Tag: 2022 draft

Cowboys’ draft pick Tyler Smith: his nasty alter ego, wearing Larry Allen’s number, ignoring media

The 24th pick treats Larry Allen’s No. 73 jersey as a legacy to carry, but the student of the game has no use for listening to his critics. | From @ToddBrock24f7

It’s suddenly a lovefest in Frisco as the Cowboys’ stunner of a first-round draft pick wasted no time making new fans with his magnetic personality. Over the course of a 20-minute introductory press conference Friday, Tulsa tackle Tyler Smith had team owner Jerry Jones, head coach Mike McCarthy, and even the Dallas media eating out of his hand.

He seems intent on turning expectations inside out, whether it’s waxing philosophic about football history, matter-of-factly describing his mauling style of play, or slipping in a perfectly-timed off-color joke.

The Cowboys drafted Smith to be the team’s left tackle of the future. To help him get there, they’ll line him up alongside the left tackle of the present, an eight-time Pro Bowler.

“It’s eerie to me, some of the similarities,” team owner Jerry Jones said as he introduced Smith, “sitting here, sitting with you, as when Tyron Smith came from Southern Cal.”

And to add to the youngster’s motivation, the Cowboys are already putting him in the uniform of one of the top linemen to ever wear the star.

“I took a picture of my new jersey. It’s an honor to wear that number,” Smith said of his No. 73. “Larry Allen wore that number. I’ve seen a lot of the adversity that he went through in his life. I feel like I resonate with a lot of that, so it means a lot to be able to wear that and be able to carry on the lineage there, for sure.”

A self-professed student of the game who can’t wait to dissect game film and binges football documentaries, Smith says his favorite player to watch on tape is Barry Sanders. But he’s eager to make his own mark on the game after leaving two years of college eligibility on the table to turn pro just days after his 21st birthday.

But the Fort Worth native wasn’t sure he’d be playing for his hometown team. He and the Cowboys had limited interaction during the pre-draft process; he wasn’t a 30 visit, nor did he attend Dallas Day for local prospects.

So getting the call from Jones during the first round of the draft came as a wonderful surprise.

“Probably the best day of my life, pound for pound. I can’t think of anything better,” Smith explained to media members. “Just to hear the phone call, see The Star on top of your phone, you’re looking… You know, there’s a delay on the TV; not many people tell you. But I’d seen them on the phone, and I’m [thinking], ‘Aw, he ain’t calling me. I’m like, ‘Damn, I’ll just wait my turn.’ Then I see it pop up, I answer, I hear Coach Jones here.”

That line alone gained him some goodwill with the Cowboys media. The owner loves to fancy himself a behind-the-scenes coach, and he jokes about it with reporters often. Smith even mistakenly referred to the 79-year-old billionaire as “Coach Jerry” during a Thursday night conference call with the press.

Jones ate it up. Actual head coach Mike McCarthy played along, faking offense and pretending to shut down the conversation when it came up again.

It’s been all smiles and laughs for Smith’s first 18 hours as a Cowboy. It’s difficult, though, to reconcile Smith’s easygoing manner and infectious smile with the player he apparently becomes on the field. Watch his tape, and the word that most readily comes to mind is “nasty.”

That’s what sold Dallas on Smith with the 24th pick. Smith knows it, and he intends to keep playing with those violent intentions.

“I wouldn’t call it, almost, an alter ego, but maybe that’s what it is,” the lineman shared. “When I get on the field, it’s us versus them. That’s just what it has to be. My job as an offensive lineman is to set the tone and protect the quarterback. That dude across from me, his job is to hit my quarterback and try to blow up what we’re doing. So every time I live up from somebody, I play with the mindset that they’re trying to take food out of my mouth, they’re trying to take food out of my teammates’ mouths.

“I want to make them think twice about getting up when they go against me, for sure.”

Smith has gotten used to people thinking twice about him. First it was questioning his future as a football player after a bout at a young age with a condition that deforms the lower legs.

“I was born with Blount’s disease,” says Smith. “I was bow-legged, more bow-legged in my left than my right. I had a procedure done in high school, my junior year before my senior year. I had to fight back from it, for sure. Early adversity.”

Recovering from that, Smith says, “revitalized my love for the grind.” He went on to All-America honors as a freshman with the Golden Hurricane in 2020 after a redshirt season and then won second-team All-AAC accolades last year.

Even still, there were skeptics when his name started to surface as a possibility for the Cowboys with their first-round pick. To his credit, though, Smith says he never heard those doubters. Or any of the pre-draft analysis, for that matter.

Because one of Smith’s first messages for the media was to delicately let them know that he doesn’t have much use for them.

“I try to stay away from the media,” he deadpanned. “I feel like everybody has an opinion. Like buttholes. Everybody has one.”

And that line likely endeared Smith forever to his head coach, who routinely makes it clear he feels the same way.

McCarthy’s eyes popped at the utterance, but he gathered himself and leaned into the mic as the room was still doubled over.

“That was awesome,” McCarthy gushed.

For all the ranting and raving at the pick when it was first made, it’s actually easy to see why the Cowboys front office fell in love with Smith.

The feeling is clearly mutual.

“Wow, I’m really a Dallas Cowboy,” Smith marveled. “It’s the biggest blessing I’ve ever had in my life. I’m going to make the most of it.”

One press conference in, he’s off to a great start.

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2022 Draft: Best players remaining for Day 2

There’s still plenty of top talent at WR, EDGE, and LB, all areas of need for the Cowboys heading into Day 2 of the NFL draft. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Now we do it all over again, only with 32 fewer names to choose from on the big board.

The Cowboys added one college prospect to their roster during the first round of the 2022 NFL draft, although many fans are skeptical about whether they really helped their talent level that much.

But with the second and third rounds of picks set to kick off Friday evening from Las Vegas, the Cowboys have two more opportunities to restock the shelves, and then- barring any trades- six additional selections on Saturday.

With lots of difference-makers still available and several areas of need still glaring in Dallas, let’s take a look at some of the best players- from our friends at Draft Wire– who will be hoping to hear their name called on Day 2.

‘As much upside as anybody’: Cowboys shunned trade offers to draft Tyler Smith

The Cowboys stuck to their guns to take the player they say they had ranked 16th on their board; he’ll play left tackle and guard in Dallas. | From @ToddBrock24f7

After weeks and weeks of their fans arguing whether Zion Johnson or Kenyon Green would be a better 24th overall selection, the Cowboys drafted Tyler Smith in the first round on Thursday night.

And before the clock struck midnight, the team’s brain trust was arguing to Dallas media that the Tulsa tackle was who they were targeting all along.

Owner Jerry Jones even held up a printout of the Cowboys’ draft sheet to try to prove it.

“We have both of them- this was printed three days ago- below him,” Jones told reporters Thursday night at The Star. “Both of those players are below him.”

The pick came as a surprise to many fans, who thought the club might refocus their attention to wide receiver or edge rusher once the consensus offensive linemen were off the board by the time Dallas was on the clock. Smith had been considered a second-round talent by most experts, a raw player who might sneak into the very end of the first round, at best.

The Cowboys maintain they had him ranked much higher than that.

“We picked the 16th player on our board with the 24th pick,” Jones said. “We call it a good night. We got a player that we thought has as much upside as anybody that was on the board.”

He went on to tease that the team gave “strong consideration” to choosing a defensive player; there were several top prospects available at 24.

“We had, though, predetermined that he was, even against defense,” Jones said of Smith, “the leader in the clubhouse if we had a choice.”

Stephen Jones revealed earlier in the week that the Cowboys front office had issued “somewhere between 14 and 16” first-round grades this year. So Jerry’s assertion that Smith was listed 16th begs the question: did Dallas truly have the Fort Worth native as a first-round talent, or was he just a little bit of a reach for a team in desperate need of up-front blocking?

“We gave him a grade that we knew, more than likely, we would take him in the first round. Now, that’s meely-mouthed,” Jerry admitted. “We knew that we were going to have to take him in the first round.”

Ah. Obviously, giving a prospect a first-round draft score is different from acknowledging that the prospect will likely be drafted- by somebody– in the first round.

But it’s all just splitting hairs on the morning after. Smith is the pick, and the team is committed to him, even if they don’t know exactly where he’ll line up this fall.

Smith played left tackle for the Golden Hurricane. His film says he has the ability to play guard, too. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said both positions will be in Smith’s repertoire.

“Tyler will come in and he will have position flex and he will be a left-side player,” the coach explained at the post-draft presser. “So an opportunity to rep at both left guard and left tackle.”

“We think he can be our left tackle for a long time, at some point in time,” added Stephen Jones. “Obviously, we have the best in business now in Tyron Smith.”

But given that the T. Smith who’s an eight-time Pro Bowler hasn’t played a full season since 2015, the T. Smith who just turned 21 may get his chance there soon.

From a physical standpoint, Tyler Smith has all the tools to succeed at the pro level. And although he was not one of the team’s official 30 visits or a Dallas day participant, McCarthy says the Cowboys got a good look at him during a private workout and meeting.

“Joe Philbin [the Cowboys offensive line coach] had the chance to spend time with him,” McCarthy said. “The classroom work is obviously important. We felt great about what he put on video, but the personal workout does give you a chance to get a closer look and particularly spend one-on-one time. Obviously, he had high marks in all of that.”

“He’s a big, athletic, physical man that’s going to play in a big, athletic, physical league,” offered vice president of player personnel Will McClay. “And that’s what we liked about him.”

Early comparisons have already been made to Erik Williams, the former tackle who played ten years for the Cowboys dynasty of the ’90s and won three Super Bowl rings.

“He’s one of the nastiest that ever played through here,” Stephen said of Williams, referring to his famed mean streak. “And La’el Collins had that to him. Certainly, we’re going to miss that with La’el, but certainly he brings this to the table, Smith does. That was the top of the redeeming qualities in him. One of many.”

One of the knocks on him, though, is a penchant for penalties. Smith was flagged 16 times in 13 games last fall. That’s especially concerning, since he’ll be joining a squad that itself was the most penalized team in the NFL last year.

“I’m definitely aware of his performance last year,” McCarthy confessed. “We need to focus on penalties. We’ve taken those steps already in our offseason program as far as an an emphasis on things we need to do better, particularly in the areas of fundamentals. Tyler will be part of that program when he gets here, and I don’t have any concerns.”

“And he did play against some good competition,” added Stephen. “He played against Ohio State, Oklahoma, Cincinnati.”

Cowboys fans hope Smith will fare better in that category than Connor Williams, the Metroplex lineman who was drafted early by the Cowboys in 2018 and was let go earlier this offseason in part due to an overabundance of penalties- 15- in 2021.

“He has a tremendous ceiling,” McCarthy continued on Smith. “Some of his mistakes- penalties- were of aggressive nature; those are the ones you’d rather be dealing with: combative, things that you can learn from.”

McCarthy and Jerry went on talk about the difficulty that most offensive linemen have when transitioning from the college game to the pros, saying no position- with the possible exception of quarterback- has a steeper learning curve to playing well at the next level.

The Cowboys coaching staff will have plenty to do to bring Smith along, just as they would have with Johnson or Green or any of the other supposedly top offensive linemen.

“I don’t care who you draft at offensive line,” Jerry claimed, “you’ve got some work to do.”

Still, a small-school prospect who draws a lot of flags and was taken earlier than most experts had projected represents a significant gamble by the Dallas brass.

Turns out it was a gamble they almost didn’t take.

The Joneses confirmed Thursday night that they were fielding phone calls right up until the end about trading out of the 24th slot.

“We had three calls,” Jerry said, “and entertained trading [back] on at least two, or maybe three, of the last three picks.”

One team, who was not identified, was reportedly trying to jump up to grab Smith.

“I happen to be good friends with the team that was calling,” Stephen said. “He sent me a text right after we picked him and said, ‘Be glad you didn’t trade with us. That was our guy.'”

Instead, Tyler Smith ends up as the Cowboys’ guy.

It may take a little longer, though, for the fans to also adopt him.

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Instant Analysis: Cowboys No. 24 pick Tyler Smith

Most draft profiles projected Smith to come off the board in the second round, but the versatile lineman has legitimately high upside. | From @ToddBrock24f7

The options were quickly dwindling as the draft order worked its way toward Dallas at No. 24. With the most likely offensive linemen prospects- Kenyon Green, Zion Jonson, and Trevor Penning- already gone, many Cowboys observers started to wonder if the front office might be better off trading out of the first round entirely… or at least going with a defensive pick.

But the Cowboys followed through with the selection that had gained serious traction earlier in the day when ESPN draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. had them turning in the card for Tulsa tackle Tyler Smith.

Seen by many as perhaps a more likely candidate to come off the board in the second round, Smith has the versatility to play guard or tackle. With a front five that got thinned out dramatically over the offseason, Smith should get ample chances to contribute right away in Dallas.

Here’s a look at Smith’s draft profile, according to several notable outlets.

How to watch 2022 NFL draft and when to tune in for Cowboys pick at No. 24

Follow pick-by-pick, or tune in at approximately 10 p.m. CT to see the 24th pick. Whether or not it’s still the Cowboys remains to be seen. | From @ToddBrock24f7

After all the mocks, all the strategy talk, all the press conferences and combine scores and pro days and 30 visits and rumors and smokescreens and what-ifs, it’s finally draft day.

The 2022 draft will take place in Las Vegas, with picks being announced right on the Strip near Caesars Palace.

Here’s what you need to know to watch it all unfold.

Round 1: Thursday, 8 p.m. ET

Rounds 2-3: Friday, 7 p.m. ET

Rounds 4-7: Saturday, 12 noon, ET

TV: ABC, ESPN, NFL Network

Streaming: WatchESPN, NFL Mobile App, Fubo TV

Of course, draft veterans know that the coverage is mostly long stretches of talking heads pontificating, punctuated only sporadically by an actual announcement when the pick is in. Then it’s back to that platter of wings and highlight reels for another ten minutes while the next team finalizes its choice.

For Cowboys fans, it figures to be a long wait, especially in the first round. Once the first player off the board does his bro-hug with Commissioner Roger Goodell, it can be a tough slog to sit through in-depth discussions about everything that’s wrong with the likes of the Lions, Jets, and Falcons just to hear what Dallas does with the 24th pick.

Want a shortcut to figure out how to make the most of your Thursday evening? We went back through old Twitter feeds to see what time the 24th pick was tweeted out in previous years.

In 2021, for example, news broke about the Steelers taking Najee Harris in the 24th slot at 11:11 p.m. ET on April 29, the night of the first round that year. In 2020, the Saints took Cesar Ruiz at 11:09. In 2019, the Raiders picked Josh Jacobs at 10:57.

That’s just the past three years, but it helps narrow down the window considerably. The Cowboys figure, then, to turn in their card around 10 p.m. Dallas time, give or take.

But bear in mind that’s only if the team keeps the 24th pick. It’s already been a wild pre-draft season; the Joneses trading up or down isn’t at all out of the question and would obviously skew the Cowboys’ actual pick time.

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Mel Kiper’s final mock causes fan freakout with first-round reach by Cowboys

Conventional wisdom says Dallas could go OL with at 24, but the name Kiper turns in has thrown Cowboys Nation for a loop with hours to go. | From @ToddBrock24f7

It’s no secret that the Cowboys have some patching to do on their offensive line after the departures of La’el Collins and Connor Williams. Most draft analysts seem to believe the team could be looking to spend their first-round pick on one of this year’s top prospects in hopes of landing the next perennial All-Pro to go alongside Tyron Smith and Zack Martin.

Boston College’s Zion Johnson and Texas A&M’s Kenyon Green are the names most commonly being bandied about as a possibility with the 24th overall selection. Northern Iowa’s Trevor Penning gets the occasional mention, as do Alabama’s Evan Neal, North Carolina State’s Ikem Ekwonu, Mississippi State’s Charles Cross, even Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum.

In his final mock exercise for ESPN before the first round on Thursday night, draft guru Mel Kiper Jr. agrees that the Cowboys need to beef up their front five.

But he does it with Tulsa tackle Tyler Smith.

The pick was met with a collective eleventh-hour freakout from a sizable chunk of Cowboys Nation.

Smith has received second-round grades from most major draft analysts. Cowboys Wire listed him as a third-rounder in our player profile on him earlier this week.

The 6-foot-4 redshirt sophomore is an intriguing prospect, to be sure, but he’s raw. He just turned 21 this month and still has much about his game that he needs to develop.

So to pass on a lineman (or wide receiver or edge rusher) who seems ready to start Week 1 in order to lay claim to a long-term project in the first round would feel like a reach by Dallas, a squad looking to win now.

And while owner Jerry Jones spoke just this week about being more conservative than he used to be with draft picks- especially when it comes to a player’s availability- history shows that if the Cowboys brain trust has themselves convinced they’ve identified a diamond on the rough that no one else sees, it’s not out of the realm of reality that they pull a stunner at No. 24.

The Cowboys traded back in the first round in 2013 and took Travis Frederick in the 31st slot. While Frederick obviously went on to a spectacular career that will send him to Canton, he was, at the time, a second- or third-round prospect. Jones is quick to use him to this day- and did just two weeks ago– as an example of the team sticking to its guns when they believe in a player, despite what the “experts” say.

Perhaps making Tyler Smith an even bigger Day 1 surprise in the 2022 draft, though, would be Kiper’s prediction that Dallas isn’t even looking to move the Fort Worth native to guard- which he can do, and which would fill an immediate need- but instead would be drafting him to play tackle. The Cowboys currently have an eight-time Pro Bowler in Tyron Smith at left tackle and a third-year man on the right side in Terence Steele, a player so promising that they let former first-round talent La’el Collins walk out the door with little more than a goodbye wave.

“I thought about a wide receiver,” Kiper says of his choice for Dallas at No. 24, “but the Cowboys’ offensive line is aging. Smith would play right tackle in this scenario. He was a dominant pass-blocker in college, though he can get a little too physical at times; he was called for 12 penalties last season.”

Would Tyler Smith be ready to start at guard for the time being? Serve as depth at tackle? Mean Terence Steele’s job isn’t safe? Signal come other unthinkable upheaval on the O-line?  Goodness knows spending a first-round pick on a tackle of the future doesn’t do anything to fill the holes in the Cowboys roster here and now.

With just a few hours to go before the Cowboys are on the clock, Tyler Smith is a potential curveball that could have all kinds of ripple effects: on the rest of the first round’s draft board and the Cowboys roster and future plans.

Not to mention the psyche and blood pressure of the team’s fanbase.

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Last 15 players selected at No. 49 in the NFL draft

What is the track record for pick No. 49 in the NFL draft? Here are the results of the last 15 years for Saints fans to know, via @DillySanders

Odds are against you to find a star player at the 49th overall pick in the NFL draft, but you could certainly find a solid starter. I would say, over the last 15 years, that teams have hit on a good player more than they have missed. There have been two Pro Bowlers selected here during that time, with one of them eventually finding their way to being an important starter on the New Orleans Saints.

So it’s good to know the history of the pick the Saints are working with, could find their third starter in the first 50 picks? Here are the full results of the No. 49 pick over the last 15 years:

Full and final first round 2022 NFL mock draft with trades, four QBs taken

Full and final first round 2022 NFL mock draft with trades, four quarterbacks taken, via @DillySanders:

I think this is the least we knew about a draft class going into draft day that I can remember. This 2022 class is really, really interesting. There are not a lot of consensus first round talents, a normal year would see about 20 to 23 first round grades whereas this year could have as low as 14 depending on the team. The first round, especially the second half, could be extremely chaotic.

Here is my first and only full first round mock draft, with trades, for this season. It’s a mixture of what I think will happen and what I would do. That’s the only way to approach this class. Nothing would surprise me, and I think fans should avoid overreacting to whatever happens tonight. No one knows how this class will work out. Let’s get to it, and see how the New Orleans Saints turned out:

Jerry Jones still calls Cowboys’ draft shots, but admits ‘less risk-taking in me today’

Entering his 34th draft as Cowboys owner, Jones says the decision-making process remains the same, but he claims he’s more conservative now. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Thursday will mark Jerry Jones’s 34th draft as owner of the Cowboys.

While it’s reasonable to assume that anyone who has ever been in a job for that long has changed the way they do it over that many years, Jones maintains that, by and large, the organization still drafts players the same way they did in 1989, when they took Troy Aikman with the first overall pick and jump-started a dynasty in the process.

The game has evolved, to be sure. Prospects are more skilled, both at football and at negotiating. But Jones says when the team is on the clock, how the Cowboys make the final decision has remained the same.

“It’s being made exactly the same way that it was always being made,” the team owner, president, and general manager said Tuesday at the Cowboys’ annual pre-draft press conference.

Much has been made with the passage of time about the inner workings of the Cowboys hierarchy. One popular theory holds that 79-year-old Jerry has stepped back and now serves mainly as the team’s mouthpiece and hype man; that it’s his son Stephen, 57, who’s really running the show now.

There’s some truth to that; Stephen is listed as Cowboys executive vice president, chief operating officer, and director of player personnel. That’s a significant load to carry for the most visible and valuable sports franchise on the planet.

But make no mistake, Jerry is still the one who holds the checkbook.

“Around here, if it has a dollar sign associated with it in any way, I make the final call,” he explained. “I’m responsible for the money, coming in and going out, ultimately. I make that call. Have been since the day I walked through this door.”

Jerry does readily admit, though, that his son’s role with the team has increased over the years.

“Stephen’s been doing this now for 33 years. He walked in here with a chemical engineering degree; he ought to be smart enough to pick it up somewhere along the way,” he laughed. “But seriously, he’s been around here in everything we’ve done. If you can’t have confidence in that, you need to go home… It’s a luxury on my part to have that kind of talent around me. I’ve got it, the Cowboys have it in several places around here.”

One of those places is certainly in the scouting department and with draft preparation. Jones famously went into his first draft less than two months after purchasing the Cowboys. With so little time to put into evaluating prospects, Jones and brand-new coach Jimmy Johnson relied heavily on players that they were already familiar with. The rest, they learned on the fly.

Leaning on his coaches is still a key ingredient to drafting players who will help the club find success, according to Jones.

“I have always thought that the men coaching the players should have an investment in the decision being made of putting the players out there,” he said.

To that end, head coach Mike McCarthy has confirmed that he’s more involved in his Dallas drafts than he ever was in Green Bay.

Jones maintains that the Cowboys’ draft process is essentially the same as it’s ever been, but, practically speaking, it’s more of a group project now than in 1989. From coordinators to assistants to scouts to team vice president of player personnel Will McClay- one of the best in the business- Jerry has plenty of help in the war room, even though he’s the one picking up the phone to tell a young man he’s been chosen to be a Cowboy.

That phone conversation is the moment the TV cameras capture, creating the illusion that Jones alone is calling the shots. But the owner explains that it’s about buy-in from the rest of the brain trust.

“There’s a lot of me that would like to take a player and hand it over when we draft him and have Mike sign it, have Stephen sign it, have Will sign it, and then go down through the coaching staff and have everybody on there sign it: ‘This is the guy we picked,'” Jones told reporters. “There really is buy-in here. And there’s buy-in with how players are selected. And there’s buy-in with, after they’re selected, how they evolve and how they’re coached. I believe in that.”

So while Jones is the most recognizable face of the front office, he says he wants everyone in the organization to take genuine ownership in the decisions that they help make, especially during the draft.

“I really do- and should, in my spot- make other people believe they’re making the decision,” the owner shared. “I should do that. I should work very hard to make other people believe it’s their decision, because if they think it’s their decision, they will work their ass off to try to make sure it’s a good one.”

Of course, they’re not always good decisions. The reality of trying to evaluate football players is that both the players and evaluators are human beings. And sometimes the players prove not to be who they looked like they’d become at the pro level. And that’s what makes the draft such an inexact science. At its heart, it’s still a crapshoot, one with very high stakes.

If there is a change in how Jerry Jones approaches the draft 34 years in, it’s in his stomach for taking gambles.

“There’s probably less risk-taking in me today than there probably was when I look back thirtysomething years ago,” the former oilman says. “When we got here, I frankly was the only one in the room that had ever taken a risk, certainly financially, when I first got involved. I knew how to take risks, knew how to judge consequences if you mess up on a risk. And I was experienced in that; that’s how I owned the Cowboys. That’s how I got them.”

Chalk it up to his past life as a wildcatter, prospecting for black gold, constantly drilling new oil wells and waiting for one to strike it rich. Sometimes it comes down to luck, to following a hunch.

And even though the gushers are the ones that create a life-changing fortune, the misses tend to haunt the mind, even many years later. The same goes for draft picks.

“The decision on off-the-field issues, I’m probably a little more conservative than I was fifteen years ago,” Jones admitted. “About availability, probably a little more conservative. Maybe a little more conservative about players [who have] got some developing to do, need to get some strength, because I feel like we need to use them now more than we did 15 years ago, 10 years ago.”

So while Jones may have the Shante Carvers and Taco Charltons somewhere in the back of his mind, he plunges ahead, knowing that the club’s next first-round pick just might turn out to be Troy Aikman or Micah Parsons.

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Taco Tuesday: Jerry Jones deflects blame for Cowboys’ maligned pick in 2017

Jones jokingly said his son Stephen was responsible for taking Taco Charlton in 2017; he facetiously took credit for drafting Micah Parsons. | From @ToddBrock24f7

Sometimes it’s so bad that all you can do is laugh about it.

That’s what happened on Tuesday at the Star in Frisco during the Cowboys’ annual pre-draft press conference. While it’s traditionally a chance for the media members who cover the team to explore offseason issues and press for insight as to the team’s upcoming draft strategy, team owner Jerry Jones also seized an opportunity to jokingly deflect criticism for one of the organization’s most widely-panned personnel decisions.

The question was about working the phones leading up to draft day, whether the front office had been engaging in calls to either trade up or down rather than sit tight with the 24th overall pick.

“We always chum,” Jones said. “You’re always talking about possibilities for things. There’s nothing dangerous about thinking crazy things.”

Jones went on to talk at length about thinking unconventionally when it comes to the draft, when it comes to working trade offers, when it comes to juggling the roster, when it comes to being flexible with players as the draft unfolds in real time.

Four minutes later, Jones was still monologuing.

He had segued into an explanation of how the Cowboys war room works, how even the team’s scouts will occasionally pound the table for this guy or that guy, and how the final decision on drafting a prospect is finally reached.

That’s when Jones chose to get back the attention of the room with a zinger directed at his son Stephen, the team’s director of player personnel.

“There’s a lot of talk in this business about who makes the call, who actually makes the call,” Jones deadpanned. “Taco was Stephen’s call. Parsons was my call.”

It slayed.

Taco, of course, is Taco Charlton, the University of Michigan edge rusher who was the Cowboys’ first-round pick in 2017. The club, in desperate need of defensive help that year, famously bypassed linebacker T.J. Watt to instead select Charlton 28th overall.

Charlton lasted just two years in Dallas, recording 46 tackles, four sacks, two forced fumbles, and one recovery. Still seen as a massive bust for the Cowboys, he has since bounced around for one season each with Kansas City, Miami, and Pittsburgh. He’s now under contract with the Saints.

Word of Jones’s joke apparently reached Charlton, who seemed to respond via Twitter with a reminder that he and his estimated $10.3 million in career earnings are getting by just fine.

Charlton was not a pick many thought would go to the Cowboys at the time. Neither was Micah Parsons, but for different reasons.

The Penn Stater has already worked out much better in Dallas; he had a transcendent rookie season and earned Defensive Rookie of the Year honors.

It may have been a funny moment (to everyone but Stephen… and Charlton) meant to lighten the mood on Tuesday, but it will be no laughing matter if the Cowboys make another big-time blunder with this year’s first-round draft pick.

Less Taco, more Parsons.

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