From Aaron Rodgers to Joe Burrow, Kirk Cousins to Deshaun Watson, Anthony Richardson to Daniel Jones, 2023 may be remembered by many as the year of the injured quarterback, with numerous teams around the league losing their starting passer and, in many cases, their season’s hopes right along with him.
2024, then, could shape up to be a big year for the big man, with clubs looking to protect those under-center investments with young offensive line help via early-round draft choices. All indications are that the Class of ’24 will be exceptionally deep in O-line talent, making it a great year for a team like the Cowboys to address an area of need.
Through 11 games this season, Dallas has allowed just 23 sacks, placing their line in the NFL’s top 10 for keeping their quarterback upright. But there are questions looming on the horizon for next season: center Tyler Biadasz is set to become a free agent, left tackle Tyron Smith and his lengthy injury history will be 33, and even Zack Martin has suddenly looked somewhat mortal in his 10th season.
And that’s the lens through which The Athletic‘s Dane Brugler was looking when he approached the Cowboys’ initial pick in his first 2024 mock draft.
While Brugler has top playmakers like Caleb Williams, Marvin Harrison Jr., Jayden Daniels, Brock Bowers, and Drake Maye going early to some of the weakest teams, he likes the Cowboys to stay in the trenches and add foundational youth to play alongside two-year veteran Tyler Smith, who won’t even turn 23 until April.
With the 26th pick of the 2024 NFL Draft, Brugler has the Cowboys selecting Graham Barton, the multi-positional lineman from Duke.
“A college left tackle, Barton is going to move inside in the NFL and projects well at either guard or center,” Brugler notes. “This pick assumes Tyler Smith would replace Tyron Smith at left tackle, thus creating a need at left guard.”
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The 6-foot-5-inch, 314-pound Barton certainly seems capable of filling that need. The Tennessee native was a three-star recruit when he committed to the Blue Devils and took the field in his freshman year due to injuries to the squad’s first- and second-string centers. By the end of the 2020 season, Barton was named a second team Freshman All-American by The Athletic.
Graham Barton vs Jared Verse pic.twitter.com/hteQlT0jjY
— buddy rich (@budrich17) November 23, 2023
His sophomore year saw him named the starter at left tackle. As a junior, he was an All-ACC first-teamer. He repeated that feat as a senior and was rated the fifth-best tackle by PFF for the 2023 season.
By bringing Barton to Dallas and coaching him up to play left guard (like they did with Tyler Smith), the Cowboys would theoretically have Dak Prescott’s blind side covered- with two first-round picks under the age of 23- for the better part of a decade.
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