rooms that wait, and Joe Milton III at the 208th overall pick is the proof. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Jaylan Ford at the 216th pick. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Nice patience on Nathaniel Watson, who had no business lasting to Round 7, Pick 3. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Jordan Davis at pick 229 is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. Insurance at a position that did not really ask for it.
Jawhar Jordan in pick No. 233 is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Joshua Cephus at No. 244 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.