Category: 2023 Draft

‘Felt like family,’ DeMarvion Overshown on help from inside Cowboys’ draft room

From @ToddBrock24f7: The third-round draft pick just happened to be lockermates at Texas with someone who had the ear of the man who owns his hometown team.

Turns out Deuce Vaughn wasn’t the only Cowboys pick of the weekend who had a family connection in the Dallas draft room pulling for him.

Third-round selection DeMarvion Overshown was taken with the 90th overall selection on Friday night. Drafting the Texas linebacker addressed a position that many believed the Cowboys would focus on at some point over their scheduled seven picks, although as the third round progressed, the team had not filled perceived holes at guard, running back, or cornerback.

When it came time to make a decision on the Longhorns linebacker who was up for consideration, Cowboys owner Jerry Jones relied on some intel he had gotten from an unlikely source:

His grandson.

Paxton Anderson, whose mother is Cowboys chief brand officer Charlotte Jones, is a fourth-year wide receiver at Texas and was a teammate of Overshown.

“Paxton is a good person,” Overshown told reporters during his introductory conference call Friday night. “I don’t know what exactly he said to his grandpa about me, but a couple of times Mr. Jones said it was an A+ from what he got from Paxton. So whatever he said, it was good, I love him for it, and I’m very appreciative.”

Jones confirmed in the team’s Day 2 press conference that Overshown and Anderson had even been lockermates in Austin. He added that his grandson had talked up the big linebacker very early in the pre-draft process.

“He had mentioned it from time to time in the past,” Jones explained. “The way he said it was: whether he’s practicing or playing, he’s just all over the place. He’s everywhere.”

The 22-year-old Overshown grew up in a tiny town outside Tyler in northeast Texas, where he grew up surrounded by the lore of the Cowboys. That made his welcome-to-the-league call that much more special.

“It means the world, growing up around nothing but Cowboys fans, as basically they were my hometown team,” Overshown explained. “Getting that call where it says ‘The Star,’ and then hearing Jerry Jones’s voice, that meant the world to me, and it’s a feeling that I’ll never forget and I’ll cherish forever. The tears actually came down my face once I saw that number. I couldn’t have asked for a better situation. I’m blessed, and I’m ready to get to work.”

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Overshown got a small taste of what it would feel like to be a Cowboy during his official 30 visit.

“It went so smooth,” the 6-foot-2-inch 229-pounder recalled. “It was family. It felt like family. I actually called Paxton right after, or saw him right after, and I told him, ‘Dallas felt like family. It felt like home. I didn’t feel like a stranger there.'”

Overshown met with linebackers coach Scott McCurley during that visit, then with defensive coordinator Dan Quinn. But the young man says their conversations were as much about family and life as they were about Xs and Os.

“It was just a welcoming home feeling,” he continued. “That’s exactly what I got there. When I first got there- from the dinner all the way to the lunch before I left to go somewhere else- it felt like a family vacation. It didn’t feel like a business trip. We watched a little film, but after that, it was more me talking about my background, talking about the family, talking about what to expect my rookie season.”

To that end, Overshown knows he can expect to put in some work on special teams as a way to get acclimated and then progress toward playing regular defense. His skills will present Quinn with some interesting options; he played safety in college, and while he believes he can move back into a hybrid role like Jayron Kearse or Donovan Wilson, he also has the pass-rush ability to move up onto the line and moonlight in a Micah Parsons-type role.

“I know Coach Quinn has a plan for me,” he offered.

A plan that may have been helped by the owner’s grandson putting in a good word for him.

Overshown says Anderson was among the first to text him after his pick was announced.

“He said, ‘Congratulations, bro,” Overshown laughed, “‘ I told you.'”

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Behind Enemy Lines: Comparing NFC East teams’ 2023 draft hauls

From @ToddBrock24f7: The Eagles set the curve for the NFL when most experts’ draft grades came out, but another NFC East team also made great strides.

The Cowboys were playing catch-up to the Philadelphia Eagles within the NFC East all last season. After an aggressive offseason that saw them improve their roster by leaps and bounds, the Eagles were the last undefeated team in the league during the regular season, claimed the division crown, and then sailed through the playoffs to a Super Bowl berth.

Dallas, on the other hand, went into the schedule with rose-colored glasses regarding several players and how they would perform. It was a best-case-scenario plan, and it flopped. The team had enough talent to scratch and claw their way to a 12-5 season, but the ride came to an abrupt end in the postseason while the obviously better teams moved on.

The 2023 NFL draft showed that Philadelphia is still swinging for the fences, while the Cowboys seem content to stick to their guns and wait for some secret master internal plan to gradually unfold.

But 2023 won’t be just a two-team race in the East. The Giants impressed many draft analysts with their picks and look to be trending upward, perhaps more quickly than assumed. And while the Commanders are expected to start turning the ship around under new ownership, it will take a while; their draft class got mixed reviews.

Here’s how the NFC East stacks up after three days of drafting.

[Ed. note: We took the draft grades from six national outlets and averaged them out to determine a composite grade for each team.]

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Cowboys will face first-round draft picks in 14 of 17 weeks

From @ToddBrock24f7: Dallas will line up against 10 of the top 20 players chosen in this year’s draft at some point in the 2023 regular season.

It can be tough for teams to watch highly-ranked players they liked go to other rosters on draft weekend. It’s even harder when they know they’ll have to face those talented players as opponents.

While the Cowboys are excited about their own crop of 2023 draft picks, they also know that 14 of the top prospects will line up against them during the regular season in unfamiliar uniforms (and several of them will do so twice). And ten of those first-round selections were taken within the Top 20 picks.

While no one yet knows when any particular matchup will be scheduled for, the Cowboys can plan now to see each of these first-round draft picks up close and personal at some point in 2023.

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Mel Kiper Jr. issues surprising grade for Cowboys draft class with ‘not much flash’

From @ToddBrock24f7: ESPN’s draft guru admits the Cowboys didn’t move the needle with any of their picks, but he found things he likes about the ’23 draft class.

In the world of draft analysis, there’s everybody who’s come along in the last generation or so, and then there’s the guy who’s been there since the mid-1980s.

Love him or hate him, Mel Kiper Jr. is still the gold standard when comes to evaluating prospects and judging their fit with NFL teams. Mock drafts and draft profiles and draft report cards can be found all over the internet these days, but when Kiper speaks, people still take what he says to heart.

Taking the temperature of Cowboys Nation after this weekend’s proceedings in Kansas City, it would be easy to trash the Dallas draft class of 2023. There were no sexy picks, there were a few slight reaches, there were plenty of higher-profile players left on the board.

But there were also needs that were addressed. Of the five most pressing areas of the roster Kiper had zeroed in on, the Cowboys filled four of them with a draft pick- tight end, running back, defensive tackle, and wide receiver. (The club will no doubt conduct a separate search for a kicker.)

And the front office has shown themselves to be awfully good at identifying talent, even if they sometimes have the names on their big board arranged in a very different order than other teams.

So fear not, Cowboys fans, Kiper says it was a good draft for Dallas.

“There’s not much flash in this class, which is not usually how team owner Jerry Jones does things,” he writes in his annual post-draft roundup for ESPN, “but I can’t knock many of these selections. Dallas did well.”

He gives the Cowboys a B as their final grade.

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7 draft hauls Cowboys could’ve had if they made different choices

Introducing the Cowboys 2023 Shadow Drafts, mock drafts based on moves they could’ve made if they went in a different direction than what happened in reality. | From @KDDrummondNFL

Every die-hard fan and content creator has their favorites from draft season. Every casual fan has a set of names, mostly from big schools, they’d heard who provides name recognition. Every disgruntled observer has a bit of jealousy when it comes to another organization’s haul.

What happens when it’s all bundled together into a tracking mechanism? Welcome to your 2023 Shadow Mock Draft. Here, we go through a post-draft mock where we identify alternatives to whom the Cowboys selected. A concept originally developed (we think) by Bengals writer Joe Goodberry and adopted by noted Steelers fan and Raider editor Marcus Mosher (we kid, Marcus), presents a recap of what options were available when Dallas was on the clock and how one domino would’ve led to another.

Report Cards: Draft experts underwhelmed by Cowboys’ 2023 7-pick haul

From @ToddBrock24f7: The grades are in, and most draft watchers thought the Cowboys came away from the weekend with with a very average class of rookies.

Seven players got the call from the Cowboys during the 2023 NFL draft. And though these young men have yet to take a snap, step onto the field, or even put on a blue-starred helmet, the sports media world has already passed judgement on how good (or not) this draft class is.

The Cowboys didn’t blow anybody away with their 2023 draft haul, with many experts accusing them of reaching on multiple picks and focusing on the wrong players at the wrong positions when more promising prospects were generally available for the taking.

For better or worse, though, Dallas has always been unafraid to stick to their board. They maintain that they did that once again this year, and that they’re thrilled with the players they chose.

Time will tell whether the Cowboys’ Class of 2023 will prove to be special. For now, these outlets weigh in with their far more modest grades for the seven-player haul.

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Jerry Jones: ‘Ship hasn’t sailed’ on Cowboys re-signing Ezekiel Elliott

From @ToddBrock24f7: Drafting RB Deuce Vaughn in the sixth round doesn’t rule out the possibility of bringing back the two-time rushing champ, Jones said.

Heading into Thursday night’s first round, it was thought the Cowboys might spend a first-round draft pick on a running back. Instead, the Falcons landed Bijan Robinson with the eighth overall selection, and the Lions caused a stir by taking Jahmyr Gibbs at No. 12. Then Day 2 came and went. Two more rounds, and no running back for Dallas.

The Cowboys waited until Saturday- and the 212th selection- to finally address their backfield. Granted, Kansas State’s Deuce Vaughn is an electrifying talent. And yes, the story of his dad (a Cowboys scout) being the one to make the phone call to his son will go down as an all-time draft moment to remember. But the addition of a 5-foot-5 sixth-round pick doesn’t exactly put the obvious final touches on the Cowboys’ running attack after the release of two-time rushing champ Ezekiel Elliott.

Left to wonder why the organization didn’t add anything more than a Day-3 lottery ticket to the RB room, Cowboys fans were offered a tantalizing nugget by the team owner late Saturday. Jerry Jones suggested that maybe the biggest addition to the ground game wouldn’t come via the draft, but through a post-draft re-signing of the club’s third-all-time leading rusher.

“The ship hasn’t sailed there,” Jones said, regarding Elliott. “I haven’t ruled out Zeke.”

Elliott was released on March 15 and has yet to land with a new club. Jones has frequently stated his affinity for Elliott, and this was not the first time he’s publicly floated the idea of a reunion. Quarterback Dak Prescott similarly lamented the loss of his best friend and has suggested there would be widespread support within the building to bring Elliott back on a new contract.

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Elliott’s No. 21 jersey has already been re-issued to new cornerback Stephon Gilmore, but giving Elliott new digits would be a minor detail in the grand scheme of things. Working out more cost-effective terms and determining a new role for Elliott within the offense would be of far greater importance.

But after watching several teams draft plug-and-play starting ballcarriers- and seeing the defending NFC champion Eagles upgrade their roster even further by pulling off a mid-draft trade for D’Andre Swift- Cowboys fans can’t be blamed for grabbing at any scrap of hope they can find regarding the team’s plans for the position in 2023.

Even if that hope comes in the form of the guy they just sent packing.

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WATCH: Cowboys RB Deuce Vaughn gets draft call from scout dad Chris

From @ToddBrock24f7: Hearing from an NFL team on draft day is a special moment for every prospect, but the Kansas State RB’s phone call was extra emotional.

Every player taken in the NFL draft has a story, and every draft produces a standout moment or two.

But there was nothing more emotional than what went down in the Cowboys’ war room when they made the second of their two sixth-round selections on Saturday.

That’s when Dallas decided they were going to take Kansas State running back Deuce Vaughn. And then they let his dad Chris, the team’s assistant director of college scouting, be the one to make the phone call.

“In 30 years in this league, I’ve never seen that,” head coach Mike McCarthy told media members. “That was a very special moment.”

“I’ve never had an experience like that in the draft room,” owner Jerry Jones said afterward.

“For me, it was one of the coolest things I’ve ever been involved in,” added Will McClay, the team’s vice president of player personnel. “In that moment, it’s about family. You talk about the Cowboys, you talk about football, you talk about family. When you get that opportunity to share that experience with a really good player that’s going to help us, that’s what it’s all about.”

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McCarthy emphasized that the pick wasn’t just a feel-good family moment; it was about picking a quality football player who racked up over 3,600 rushing yards in three seasons as a Wildcat.

“He was the highest one on the board when we drafted him,” the coach revealed. “Number 1. For a while.”

The Cowboys brass even managed to keep Deuce’s selection a secret from Chris right up until it was time for someone to make the call.

“We didn’t want to make him uncomfortable, and we have so much respect for Chris in terms of what he brings to the table,” explained Stephen Jones, Cowboys chief operating officer, “also knowing that he didn’t want to influence this any way, one way or the other. This was a surprise to him as well when we made the decision between Mike, Jerry, Will, and myself [that] this was going to be our selection. It was really neat to see the look on his face.”

The proud papa got choked up again telling reporters about the moment- and his talented son- later at The Star.

 

The 5-foot-5-inch rusher will get plenty of attention at camp this summer as the shortest player ever measured at the NFL scouting combine since such official data was tracked starting in 2003.

But according to Dad, he’ll also quickly make a big reputation for himself as one of the hardest workers on the field, and he’ll set out to show that he earned the honor of being an NFL draft pick all on his own.

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Cowboys select South Carolina WR Jalen Brooks with No. 244 pick

The Cowboys ended their 2023 draft with a boost for Dak Prescott, drafting South Carolina wide receiver Jalen Brooks. | From @cdburnett7

The Cowboys capped off their 2023 draft haul with South Carolina wide receiver Jalen Brooks in the seventh round. The former Gamecock delivered his best season in 2022 with 33 catches and 504 yards.

While he had a lower usage rate. Brooks’ stock comes with his catch radius. After starting his career at DII Wingate, he transferred to South Carolina and made a grab in his second season that put him on the radar.

Dallas made a conscious effort to improve at receiver by trading for Brandin Cooks and having Michael Gallup a year removed from his torn ACL should bode well for the group. As for Brooks, he fits into the picture as a strong receiver that can assist Gallup and CeeDee Lamb on the outside.

Twitter reacts to Cowboys selecting SMOL RB, scout’s son, Deuce Vaughn

Dallas has finally selected a running back, and it’s a hometown pick with big-play ability. Twitter was in it’s feels. | From @KDDrummondNFL

The Dallas Cowboys have finally drafted the running back the world has been waiting on. After releasing Ezekiel Elliott earlier in the offseason, Dallas has met to numerous running backs in the pre-draft process. One star player didn’t make the cut, but was consistently named when it came to possibilities.

With pick No. 212 and the need still unfulfilled, the moment happened. Dallas selected Kansas State running back and two-time All-American Deuce Vaughn. The reason he was always linked with the club? His dad is Chris Vaughn, director of scouting for the organization.

The selection, of course, brought a round of emotional responses from the folks in the Cowboys War Room and those covering the team. On his own merit,Vaughn is an extremely exciting player, which is something that’s been perceived as lacking from the Dallas draft class. But tie in the emotional nature of a father getting to see his son’s dream come true and come to work at the same gig?