Perhaps I’m a bit biased, but out of the major American sports leagues, the NFL’s draft and the coverage leading up to it is unlike any of its counterparts (MLB, NHL, NBA). It seems like as soon as the confetti is swept off the field on Super Bowl Sunday, the NFL media and the fans put on the All-22 film, pick up their notebooks, and start the marathon leading up to April.
As a fan in general, it’s exciting to see prospects shoot up mock draft boards and inversely, deflating to see other prospects have their stock plummet. More directly as a Dallas Cowboys fan, I love all the conversations I engage in with other fans; discussing what the best options are for the team in the upcoming NFL Draft.
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With the Cowboys having such a large following, it’s only natural to have contrary opinions amongst fans. This year is no stranger to that; with the Cowboys holding this year’s 10th pick. If you’re entrenched in the Dallas Cowboys Twitter community as I am, you’ll find quite the discord among fans who think it’s in the best interest of the team to take a defensive player in the first round after having a bottom 5 ranked defense in terms of points (Pts/g) last year.
In contrast, I and many others (except for taking a quarterback) have made the case for taking the best player available on the board; regardless of position. I’ve discussed this topic at length in video format, but it would seem that argument has lent itself to another belief: The Cowboys prefer to take offensive players with premium draft capital (1st and 2nd round draft choices) versus players on defense.
On its surface, I can understand this belief and how some can correlate that to a defense that was so porous last year. That said, it wasn’t from a lack of trying through the draft as recent history would suggest. The Cowboys if anything, have gone against that popular perception since 2010.
Since 2010, Dallas has selected 20 players in the 1st or 2nd round. As far as a preferential pattern, there isn’t any indication of favoring offensive talent. In fact it’s quite the opposite.
In the last 11 drafts, they’ve taken a defensive player with their first pick of the draft on five occasions. It’s also fair to note that Dallas did trade a 2nd-round pick (45th overall in 2012) to trade up to select Morris Claiborne with the sixth-overall pick in 2012 and traded their first pick in the 2019 draft (27th overall) to acquire Amari Cooper from the Las Vegas Raiders.
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What’s more interesting is that Dallas does take a side of the ball at a disproportionate rate early in the draft. It’s just on the defensive side. Out of the 20 players drafted in this sample, only eight have been on offense. That’s a rate of 40%.
Also in case you’re curious, since 2010, the Cowboys have drafted 97 players. 50 of them were on defense, further cementing that there is no veritable preference to draft offensive players.
It’s no secret that the strength of the Dallas Cowboys is their offense. Their defense was so laughably bad by comparison to last year it’s easy to get the impression they dropped all their eggs in one basket, neglecting their defense.
Upon further research, that’s simply not true. I can’t emphasize this enough but it’s almost imperative for them to take the best player on their board in the first round; especially when you can make the argument that their best defensive talent (Demarcus Lawrence, Trevon Diggs, Randy Gregory) were taken in the second.
While we’re on the subject of player acquisition, if you’re a fan that’s frustrated about the lack of talent on defense I’d like to point out how inactive the Cowboys were in free agency. It’s almost a joke at this point, but year in and year out the Cowboys sit idly by while other teams address their needs in free agency. However, what’s not funny, is that while they have major needs on the defensive line and at cornerback, they never were in communication with the top players available on the market (Kyle Fuller, Dalvin Tomlinson & JJ Watt).
The bottom line is that based on their selection strategies and recent results, they just haven’t been as good in their draft evaluations despite their honest efforts to improve their defense by spending premium draft capital and as it would appear compared to their potent offense, less is more.
