A safety net at the safety position?
Anyone who paid attention to the Cowboys in 2019 would say that safety was a position of need for the team heading into 2020. That deficiency was at least partially addressed with the signing of veteran HaHa Clinton-Dix via free agency back in March, but many draft pundits expected Dallas to target one of this year’s hot prospects like Grant Delpit, Xavier McKinney, or Antoine Winfield Jr.
The Cowboys not only steered clear of each of those players, they ignored the safety position altogether for the entire seven rounds. Part of it may be the team’s historical trend of not investing heavily at that particular position. But, as coach Mike McCarthy explained remotely in the official post-draft press conference, there may be a larger master plan at work.
“We have good veteran options there at the safety position, so we’ll see how this free agency shakes out. But I’m very comfortable with the flexibility we also have throughout our secondary players. I’m not as caught up in traditional free safety/strong safety as some may be. What I like about our numbers on the back end is we’ve got great competition and we’ve got excellent flexibility; we may have some players that can not only play corner, but also slide over and play some safety.”
Jerry Jones mentioned Reggie Robinson II by name just moments later. The 6-foot-1 Tulsa product was taken in the fourth round.
Mike McCarthy just said he thinks the Cowboys have some cornerbacks who can play safety. Take one guess about who that might be. So go ahead and fire up that speculation gravy train.
— David Helman (@HelmanDC) April 26, 2020
For what it’s worth, Robinson did play safety as a high schooled in Cleburne, Texas before switching to cornerback in college. Shortly after being selected on Saturday, he hinted that he didn’t care about what position he played as a pro and was more concerned with getting on the field as soon as possible.
Trevon Diggs, the team’s second-round pick, also spent time at the safety position as recently as his freshman year at Alabama before coach Nick Saban suggested a move to cornerback.
Ben DiNucci’s McCarthy connection
Each of the Cowboys’ first six picks were names that were on the radars of a lot of draft gurus. But the team’s final selection, in the seventh round, was a bit of a stunner. The announcement of quarterback Ben DiNucci may have garnered a collective “Who???” from even the most hardcore scout wannabe.
Taking a passer to bulk up the depth behind Dak Prescott had been considered a legitimate possibility and smart play, but several big-school prospects were still on the board at No. 231. Mississippi State’s Tommy Stephens, Iowa’s Nate Stanley, Michigan State’s Brian Lewerke, Colorado’s Steven Montez, and Michigan’s Shea Patterson were all overlooked by Dallas in favor of the product from James Madison University.
But it turns out coach Mike McCarthy has known about DiNucci for at least some time. The 23-year-old Atlanta native actually began his college career at Pitt, McCarthy’s old stamping grounds and where DiNucci played for two seasons before transferring to JMU.
And then there was a chance elevator ride in January.
On the very day McCarthy was introduced as the new head coach of the Cowboys, the James Madison football team also arrived in Frisco to play in the FCS national title game. And the Dukes team just happened to be staying at The Omni Hotel attached to Cowboys headquarters.
“So the crazy thing about all of this,” DiNucci said via JMU’s hometown Daily News-Record, “is Coach McCarthy’s brother was my eighth grade middle school basketball coach at Pine-Richland [in Pittsburgh]. But I saw Coach McCarthy in the elevator in Frisco a few days before the game and no one else in the elevator on our team had any clue who he was.
“I walked right into the elevator and he was standing in the back right of it, and I made it a point to go stand by him. I introduced myself and just brought up that his brother was my basketball coach and I said, ‘Welcome to Dallas.’ He had heard of Pine-Richland and was asking me a few things.”
Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said that James Madison QB Ben DiNucci reminds him of a young Marc Bulger.
— RJ Ochoa (@rjochoa) April 25, 2020
What’s more, the brother of DiNucci’s coach at James Madison was quarterbacks coach under McCarthy in Green Bay in 2018. So while DiNucci going to Dallas may have come as a shock to most fans, DiNucci and his college coach said they saw it coming.
“About 10 minutes before the Cowboys chose him, my brother called me and said, ‘I think Mike’s going to take him. What do you think?'” JMU coach Curt Cignetti said. “I said, ‘No doubt.’ I texted Ben, and he said, ‘Yep. Watch, they’re going to take me.'”
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