Cowboys 2nd-round pick may really be $200 million insurance policy
When the Dallas Cowboys selected their third first-round offensive lineman in the last four years, it invoked memories of the 2010s. Tyler Booker, the Alabama guard, was picked to replace Zack Martin, who retired this spring. He will join forces with Tyler Smith and Tyler Guyton to form three-fifths of the starting offensive line for the Cowboys. The repetition worked wonders with Martin, Tyron Smith and Travis Frederick, so looking to recapture that magic makes plenty of sense.
The same logic cannot be applied to the three-in-four process they've invoked at the edge position. Dallas selected Boston College edge Donovan Ezeiruaku with the No. 44 pick. This selection is on the heels of selecting Western Michigan's Marshawn Kneeland at No. 56 in 2024 and Ole Miss Rebel Sam Williams in 2022, also at No. 56. Only those players are in rotation opposite and behind their 2021 first-round selection, perhaps the best defensive player in the NFL, Micah Parsons.
The offensive linemen are going to be guaranteed 50-70 snaps per game as long as they're healthy. And while edge rushers certainly have a time share aspect to what they do, there really aren't that many snaps to go around for all of that investment.
One of our draft commandments is drafting a player a year before the need develops. So Ezeiruaku is in a perfect position to indoctrinate himself in Matt Eberflus' defense in Year 1 in 2025, the last year of Williams' rookie deal. Dante Fowler, who signed in free agency after 10.5 sacks in Washington last season, is only on a one-year deal, too.
But there's someone else who is currently on the final year of his deal; Parsons. And while the club and Parsons are working towards a long-term agreement that's expected to surpass $200 million in total value, it must be discussed that drafting the bendy Ezeiruaku could be insurance in case the sides aren't able to come to an agreement.
Add in the fact the Cowboys, based on the conversations on the 105.3 The Fan broadcast, were strongly considering trading down to acquire more picks, along with the reality there are big needs at wideout and running back but only one Top 100 pick remaining, and it's an eyebrow raiser. The Cowboys certainly could've been drafting their board, taking the best player.
The running back they liked the best Quinshon Judkins and wideout Luther Burden were snatched ahead of them and drafting the best player on the board is better than reaching for a position in the second round. That would be a cardinal sin.
But it's hard to look at the decision to take the preferred edge (ahead of a serious run on the position) without at least thinking that it could be protecting themselves in case the unthinkable happens and Parsons isn't in Dallas for the foreseeable future.
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