B+
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys let Dotson fall into their laps, and walked away with a B+.
by Coach JJ ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 7 steals
· 3 reaches
The board owed the Cowboys one, and it paid up: Mello Dotson, the No. 140 name on the board, sitting there at the 211th pick like a gift left on the doorstep. Solid and sensible more than spectacular: a B+.
West has a lot of ground to make up just to look fairly priced. The trade ledger is the best part of the whole weekend.
The Puka Nacua deal gives the class an established piece to lean on.
Not a headline-grabber, but a perfectly good weekend's work.
Pick-by-Pick
In No. 12 they get an anchor for the defensive front, and a steal at that.
They let Omarion Hampton come to them and pounced at Round 2, Pick 12. The roster fit checks out.
Will Howard in pick 90 is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
A quiet steal in the Round 5 slot: Cody Simon for less than the market said. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
They went early on Dont'e Thornton Jr. in slot 170, and the value did not follow. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
The board screamed and they did not listen, reaching into the next round for CJ West. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Somehow Lathan Ransom was still sitting there in the 174th pick, and they pounced on premier safety value. It thickens a room that could stand to be thicker.
Oronde Gadsden II at the 190th overall pick is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
A top-tier cornerback at a bargain, Mello Dotson in pick 211, plain and simple. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
You do not let an offensive lineman like Hayden Conner reach the Round 7 slot and blink. They did not. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.