Advertisement

sportsCowboys

The Dallas Cowboys have options in the 2020 NFL draft. Failing isn’t one of them.

Every pick by every team will be scrutinized within an inch of its life, and not just in the first round.

We are less than a week away. We feel its looming presence and, no matter how we might have felt about its overblown nature in the past, we welcome its warm embrace.

The biggest draft in the history of the world begins Thursday.

Every pick by every team will be scrutinized within an inch of its life, and I’m not just talking about the first round. In the Cowboys’ case, they’d better make folks happy in the first, second, third and fourth rounds and twice in the fifth.

The seventh? Maybe we let that one slide.

Cowboys

Be the smartest Cowboys fan. Get the latest news.

Or with:

If this isn’t the most important draft in Cowboys’ history, it certainly will be treated as such. What else is there?

By the time Roger Goodell kicks things off Thursday night — hopefully in pajama pants and perhaps with a washing machine in the background of his basement — it will have been 43 days since the Mavericks beat Denver and Rudy Gobert tested positive for COVID-19 and the sports world slammed to a screeching halt.

Advertisement

The next day the college conference tournaments were canceled and March Madness soon followed. Baseball teams flew home from spring training. Unless you have found your way over to the Sekta Cup for table tennis or perhaps some Belarusian Premier League soccer, it has been a long, dry spell. And another one is coming.

When the draft concludes Saturday, there is nothing on the schedule until PGA Tour players tee it up at Colonial on June 11. They won’t need any ropes in Fort Worth because there won’t be any fans. And that’s a full 47 days after the draft.

So love it or love it, those are your choices with this draft. For the Cowboys, the first-round pick will be safety Xavier McKinney of Alabama. I learned that by reading Mel Kiper Jr.’s Mock Draft 2.0 and 4.0. That pick is also to be found in Todd McShay’s Mock Draft 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0. Seems like solid information.

Advertisement

That was until the Cowboys lost cornerback Byron Jones to Miami and, in his first post free-agency mock, McShay wandered over to Florida cornerback CJ Henderson with the 17th pick.

So maybe it’s Henderson. He was also the Cowboys’ pick in Kiper’s 1.0. Although I have to say, while it fills a lesser need, it surely would be interesting if the Cowboys landed Oklahoma wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and just loaded up the offense. That’s what happened in Kiper 3.0.

One of these things has to be right. Right?

Regardless, this is the time of year the Cowboys actually earn their day in the spotlight. If you’re counting Pro Bowl trips and number of Pro Bowl players, as Kevin Sherrington pointed out the other day, the Cowboys have steadily made better first-round picks in the most recent 10-year stretch than either of the previous ones during Jerry Jones’ time. Obviously, that includes the Troy Aikman-Emmitt Smith picks that ignited the Jimmy Johnson era.

What the Cowboys haven’t done is win meaningful games with this collection of players, which is why there’s a new coaching staff working at the Star. Or at least planning to whenever such a thing is again permitted.

Already we have seen how Mike McCarthy’s arrival sparks change in free agency. The Cowboys never would have signed 346-pound Dontari Poe to play nose tackle during Rod Marinelli’s time. What does it mean moving forward? I don’t think the Cowboys would have looked at Wisconsin’s Zack Baun (238 pounds at the combine) or maybe even LSU’s K’Lavon Chaisson (254) as pass rushers — this was a team that passed on T.J. Watt to take the larger-framed Taco Charlton, remember? — but that might be changing as well. Under Mike Nolan, the Cowboys should be inclined to throw more 3-4 formations at the opposition that would certainly enhance those undersized speed rushers on the outside.

Losing Jones and Robert Quinn leaves real holes in the Cowboys’ defense. If the club honestly believes the answer is Anthony Brown sliding into Jones’ starting spot on the outside with Chidobe Awuzie on the opposite side and Jourdan Lewis in the slot, I will be surprised. That’s why Henderson — not likely to be available at 17, but you never know — or another corner in the first or second round makes the most sense for this team.

It’s harder to find a regular down defensive end who can go get double digit sacks like Quinn, and that’s why the Cowboys are willing to roll the dice on both Aldon Smith and Randy Gregory. But neither of those can reasonably be viewed as a long-term answer.

Advertisement

With their needs being what they are, this looks like a draft where the Cowboys would want to move around in the first two rounds. And who knows if that’s really any tougher than usual with teams spread out and working from home?

Either way, we are counting the days until the bell rings Thursday and always open to more mock drafts in the meantime. Friday’s 1-1 tie between Belshina and Smolevichi in Belarus just didn’t do it for me.

Advertisement

Find more Cowboys stories from The Dallas Morning News here.