The dust has settled from the 2020 NFL draft but being the NFL is in recess, why not skip right over the 2020 season and look to the 2021 version.
Luke Easterling of the Draft Wire conducted a two-round mock draft recently, identifying the majority of the coming college football season’s watch list. For the mock order, Easterling used 2020 Super Bowl odds , giving Dallas the No. 27 overall pick. This puts them ten spots deeper than they had when they selected Cee Dee Lamb with the No. 17 overall pick just a few months ago. This also puts the Cowboys in the NFC title game, but that’s a discussion for later.
27. Cowboys | Kyle Pitts | TE | Florida
One can look at this pick in multiple ways. Currently, the Cowboys have tight ends Blake Jarwin, Blake Bell, Dalton Schultz, Sean McKeon, Charlie Taumoepeau and Cole Hikutini on their 2020 roster. By drafting a tight end next year, the mock predicts the tight end depth chart wasn’t strong enough in 2020.
Jarwin goes into this season as the clear cut starter but the group of tight ends behind him clearly don’t stand out in the upcoming season. Taking Pitts with the No. 27 overall also means that he’s coming in to compete for the starting tight end position in 2021.
Jarwin entered 2020 as a restricted free agent, but signed a four-year deal. It is essentially escapable after one season, though, so the team protected themselves should they need to move in a different direction in short order.
59. Dallas Cowboys | Richie Grant | S | UCF
The Cowboys finally address the safety position via the draft in Round 2. In 2020, the Cowboys selected two cornerbacks in Trevon Diggs and Reggie Robinson III. They addressed their secondary but felt that the addition of Ha Ha Clinton Dix to Xavier Woods meant safety wasn’t something they needed to focus on.
Drafting Grant here could mean one of a a few things. Both Clinton Dix and Woods are in the final years of their deals. Even if either resigns for a few years it’s unlikely both would return, opening up the possibility for a young cat like Grant to join the fray,
The 2020 draft could go down as one of the best Dallas has had in quite some time. The 2021 draft could be looked at as a draft class that would fill holes and put the team over the top to continue to compete to get their sixth Super Bowl trophy.
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