It’s draft week and the Cowboys are ready to embark on the most important roster-building weekend the year. Film has been consumed, meetings have been conducted, numbers have been crunched and strategy has been played out. The only thing left is to execute the plan.
Cowboys EVP and COO, Stephen Jones, recently talked all things draft on 105.3 The Fan offering up some candid responses and a bit of fair warning in how Dallas planned to attack various positions in the exciting three-day affair April 27-29.
The Cowboys have conducted themselves this offseason to avoid glaring needs. They retained and added key players at key positions and can operate with a healthy degree of “best player available.”
“Absolutely,” Jones said in response to being in a position to draft best player available. “We just feel like we’re in that situation. Certainly, there’s positions on the team you want to beef up but you don’t necessarily have to do it with the first pick or second pick or the third pick as far as that goes.”
Jones admitted there were positions the Cowboys would like to “beef up,” but he followed it by saying there wasn’t pressure to address each one with the first three picks.
In the same discussion, he went on to give an example, citing the depth of the TE position and how it will offer good solutions in the third and fourth round.
The positions most likely need beefing up the most are often regarded as OG, RB and TE. Starting left guard is up for grabs, while Ezekiel Elliott’s exit left an opening at RB and Dalton Schultz’s exit opened up a roster spot at TE.
One or more of those could be exactly what Jones was thinking of when he said they could be addressed later in the draft.
The Cowboys have always taken positional depth into account when drafting. If a position is especially deep they’re more likely to turn their attention elsewhere. If a position is shallow, they’re more likely to reach a little to ensure it gets adequately filled.
In other words, RB may be a top-3 priority for Dallas but that doesn’t necessarily mean they plan to use a top-3 pick to fill it. This is an important strategy in their quest to be opportunists this draft cycle.
The immediate need isn’t there but if a top DE or CB falls into their laps, they have to be ready to pounce. This could mean pushing a more pressing need back. It doesn’t mean that will happen, just that Jones is ready to do it if the situation presents itself.
If a prospect who plays a high value position or a position of limited depth falls to the Cowboys, they are ready to take advantage.
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