D+
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys lost the trade table, and the D+ tells the story.
by Grumpy ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 12 picks
· 3 steals
· 3 reaches
Every swap seemed to tilt away from the Cowboys, and the value they bled adds up to real damage.
Spending an early pick on OLB-EDGE with quarterback and tight end open is the decision the grade keeps circling back to. They covered a lot of ground and still skipped quarterback, which is a strange place to end up. The cost of the Legette reach is exactly the players who went right after him.
Jones falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch.
Bottom line, they will need several of these picks to beat their grades just to break even, and quarterback is still a hole.
Pick-by-Pick
They took JC Latham at par in pick 19, which is nothing to complain about. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
In the Round 1 slot they get a difference-maker at receiver, even if it was a touch early. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
A straight-up fair deal on T'Vondre Sweat at No. 56, value and slot in agreement. One more legitimate question on the roster, answered.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Zach Frazier at the 75th overall pick. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
A conviction pick on Tyler Davis at slot 87 that the board grades a round light. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Hard to square with the roster. With positions of obvious need still on the board, Javon Solomon adds an OLB-EDGE and leaves quarterback and tight end untouched.
No drama and no debate, Kris Abrams-Draine went about where he belonged in pick No. 122. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
A market-rate running back, with the board and the slot shaking hands on MarShawn Lloyd. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
No edge and no loss on Edefuan Ulofoshio in slot 157; it is a wash and a sensible one. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A slide stopped in pick 174, with Kitan Oladapo worth more than the price. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
A tidy bit of business in No. 212, where Christian Jones graded well above the range. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
The board had cheaper options than Dwight McGlothern at the Round 7 slot, and it noticed. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.