NFL teams have to be consistently smart, but sometimes they need to be daring, too. A franchise able to marry the two edicts is a successful franchise, and that goes not just for free agency but for the NFL draft as well. The Dallas Cowboys have been smart. For the most part their draft record of success in the last decade or so speaks for itself. But daring?
Daring is something not regularly associated with the Cowboys when it comes to drafting nor free agency. They’ve rarely been risk-takers and maybe that is what is keeping them from success in the post-Romo era. Gone are the days when Dallas would take a prospect with a checkered history but immense talent. No more are the days when they would think outside the box about where a player lined up in college and imagining an entirely different role for him in the pros.
Heck, they were afraid to draft TJ Watt out of Wisconsin out of fears he couldn’t play with his hand in the dirt and he’s only emerged as one of the games most feared and accomplished edge rushers. The safe pick they made instead, Taco Charlton, is an afterthought in the league already.
Will they be daring in 2021? Who knows, but in the latest mock draft, we certainly will be. The very first pick in our sim comes after a trade back and will be to use a guy in a position he didn’t play in college. Think, Arizona State’s Darren Woodson.