D
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys lost the trade table, and the D tells the story.
by Preacher ·
2025 NFL Draft
· 22 picks
· 5 steals
· 10 reaches
Call it a hunch or call it a gamble, but the Cowboys spent the Round 5 slot on Tyler Batty, a name most had 142 spots down the list. It grades a D, and the process earned it.
The Judkins value carries more weight than any single miss elsewhere. They handed away value on the phones that the picks cannot earn back.
They will regret leaving quarterback for another day if the season turns on it.
Add it up and it is a weekend the front office will hope everyone forgets, quarterback very much included.
Pick-by-Pick
In the Round 1 slot they get a workhorse for the backfield. A clean fit for the roster.
In pick 12 they get a run-stuffing presence up front at fair value. A real need, handled.
In the 29th overall pick they get a green-dot type in the middle at fair value. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
Nick Emmanwori slipping to the 33rd pick is the kind of luck good rooms make for themselves. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Tyler Booker in No. 42 is fine work, a shade of surplus and no downside. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.
By-the-book stuff, Deone Walker at pick No. 68 squarely in line with his ranking. It fills a real need, too.
They reached a country mile for Ajani Cornelius at the 70th overall pick, and the board is aghast. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
A market-rate linebacker, with the board and the slot shaking hands on Danny Stutsman. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
They left a pile of value on the table to take Kaimon Rucker this early at the 90th pick. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
They liked Maxwell Hairston enough to skip the value, taking him in pick 91. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.
No edge and no loss on Tai Felton in No. 93; it is a wash and a sensible one. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Taking Colston Loveland in pick No. 94 is close to grand larceny; a tight end that good had no business lasting this long. It shores up a spot that genuinely needed the help.
Somehow Barrett Carter was still sitting there in the Round 4 slot, and they pounced on premier linebacker value. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
A conviction pick on Daylen Everette at Round 4, Pick 9 that the board grades a round light. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Raheim Sanders at the 120th overall pick is the pick scouts circle, and not in a good way. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
A big swing on Blake Miller at the 126th pick, well ahead of any board in the building. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.
The board screamed and they did not listen, reaching into the next round for Savion Williams. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
The board fumbled Kevin Winston Jr. all the way to pick No. 148, and they scooped it up. Pure best-available; the position was not exactly begging.
They talked themselves into Jonah Monheim at the Round 5 slot, and the board did not agree. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
Jamon Dumas-Johnson in Round 5, Pick 30 is a reach so steep the board needed a second look to believe it. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Quinshon Judkins in slot 170 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. A need, and now a little less of one.
A real head-scratcher, Tyler Batty in No. 171 is miles ahead of his ranking. A want more than a need, though you can never have too many.