D
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys got the worse of every deal, and it shows in the D.
by Pastor ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 18 picks
· 6 steals
· 8 reaches
The move everyone will second-guess came early. The Cowboys reached some 113 spots for Donovan Smith, and value like that does not grow back. The math is unkind, and the D follows.
They handed away value on the phones that the picks cannot earn back. The Williams steal is the beam this whole class leans on.
The Cowboys paired the rookies with proven help, Jerry Jeudy leading the way. The future picks help the war chest more than the win-now roster.
In the end, a class the front office will want to grow past quickly.
Pick-by-Pick
In Round 1, Pick 7 they get a bell-cow for the offense at fair value. A clean fit for the roster.
In pick 13 they get a load in the middle. A real need, handled.
In the Round 1 slot they get a three-down second-level presence at fair value. Exactly the need they had to hit.
In the 27th overall pick they get a bendy edge with upside at fair value. Need was not the driver here.
A quiet steal in No. 34: Kenneth Grant for less than the market said. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Malaki Starks at pick No. 42 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Nice patience on Tyler Booker, who had no business lasting to slot 50. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They reached into another round for Danny Stutsman, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Ajani Cornelius at the 65th overall pick is a steep price for a hunch, hard to square with any board. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
A big swing on Daylen Everette at the Round 3 slot, well ahead of any board in the building. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
A swing that ignored the value entirely, Patrick Payton well ahead of where he belonged. They added to a strength when a need was still open elsewhere.
Gunnar Helm slipping to the 89th pick is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
They paid a round early for Nicholas Singleton in pick 90, more than the board wanted. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Donovan Smith in Round 4, Pick 2 is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Shemar Turner at slot 105 is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. The roster fit checks out.
Barrett Carter in Round 4, Pick 19 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
Raheim Sanders at No. 139 is a conviction pick that outran the value. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Savion Williams in pick No. 156 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.