Dallas Cowboys 2018 NFL Draft: What to expect at No. 19
The Dallas Cowboys will have the nineteenth selection in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft, a first for this franchise that could have chosen at sixteen.
The Dallas Cowboys fell from the sixteenth selection in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft all the way to the nineteenth after beating backups of the Philadelphia Eagles to conclude the 2017 regular season.
Had head coach Jason Garrett thought about the situation, he could have handed this game over to the Iggles, given that team its Super Bowl-like sweep and picked up the sixteenth selection in the first round next April in Arlington.
Way to keep ‘fighting,’ coach – but you lost that fight even though you won.
So, what can we expect from the Dallas Cowboys with that later first-round pick?
Who knows? America’s Team has never chosen at No. 19 in any draft, but they have come pretty close a number of times. By ”pretty close,” I mean numbers 18 and 20, respectively.
It’s all mumbo-jumbo when you consider that the Cowboys have drafted Pro Bowl players well beyond the first round and also busted themselves completely with a top ten selection. It all depends on the player who’s actually chosen much more than where they’re chosen.
Still, conventional wisdom says that your chances of landing a difference-maker in the first round are better at No. 16 than at No. 19 – but again it just depends on the player.
So long as the Cowboys stick to the recent first-round strategy of simply landing a really good football player, they should have success in the first round.
When you consider how many quarterbacks might be selected in the same round before Dallas goes on the clock, the franchise could still have the pick of the litter at numerous positions, like offensive guard, right tackle or even linebacker, each of those positions likely to need some attention in the annual player selection meeting.
According to Dan Graziano of ESPN, there’s at least four quarterbacks with almost certain first-round consideration that could push the Cowboys all the way up to the fifteenth pick, theoretically speaking.
"There are a couple of SoCal dudes still turning heads, a big guy in Wyoming who makes scouts drool and a Heisman-winning bad boy who may or may not be 6 feet tall,” wrote Graziano. “It’s a fun group, and will dominate a lot of our attention in the four months leading up to the 2018 NFL draft."
I’m sure you’ll agree that Penn State running back Saquan Barkley is gone in the first 10 selections, which pushes the Cowboys up even further north. In fact, I happen to think that five quarterbacks will go in the first round, although I’m not sure if all five are selected before the Dallas Cowboys go on the clock.
No, the pick of the litter at defensive end, left tackle and cornerback will probably be gone, but there’s generally more than just one really good prospect at these positions in the first round. The Dallas Cowboys simply have to make sure they’re avoiding the feared first-round bust that threatens almost all teams in that opening round.
Next: Dallas Cowboys - Three biggest positives from 2017
Get the right kind of guy, as Jason Garrett likes to put it, and the Dallas Cowboys will add a key piece for the future in the 2018 NFL Draft – they’ll need to, because there will be some turnover this year and the Cowboys need to think not only in terms of replacements, but also better players at any position that can help reshape a roster that played behind the eight ball in 2017.