Dallas Cowboys nab top defensive player in new mock draft
By Connor Green
Round 5, pick 192: Shane Buechele, QB- SMU
The Dallas Cowboys kicked off their offseason with a bang when they re-signed their starting quarterback Dak Prescott to a blockbuster deal. However, that does not mean that Dallas can simply ignore the position moving forward.
Currently, the Cowboys backup signal-caller is projected to be Garrett Gilbert. The 29-year old endeared himself to fans of America’s Team when he almost managed to lead the team to an improbable victory over the then-undefeated Pittsburgh Steelers.
However, the fact that Gilbert has only thrown 44 career passes while completing slightly over half of them should not inspire confidence in his ability to be the teams’ sole competent backup at the most important position in football.
That fact leads the organization to attempt to inject some competition for that important role by selecting quarterback Shane Buechele with a late-round pick. The 23-year old passer, who started his collegiate career with Texas, transferred to SMU in 2019.
The young signal-caller played much better for Mustangs than he did the Longhorns and wound up tossing 57 passing touchdowns to only 16 interceptions during his two-year stint with his new team.
The six-foot-one, 207-pound prospect demonstrated fairly good accuracy (63.1 percent career completion rate) at college but his lack of physical tools (arm strength, mobility, etc.) likely project him to become a career backup at the next level. That is fine for the Cowboys, who will not need him to compete for the starting job.
The Dallas Cowboys add some much-needed competition to the key position of backup quarterback. Hopefully, unlike the rest of these prospects, he does not need to see the field for Dallas in the next couple of years.