C
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys won the night they stopped Brooks from sliding. Grade: C.
by Daunte61 ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 18 picks
· 12 steals
· 6 reaches
The board owed the Cowboys one, and it paid up: Tahj Brooks, the No. 115 name on the board, sitting there at slot 247 like a gift left on the doorstep.
If Sapp pans out, nobody remembers the price. If not, this is the pick they hear about. They lost the exchange badly enough to drag the whole class down. That quarterback hole did not close this weekend, and it was the biggest one on the wall.
Call it incomplete, and check back in a couple of seasons.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 25 they get an island corner, and a steal at that. The biggest hole, addressed.
Will Campbell at No. 44 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Omarion Hampton at the Round 2 slot is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
Jalon Walker at pick No. 57 is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
They read the board right and TreVeyon Henderson was the payoff at the 76th pick. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
Value with a capital V on Tory Horton in Round 4, Pick 9, a genuine coup. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
A wide receiver of that caliber at the 114th overall pick is the definition of value, full stop. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
A reach on Rylie Mills in slot 118; the board had better options right there. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
The board fumbled Kevin Winston Jr. all the way to No. 126, and they scooped it up. It adds depth where they could use a little.
They robbed the room for Jake Majors here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
They talked themselves into JJ Pegues at the Round 5 slot, and the board did not agree. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
They paid up for Willie Lampkin at the 162nd overall pick when waiting would have done the job. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Tyreak Sapp at Round 5, Pick 31 is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. A minor need, but a need all the same.
Steal is underselling it; Nicholas Singleton at slot 170 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
You do not let a linebacker like Smael Mondon Jr. reach pick 171 and blink. They did not. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
DJ Campbell at the 187th pick is the pick scouts circle, and not in a good way. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
They reached a country mile for Joey Slackman at the 209th overall pick, and the board is aghast. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
Tahj Brooks in pick No. 247 should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. It fills a real need, too.