D
Dallas Cowboys
A costly weekend of dealing drags the Cowboys to a D.
by Pastor ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 22 picks
· 3 steals
· 12 reaches
The tape said wait; the Cowboys did not. Anthony Belton went at Round 4, Pick 35, a good 121 picks before the board was ready. It grades a D, and the process earned it.
On value alone, Gordon II makes the weekend a net positive. The trade table is where this weekend went wrong. The Cowboys indulged a want in Payton while a need in quarterback and tight end stayed open.
For all the activity, quarterback went untouched, which is hard to explain.
Add it up and it is a weekend the front office will hope everyone forgets, quarterback very much included.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 8 they get an every-down engine for the run game at fair value. A real need, handled.
In the 12th overall pick they get an anchor for the defensive front. A clean fit for the roster.
In pick 21 they get the heartbeat of the defense. The biggest hole, addressed.
A slide stopped in the 33rd pick, with Nick Emmanwori worth more than the price. Useful body for a position without much behind the starter.
A tidy little value on Tate Ratledge in No. 40, a step better than break-even. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They liked Alfred Collins enough to skip the value, taking him in the Round 2 slot. A need, and now a little less of one.
They went early on Donovan Ezeiruaku in the 66th pick, and the value did not follow. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
They paid a round early for Danny Stutsman in pick No. 74, more than the board wanted. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Tai Felton at the 93rd overall pick is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
The needs board was loud and they turned it down, spending pick 94 on Patrick Payton with quarterback and tight end unsolved.
Daylen Everette at slot 102 is the pick scouts circle, and not in a good way. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Evan Stewart at No. 108 is a sound buy, the sort that quietly helps a class. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They talked themselves into Fernando Carmona at Round 4, Pick 33, and the board did not agree. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Anthony Belton in the Round 4 slot, miles early. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Raheim Sanders in the Round 5 slot is fair value, right on his grade. The roster fit checks out.
A safety of that caliber at Round 5, Pick 10 is the definition of value, full stop. Pure best-available; the position was not exactly begging.
Davison Igbinosun at pick No. 157 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Shemar Turner at No. 159 is a clear overpay, with better names still on the board. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
Value said wait; Savion Williams in pick 167 says they were not listening. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Ar'maj Reed-Adams at the 168th pick is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
They reached into another round for Jonah Monheim, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They robbed the room for Ollie Gordon II here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. It fills a real need, too.