Todd McShay Mock Draft has Cowboys benefitting from surprise player’s fall

On Wednesday, ESPN’s Todd McShay revealed his post-Super Bowl mock draft predictions (subscription required) for the entire first round of the 2022 NFL Draft. While every media outlet releases several mock drafts, McShay is seen as a trusted source for these predictions, so his thoughts are definitely worth a deeper look. For the Dallas Cowboys‘ 24th overall pick, McShay had quite a surprising name listed.

The ESPN writer thinks popular Michigan DE David Ojabo will fall all the way to the No. 24 spot. For many weeks, Ojabo has been considered a top 15 prospect, which makes us wonder if McShay has inside information that others don’t know. While some Dallas fans were worried that the team would get screwed over with such a late first-round pick, if the Cowboys are able to get Ojabo, you can consider that a serious victory. McShay himself even had the DE listed at 10th overall in December.

Ojabo is one of many impressive prospects coming out of Michgan. His 11 sacks as a junior ranked him second in the Big Ten and 11th nationally. Ojabo also had 25 tackles, 12 tackles for loss, and five forced fumbles. He was one of eight Wolverines to earn an invite to the 2022 NFL Combine. If he proves himself there, the Cowboys may lose their chance at getting Ojabo at No. 24.

This young defender has incredible potential and under the coaching of Dan Quinn could really shine in the Dallas defense. McShay gives his reasoning on why the Cowboys will get/should select the Michigan product in the tweet below.

ESPN’s Todd McShay’s mock draft has Dallas Cowboys taking advantage of the potential that Michigan’s David Ojabo drops down to the 24th overall pick

There is no doubt that Dallas would be lucky to have Ojabo, but the reality of him falling this low just never seemed to be possible before. But that’s how mock drafts go. It seems that every mock draft has Dallas picking a new player.

You may be wondering about names like Georgia’s Nakobe Dean, Florida State’s Jermaine Johnson, and Iowa’s Tyler Linderdaum. These are players who have often come up as options for the Cowboys. McShay has those prospects going well head of Ojabo in his mock draft. He has Linderbaum going at No. 14 to the Baltimore Ravens, Dean going to the Philadelphia Eagles at No. 16, and Johnson going to the Arizona Cardinals at No. 23.

With the 2022 NFL Combine yet to happen, many of these predictions will likely change. But if the Cowboys could add an impressive force to the defense to help out Micah Parsons and company, the team would be very lucky.