3 players the Cowboys should trade up for in the 2023 draft

It’s April and that means draft season. The 2023 NFL Draft is just two weeks away and the mock drafts are coming out with more depth and insight as experts try to predict where the top prospects in the country end up. The Dallas Cowboys have nine picks in the upcoming draft, two being compensatory picks. The offseason has been a memorable one so far for Dallas, but a great draft would make it even better.

Every year teams construct their draft boards with the best prospects. The draft is always filled with players scouts and coaches can’t miss on. To pick the cream of the crop, a team has to have a high pick. However, there are always prospects most believe will turn a franchise around or be the final piece in a championship puzzle. If a team has guts and current players and picks to do it, big trades are always common on draft weekend. The most notable ones occur on the first night.

The Cowboys have made four first-round trades since 2010 and traded up two of those times. That year they traded up from the 27th spot to 24 to take Dez Bryant. The moved panned out as Bryant broke every Cowboys’ receiving record and became a face of the franchise during the decade. The trade they made in 2012 did not pan out long-term. Dallas traded from the 14th pick to the 6th and took Morris Claiborne. Claiborne never became the shutdown corner like they thought he would, only having no more than one interception in a season. After re-signing him on a one-year deal in 2016, Claiborne was let go.

Dallas has not traded up since the Claiborne selection and it is not surprising. However, this year the Cowboys may truly be one key draft piece away from going further in the playoffs. With the picks Jerry and Stephen Jones have accumulated, the Cowboys might just be able to move up in the draft to take blue chip prospect.