D+
Dallas Cowboys
Larceny in slot 170 lands the Cowboys a D+, King and all.
by Daunte61 ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 18 picks
· 13 steals
· 1 reaches
You can lose a draft before you make a pick. The Cowboys did it at the trade table, overpaying to chase players the board did not price nearly as high. Too much went sideways, and the D+ is the honest tally.
The Thornton Jr. reach is the anchor dragging on the value grade. That is a linebacker worth more than the slot they spent on him, plainly.
The bill for those future picks comes due whether the class hits or not. The roster is better shaped than it was, with wide receiver chief among the fixes.
A rough weekend that leaves the roster with more questions than answers.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick 12 they get a No. 1 receiver. The biggest hole, addressed.
In the 24th overall pick they get an every-down engine for the run game at fair value. A clean fit for the roster.
Steal is underselling it; Nick Emmanwori at pick No. 44 is a heist with the alarm still ringing. A minor need, but a need all the same.
Dylan Sampson at No. 76 is money in the bank, a running back taken below his worth. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
A market-rate offensive lineman, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Dylan Fairchild. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Charles Grant at the 112th pick. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Kevin Winston Jr. at pick No. 118 is the sort of value that quietly wins a weekend. They added to a strength when a need was still open elsewhere.
Smael Mondon Jr. at slot 138 is daylight robbery; nobody expected him to last. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
A interior defensive lineman of that caliber at No. 139 is the definition of value, full stop. The roster fit checks out.
Tyler Shough at the 150th pick is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. A sensible fit that makes the depth chart a little sturdier.
A slide stopped in pick 154, with Mello Dotson worth more than the price. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Dont'e Thornton Jr. at the 165th overall pick is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
They barely believed it either: Kobe King still on the board at Round 5, Pick 31. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Oronde Gadsden II at the Round 5 slot is a first-round grade at a bargain-bin price, no notes. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Circle this one: Jackson Slater at the 174th pick is a fall that decides a draft. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
Logan Brown at Round 6, Pick 3 is the steal of the weekend, a first-round talent at a bargain-bin price. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
DJ Giddens slipping to the 190th overall pick is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. A need, and now a little less of one.
A quiet steal in No. 249: Teddye Buchanan for less than the market said. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.