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2016-2017 Offseason: Pre-Selection Catch Up And
Other Considerations
- April 26, 2017 At 4:46 PM CST
By Eric M. Scharf
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- The 2017 NFL Draft is here at last, and fan excitement is – once again – on full blast!
Many of the NFL’s 32 teams are ready to receive new blood
transfusions to help redirect last year’s delusions.
Electric hopes are in the air that enough of the new-and-capable
talent “out there” will be amassed to replace one or more remaining
roster dopes from years past.
The handful of teams – that reached the 2016-2017 tournament – are
looking for that missing piece that might just deliver for their
organizations their very first or merely latest Super Bowl ornament.
Each team’s feverish festivity and coverage show intensity is all
for naught, however, if a given team’s brain trust is caught
ignoring the same, historical draft day common sense most – but not
all – are typically taught.
If No Peach, No Reach
If a GM reaches on draft day, he better be a man of conviction or
merely stretching his arm, because it takes but one bad
selection to trigger the potential for long-term harm.
Cowboys Nation – like any other NFL fan base – has seen (the
improved) GM Jerry Jones take risks that left rotten egg all over
his face. He has also stood pat with equally poor selections (like
Shante Carver) that left draft day shrapnel all over the place. "Shante's
Inferno" showed great promise in school but – within four years –
made GM Jerry look the fool and forced him to reach for the defensive
Drano.
Nonetheless, (almost completely) regardless of the player name, the
general formula remains the same.
You start and end with your handy-dandy “draft value chart” (something former Dallas Cowboys head coach Jimmy Johnson fashioned –
from a point system concocted by former Cowboys VP Mike McCoy –
into a very popular draft day tool and a rather successful annual
art).
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- While such a chart is held close to
the vest of every personnel guru, it is not the only talent
evaluation process designed to prevent teams from stepping in draft
day doo-doo. Reams of tape, the combine, pro day workouts,
background checks, and private player visits give each team plenty
about which to yawn, frown, or delightedly scream.
Fans can only hope that – by the end of the (initial) three-day talent
procurement exercise – their teams have delivered on their picks and
possibly squeezed in an unexpected surprise. Dallas delightedly
managed that very scenario with La’el (Collins) when – due to a(n ultimately) false off-the-field
allegation – his draft stock aggressively fell.
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- If the desired player is not a peach
– and unless there is private eye proof that desired player may,
indeed, be more than a roster spot leach, the goal must be NOT to reach.
Will They Or Won’t They?
“America’s Team” – ideally – will get to stand pat, sit on their
picks, make shrewd choices, and ignore all the change-of-plan,
reach-for-a-risk voices.
The Dallas Cowboys – ideally – will react with each player taken and be able to read the tea leaves when other teams (with
potential trades) may be fakin’.
What does "The Tortured Cowboys Fan" – without playing games or
unfairly naming names – hope the Cowboys do before they are through?
Round 1 DE – An edge rusher. A real motorized musher.
Round 2 CB – A cornerback ‘tweener capable of zone and man. A
wrap-up tackler who can.
Round 3 CB – A capable corner who slips due to a mad rush on another
position but who has good skill and intuition.
Round 4 DE – Another player who might slip but on which every
team’s radar is a sizable blip.
Round 6 LB – Sean Lee deserves assistance while Jaylon Smith
continues to work with resistance.
Round 7 OL – Add another contender to the existing roster
competitors for Doug Free’s former spot, and expect the
scrutiny to be incredibly hot.
Round 7 RB – Luck into a speedster with good receiving mitts, who can mimic (or improve upon) what Lance Dunbar had only been able
to accomplish with inconsistent starts and injury-limited fits.
One way or another, the dominoes will fall where they may. It is up to
GM Jerry, son Stephen, Will McClay, and Jason
Garrett to make the best possible hay.
And – with a draft THIS deep on defense – Cowboys Nation can
excitedly trust the undrafted free agent market to be very robust.
There will be an incredibly aggressive post-draft meat market, where much of the forgotten talent and their agents will have to
hurriedly figure out their best shot at a roster spot, and with
which team they really want to park it.
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- Will the Dallas Cowboys make all the right moves and find all the
right talent grooves?
We shall see. We always do.
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