C+
Dallas Cowboys
Larceny in the Round 7 slot lands the Cowboys a C+, Mondon Jr. and all.
by h ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 12 picks
· 7 steals
· 4 reaches
The Cowboys spent the weekend waiting on one name, and it fell: Smael Mondon Jr., the No. 110 name on the board, in No. 237. Fine in stretches, shaky in others: a C+.
Reaching for Griffith left real value on the table behind him. They lost the exchange badly enough to drag the whole class down. A whole weekend of picks and cornerback is somehow still a want.
Bottom line, the swing picks will decide whether this ages well.
Pick-by-Pick
They barely believed it either: Jalon Walker still on the board at Round 2, Pick 21. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
They robbed the room for Omarion Hampton here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
You do not let a wide receiver like Xavier Restrepo reach the Round 3 slot and blink. They did not. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
They read the board right and Rylie Mills was the payoff at No. 150. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
A reasonable price with a little left over, Jackson Slater in the 154th overall pick. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Taking Cam Skattebo in slot 170 is close to grand larceny; a running back that good had no business lasting this long. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
JJ Pegues at pick No. 172 jumps the queue by a touch more than is comfortable. It fills a real need, too.
A real head-scratcher, CJ West in the 174th pick is miles ahead of his ranking. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Tosh Baker at the Round 6 slot 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.
Thor Griffith at pick No. 211 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Smael Mondon Jr. in the 237th overall pick is a gift, value that borders on unfair. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
A linebacker of that caliber at Round 7, Pick 31 is the definition of value, full stop. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.