THOUGHTS ON COWBOYS DRAFT
By mark rogers
May 19, 2011
It was an historic draft last month for first-year, full-time head coach Jason Garrett and the owner of 22 years, Jerry Jones, in a few ways.
First of all, Jerry Jones has NEVER used the Cowboys first pick on an offensive lineman. Something the club did with the 8th overall pick when they chose the best lineman in the Pac-10 in 2010, Tyron Smith.
Also, only three times in Jerah's history have the Cowboys not made a single trade on draft day. The last time that happened? Bill Parcells first draft as head coach.
And finally, it's been a while since Dallas had such a disparity between offensive and defensive players in a draft (6 offensive, 2 defensive).
This coming one year after the Cowboys set a franchise record for points allowed and ranked in the mid-20s in total defense last year. Did this happen because Garrett is an offensive minded coach? Did we fail to answer big-time needs on the defensive side of the ball? Or did Dallas just pick the eight best players left on the board when it was their time to pick?
I guess time will tell. What the club does in the free agency market could also make up for the disparity. So I'm not too worried about it yet.
I am a big fan of the top defensive pick for Dallas this year. Bruce Carter is a converted safety and will play LB in the NFL. He's big (6-3, 233), fast (sideline to sideline speed) and had 207 more career tackles at UNC than I did at ACU. He tore his ACL in November which is probably why we even got him with our second pick. He'll recover from that and should make an impact on special teams immediately.
I also like the DeMarco Murray pick. If you've ever watched this kid play, you have been entertained...and if you say you haven't, that just means you hate OU.
Murray set OU career records for total touchdowns (only the 4th person in Big 12 history to score at least 60 TDs), points scored, kickoff return average, and all-purpose yardage, and he was hurt ALOT his first couple of years in crimson.
The good news is that he stayed healthy his senior year, but just imagine what he might have done to the record books without the injuries. The guy is a special talent and, if he can stay health (a-hem), he should be a serviceable back/kick-off returner.
I like the OL pick from Missouri State because the kid never missed a start in 4 years (44 games) which means he's pretty tough. I also like the Wisconsin O-lineman because of the type of offense Wisconsin runs. You have to be a man-child to play OL for that scheme.
Free agency should be interesting in light of all what's going on with the lockout. Players we may move or have to replace are Marc Colombo and Marion Barber.
Overall, I thought it was a well played, conservative draft.
OH...and the last time we didn't make a trade was 2003. Included in that draft? Terrence Newman, Jason Witten and Bradie James...and they added Romo in rookie free agency. Not a bad turnout...
Hopefully we'll be able to look back in seven or eight years and say the same thing about 2011 - or what I'm dubbing "The Year The Cowboys Returned to Greatness and Won the Super Bowl". Makes for a long t-shirt, but there are a lot of "big" Cowboys fans out there.
1st game is against the Jets on September 11.
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