D
Dallas Cowboys
Larceny in No. 122 lands the Cowboys a D, Mondon Jr. and all.
by GameNutt ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 12 picks
· 3 steals
· 3 reaches
The Cowboys lost the trade war and it was not close, handing partners the better end again and again. Too much went sideways, and the D is the honest tally.
If this class has a fault line, it runs straight through tight end. Every board in the league had Igbinosun lower, and that gap is the story. Mondon Jr. at that cost is the sort of edge that compounds over a roster.
Add it up and it is a weekend the front office will hope everyone forgets, tight end very much included.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 7 they get a blindside protector at fair value. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
Ashton Jeanty at the 39th pick is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. The roster fit checks out.
A straight-up fair deal on Isaiah Bond at pick 47, value and slot in agreement. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Patrick Payton at the Round 2 slot is the sort of value that quietly wins a weekend. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
Cameron Ward at pick No. 74 is a conviction pick that outran the value. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
A quiet steal in Round 3, Pick 15: Quincy Riley for less than the market said. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
They liked Raheim Sanders enough to skip the value, taking him in the 91st overall pick. A need, and now a little less of one.
Davison Igbinosun at No. 111 is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Smael Mondon Jr. at slot 122 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
By-the-book stuff, Jaeden Roberts at pick 154 squarely in line with his ranking. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
A market-rate interior defensive lineman, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Alfred Collins. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
No edge and no loss on Xavier Truss in the Round 6 slot; it is a wash and a sensible one. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.