Late picks need to produce
DALLAS — Tyler Smith has yet to win a job in the starting lineup.
But he did win his introductory press conference with the Cowboys.
The hulking offensive lineman was relaxed, engaging and entertaining when meeting with the media roughly 15 hours after the club made him their first-round pick. Asked what was written or said about him in the days leading up to the draft that someone got wrong, Smith flashed a big smile.
“I mean, well, I try to stay away from the media,” he said. “I feel like everybody has an opinion. They’re like buttholes.”
Is there a better segue into a few more opinions and observations about the Dallas draft?
Sure, the Cowboys transformed their defense last season, in part, by investing their first six picks — out of 11 overall — on that side of the ball.
But Dallas went in a different direction with its nine picks in this draft. Four of the first five picks were devoted to offense before turning over to defense to finish it out.
Afterward, owner Jerry Jones proclaimed he believed this draft will improve the Cowboys “as much as we improved the team in last year’s draft.” That seems ambitious. The 2021 draft class totaled 32 starts and 112 games played. It finished with 16 sacks, 151 tackles, 62 quarterback pressures, 16 tackles for loss, six passes defensed and three forced fumbles.
It’s difficult to envision how the ’22 class will register the same sort of statistical impact.
Dallas carried nine picks into this draft and came away with nine players. They didn’t trade from any of their original spots and didn’t try to put together a package.
“We never tried to move up,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “We felt like the weight of our draft board was really weighted towards the fourth and fifth round and felt like there was going to be a big group of players that we could really improve our football team.”
Dallas took Wisconsin tight end Jake Ferguson in the fourth round and came back with four players in the fifth. Only one of those players — Arkansas defensive tackle John Ridgeway — had a fifth-round grade. The others carried a fourth-round grade or, in the case of injured linebacker Damone Clark, a third-round assessment.
The Cowboys wanted to keep all of those picks to start Day 3 because they considered it the meat of the draft. But keep this in mind: The club doesn’t have a good track record in the fifth round.
Most teams don’t. This is where the draft becomes more miss than hit. Even by those standards, Dallas has struggled.
The Cowboys had selected 19 players in the fifth round since 2000 before last week’s draft got underway. Cornerback Orlando Scandrick (’08) was easily the most productive. It’s really not close.
Next in line would be running back Joseph Randle (’13) before his shoplifting spree, followed by cornerback Josh Thomas (’11) and kicker David Buehler (’09).
Will this class reverse an established trend?
Well, an improvement in the Cowboys’ draft fortunes in recent years has coincided with Will McClay’s rise in the organization. The club has leaned toward selecting players from the Power Five conferences during McClay’s time as vice president of player personnel.
“They’re the Power Five for a reason,” Stephen Jones said before the draft. “They’ve got some really good football players. But at the same time there are good players who aren’t in the Power Five.”
The Cowboys then went out and took four players — Smith, receiver Jalen Tolbert (South Alabama), offensive tackle Matt Waletzko (North Dakota) and cornerback DaRon Bland (Fresno State) who weren’t from a Power Five conference.
Dallas took only five players who didn’t play in a Power Five conference in the previous three drafts combined.
Stephen Jones said it’s all about finding the right players.
“I don’t think it’s been a conscientious effort to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to get away from smaller schools and look at Power Five only,’ ” Jones said. “It’s more just our evaluation process evolving to where that’s where we’ve ended up over the past four, five, six, seven years or whatever the time frame.”
This draft was different in several respects from recent versions.
My opinion: Well, you know what they say about opinions.