D+
Dallas Cowboys
The phones sank the Cowboys this weekend: D+.
by UKNOW ·
2024 NFL Draft
· 23 picks
· 8 steals
· 9 reaches
When the story of this class is written, it opens with Charles Turner III at slot 245, a reach of 66 spots that the board flatly disagrees with. The process wobbled, and the D+ is where it lands.
Overpaying at the table undid a lot of the good work elsewhere. The Sainristil value carries more weight than any single miss elsewhere.
The future picks help the war chest more than the win-now roster.
Bottom line, they will need several of these picks to beat their grades just to break even.
Pick-by-Pick
In slot 9 they get a matchup problem out wide at fair value. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
In the 27th overall pick they get a quarterback's worst nightmare, reach and all. Need was not the driver here.
Troy Fautanu in pick 36 lands just on the right side of the ledger. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
J.J. McCarthy in No. 40 is exactly on the number, no argument either way. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Value said wait; Junior Colson in Round 2, Pick 24 says they were not listening. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
A real head-scratcher, Zak Zinter in the 66th pick is miles ahead of his ranking. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Trey Benson at Round 3, Pick 3 is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. A need, and now a little less of one.
They will replay Devontez Walker at No. 71 for years; that is how good the value is. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Leonard Taylor III in slot 75, miles early. The roster fit checks out.
Darius Robinson in pick 87 is a bet on their own eyes over everyone else's grade. Stacking talent where they were already deep.
They barely believed it either: D.J. James still on the board at the Round 3 slot. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Somehow Blake Corum was still sitting there in pick No. 100, and they pounced on premier running back value. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Dominick Puni at the 105th overall pick is right where the board had him, plain and simple. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
They reached a country mile for Ben Sinnott at the 110th pick, and the board is aghast. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Mike Sainristil in No. 111 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
Roman Wilson at the 112th overall pick is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Tommy Eichenberg at the Round 4 slot is a sound buy, the sort that quietly helps a class. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Javon Foster at pick No. 137. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A quiet steal in the 212th pick: Christian Jones for less than the market said. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Nathaniel Watson at pick 222 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
They left a pile of value on the table to take Dwight McGlothern this early at slot 225. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
Jase McClellan slipping to Round 7, Pick 9 is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. It fills a real need, too.
They reached into another round for Charles Turner III, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.