The Cowboys have a ton of depth, but also a ton of pending FAs. Here’s who will look to use 2023 to springboard into more prominent roles. | From @KDDrummondNFL
It’s a dog eat dog world in the NFL. In most cases, the competition is fierce but friendly. Veterans know their job is not just to perform, but to help in the development of younger players who could eventually push them for playing time. As the goal of each player is (normally) to win as a team, the overall talent level of a club’s depth is an important part of reaching that end.
It’s not always friendly, but the camaraderie of the league in general lends itself to this mindset more often than not. For the Dallas Cowboys, that would be highly beneficial in 2023 because there’s are many veterans currently on the 90-man roster who have expiring deals and the money is earmarked for the select few big-name veterans.
While teams can use accounting magic to make anything work, the Cowboys will likely sacrifice some veterans in order to carve out big chunks of cash for Dak Prescott, Trevon Diggs, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons. Here’s a look at who could be a cap casualty of that chopping of the pie, and which young players are primed to replace them.
From @ToddBrock24f7: The Southern Miss cornerback is the second draft pick to sign his deal; the team hopes to have all 8 of their selections signed by Monday.
It’s a busy day at The Star in Frisco, with the Cowboys front office looking to get as much football business done as they can before the 58th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards show takes over the Ford Center on Thursday evening.
To that end, the team has signed sixth-round draft pick Eric Scott Jr. to his rookie contract. The Southern Miss cornerback was the second draft pick to put pen to paper on their deal Thursday; second-round tight end Luke Schoonmaker made it official earlier in the day.
Early reports put Scott’s four-year deal at $4 million, with ESPN’s Todd Archer adding that he received a signing bonus of $218,308.
The Cowboys expect to stay busy over the next few days; David Moore of the Dallas Morning News tweeted that the club hopes to have all eight of this year’s draft picks signed before the weekend is over.
Cowboys believe they have a good chance to sign all 7 members of this draft class before the weekend is done, a person w/ knowledge of the club’s approach said.
Agreements have already been reached w/ TE Luke Schoonmaker (2nd round) & CB Eric Scott Jr. (6th round).
The Cowboys’ rookie minicamp will be held Friday through Monday, with OTAs set to begin May 22.
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For Scott, his signature on an actual NFL contract signals the start of the next chapter of an unlikely story that involved the 24-year-old hiring a videographer to record Scott working out on his high school field, posting the video to YouTube, and then sending it to the Cowboys coaching staff in an effort to get himself noticed prior to draft weekend.
From @ToddBrock24f7: When a quad injury spoiled his pro day, the Southern Miss prospect put his talents on tape. The Cowboys fell in love with what they saw.
The Cowboys saw something in Eric Scott Jr., something that spurred them to trade up to the first selection of the sixth round on Saturday to make sure they got the Southern Mississippi cornerback.
Maybe it was his 6-foot size and his wingspan of over 80 inches. Or his nearly 40-inch vertical or his 11-foot-plus broad jump at the school’s pro day. Maybe it was his lights-out performance (five tackles, one pick-six) in an upset win over Tulane last September. Perhaps it was the way he impressed coaches and scouts at the Shrine Bowl, going up against Power Five receivers and shutting them down. By all accounts, his 30 visit to The Star certainly didn’t hurt.
Or maybe it was the video he posted to YouTube and then sent to Dan Quinn.
The 24-year-old corner is thankful for the opportunity Dallas has given him, even if he had to go to extreme measures to get it.
After a college career that took him from Illinois State to Butler Community College to Southern Miss, Scott wasn’t invited to either the Senior Bowl or the NFL scouting combine. Things had started to click for him with the Golden Eagles, but following his super-senior season in Hattiesburg, he wasn’t exactly a hot commodity in pre-draft rankings and projections. Dane Brugler of The Athletic spotlighted 46 college corners in his exhaustive draft guide with full-blown profiles; Scott came in 60th and got a one-line entry.
And then during his pro day, he pulled a quad muscle, spoiling his 40 time and taking him out of DB drills.
So after he recovered, he and his agent took matters into their own hands. They hired a videographer, hit Scott’s high school field in the Kansas City area for a full slate of defensive back workouts and drills, and put the video on YouTube.
They also sent it to Dallas defensive coordinator Dan Quinn shortly before draft weekend.
Scott had gotten a good feeling about the Cowboys during his 30 visit, saying he had “fallen in love” as he toured the facility and met with coaches and staff.
“It was amazing. I was able to meet Mr. [Jerry] Jones and go all the way from the top to the bottom and learn about the culture that Dallas has, the one I’m about to buy into and contribute to. It was just all so surreal. I had ideas [about Dallas], but I never knew it’s as great as it is,” he told reporters during his introductory conference call.
“When I was out there for my visits, I was paying attention to how people interacted with each other and when I was at Dallas the interactions even just between the support staff and the coaches and the players, it’s all a family environment. Everybody loves everybody, and I want to be a part of that.”
Scott apparently made a similar impression on the coaching staff. Defensive backs coach Al Harris came away from that visit a big fan of the Kansas native.
“Everybody I talked to,” Harris said, “I’d tell them, ‘I want to coach this guy.'”
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There’s plenty to like, including that aforementioned height and massive wingspan. But Scott’s film also shows a very physical style of play to go along with ballhawking skills that call to mind a current Cowboys corner with a nose for the football.
“I’ve had coaches that coached me for a long time tell me,” Scott explained, “if the ball was in the air, it’s not a 50/50 ball, it’s our ball.”
That’s the same mentality that Trevon Diggs plays with, and when Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay saw Scott’s YouTube video, it confirmed for him what the scouting department already suspected: Scott might make an excellent complement to Diggs in the back end of the Dallas defense.
Now Scott will have a chance to actually learn behind Diggs, as well as five-time Pro Bowler Stephon Gilmore. Along with Jourdan Lewis, DaRon Bland, Nahshon Wright, and Kelvin Joseph, he’ll look to put those skills to work as part of a Cowboys secondary that’s tied for the league lead in interceptions over the past two seasons.
“You’ve been through the fire,” Quinn told Scott during the phone call to tell him he was about to be drafted, “and you’ve come out the other way as a strong, tough-ass competitor, man. We can’t wait to coach you, bro.”
And so the Cowboys didn’t wait to draft him, dealing a 2024 fifth-round pick to move to No. 178 to get him, possibly before one of the other teams he had visited- Tampa Bay, Indianapolis, Minnesota, and New Orleans- did.
Now Scott plans on making that trade worthwhile for the Cowboys.
“I’m just extremely blessed to be in this position,” Scott told 105.3 The Fan shortly after talking with the war room. “I’ve got tears rolling down my face at the moment. I’m just thankful that God has even allowed me to make it this far.”
Just a little farther, and Eric Scott Jr. will have turned being a YouTube star into wearing the Cowboys star.
Dallas has been all in on defense throughout draft weekend, but they weren’t satisfied. After selecting offensive lineman Asim Richards with a late fifth-round pick, they moved up in order to grab a player they must have thought long and hard about. …
Dallas has been all in on defense throughout draft weekend, but they weren’t satisfied. After selecting offensive lineman Asim Richards with a late fifth-round pick, they moved up in order to grab a player they must have thought long and hard about.
Dallas made a trade with the Kansas City Chiefs in order to come grab cornerback Eric Scott, Jr. of Southern Mississippi. Scott is 6-foot-1 and tested incredibly well while performing well at the Shrine Bowl all-star game in January. Scott, like three of the previous picks this weekend, was one of Dallas’ 30 national visits this spring.
Dallas sent a 2024 fifth-round pick to Kansas City for No. 178.
Pick 178, first of the 6th round, was a Bears pick that went to Miami in the Jakeem Grant trade and then to Kansas City in the Tyreek Hill trade. The Chiefs just traded it to the Cowboys, who use it on Southern Miss CB Eric Scott Jr.
The Miami Dolphins entered this weekend with only four total draft picks for the 2023 selection meeting, due to picks being forfeited and a number of trades.
One of those selections, pick No. 178, was originally received from the Chicago Bears in the Jakeem Grant trade. However, it was sent to the Kansas City Chiefs last offseason as part of the package for wide receiver Tyreek Hill. Hill immediately signed a new contract with Miami after the trade and went on to have an All-Pro year, setting career-highs in receptions (119) and yards (1,710).
The Chiefs then traded that pick on draft day to the Dallas Cowboys. With that sixth-round pick, Dallas selected Southern Mississippi cornerback Eric Scott.
Any player available this late is likely not as valuable as Hill has been or will be throughout the length of this contract.
