D
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys got the worse of every deal, and it shows in the D.
by Grumpy ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 23 picks
· 1 steals
· 11 reaches
Nobody else had Mason Fairchild anywhere near the 255th pick. The Cowboys did, by 58 spots, and that gap is the whole story. The board pushed back all weekend, and the D is the result.
The dealing is the wound this class cannot quite close. Getting Sainristil where they did is the sort of value that quietly makes a class.
Wide receiver is handled and the depth chart looks a good deal healthier for it. It is a bet on later, and a defensible one for a team playing the long game.
In the end, a class the front office will want to grow past quickly.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 16 they get a plug-and-play piece up front. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
In the Round 1 slot they get a matchup problem out wide at fair value. The biggest hole, addressed.
In the 29th pick they get a double-digit-sack hope at fair value. More want than need.
Chris Braswell in pick No. 56 is fair value, right on his grade. A want dressed up as a pick, at a spot they had covered.
By-the-book stuff, Jeremiah Trotter Jr. at Round 2, Pick 27 squarely in line with his ranking. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
No drama and no debate, Cooper Beebe went about where he belonged in slot 75. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
A real head-scratcher, Matt Goncalves in No. 78 is miles ahead of his ranking. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Maason Smith at Round 3, Pick 22 is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. Not a spot anyone had flagged, which makes it a head-scratcher.
No edge and no loss on Marist Liufau in the Round 3 slot; it is a wash and a sensible one. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Mike Sainristil is a better player than pick 89 suggests; smart patience, rewarded. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They reached a country mile for Leonard Taylor III at slot 90, and the board is aghast. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Darius Robinson in the 92nd overall pick is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. Depth on depth, at a spot that was hardly crying out.
MarShawn Lloyd at the 111th pick is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
They went early on Jordan Travis in pick No. 123, and the value did not follow. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Jaylen Wright in the 125th pick, miles early. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Michael Barrett at Round 5, Pick 7 is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Delmar Glaze in pick No. 173 is exactly on the number, no argument either way. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
A market-rate offensive lineman, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Christian Jones. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
They reached into another round for Marcus Harris, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. Stacking talent where they were already deep.
A wild overpay on Nathaniel Watson in No. 222, the sort that defines a class for the wrong reasons. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They took Jase McClellan at par in the Round 7 slot, which is nothing to complain about. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, Dwight McGlothern well ahead of where he belonged. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Mason Fairchild in the Round 7 slot is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. A need, and now a little less of one.