2021 NFL Draft: 5 players Cowboys should keep a close eye on
By Connor Green
Five players the Dallas Cowboys should keep an eye on in next year’s draft class
The Dallas Cowboys season has been marred with injuries and poor play thus far. The team is currently occupying the cellar of the dreadful NFC East at 3-9. However, the Cowboys are currently projected to get a top-5 draft pick in this years’ upcoming NFL draft.
If this season has shown fans of America’s Team anything it is that this team has glaring holes that desperately need to be filled. Dallas is currently giving up a league-high 32.8 points per game and has an offensive line that is in need of reinforcements due to injuries and aging players.
The organization will likely have a chance to get one of the top players in the NFL draft. Whether they choose an offensive lineman like Oregon’s Penei Sewell or a defensive player like cornerback Patrick Surtain II the team will also have to strategize for later rounds of the draft.
Most draft classes can certainly be broken by an errant first-round selection. However, even a solid pick on the first night does not necessarily make a draft class for an NFL team. America’s Team will need to identify potential diamonds in the rough later in the draft while still addressing their team’s needs.
Fans of the Dallas Cowboys will be heading into draft night with high hopes and the organization will need to do more than simply hit on their top choice to get the team back on track in 2021. Here is a list of five players that Dallas should keep an eye on in this year’s draft class.
5. T.J. Carter, CB, Memphis
The Dallas Cowboys are in desperate need of help in their secondary. The team is currently giving up a league-high 32.8 points per game and have only managed to get five interceptions through this point in the season. The struggle to force turnovers has carried over from last year when Dallas ranked at the bottom of the league in this category with seven interceptions.
To make matters worse the organization also has two of its young cornerbacks, Chidobe Awuzie and Jourdan Lewis, whose contracts will expire at the end of the 2020 season. Whether or not the team decides to bring back these two players it is clear that the Cowboys could use additional help at this position.
T.J. Carter burst onto the scene of college football during his freshman year at Memphis. Carter finished that season with an impressive four interceptions which was the third-highest mark of any player in the American conference. The young cornerback also managed to accrue 23 pass deflections and 112 total tackles in his first two seasons at Memphis.
Carter has the prototypical build of an NFL cornerback. The young defender stands at 5-foot-11 and weighs 180 pounds.
Since bursting onto the scene of college football out of the gate Carter has somewhat fallen out of the spotlight. He has failed to get an interception in his past fifteen games and has seen his draft stock fall considerably over the past year-and-a-half.
However, he has shown flashes of promise at Memphis and should definitely warrant consideration later in the draft. The Dallas Cowboys could certainly use T.J. Carter to bolster their secondary while playing him opposite the teams’ promising young cornerback Trevon Diggs.