2020 Dallas Cowboys Offseason

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Hey northoftheborder thanks for the well wishes. 3 days in my retirement is going pretty good!

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For 36 hours or so we had a nice sports distraction from all the craziness going on in the world. The NFL draft gave us a pause, gave us something to think about, mull over, cheer, groan, rejoice. Such is the nature of sports and the only relevant thing in sports right now is the NFL draft. Even today people in their everyday lives are talking about it. Sportswriters and television analysts are talking about and even the charities who will benefit from the NFL Draft-a-thon. As for that, at the conclusion of the draft yesterday afternoon NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced that the Draft-a-thon had raised over 100 million dollars for COVID-19 relief. You can’t get more relevant than that. Good for the NFL for using the considerable lure of the draft to boost the efforts of those fighting the pandemic.

The point of the draft is it gives all the NFL teams an opportunity to make their team better and that’s what the Cowboys did over the past 3 days. Going in, everybody was sure the Cowboys were going to take CB CJ Henderson from Florida or K’Levon Chaisson the DE from LSU. That was if either or both were still on the board. As it turns out, Henderson was taken with the 9th overall pick by Jacksonville. Chaisson was still there as was the wide receiver considered by most to be the best wide out in the draft, Oklahoma’s CeeDee Lamb. Lamb or Chaisson, Chaisson or Lamb. The Cowboys needed a pass rusher and Chaisson was considered to be one of the best available. The Cowboys had a lesser need at wide receiver after they lost Randall Cobb to free agency last month. The Cowboys needed help on defense much more than on offense. It seemed a foregone conclusion who the Cowboys would take but this is a different team, a new coaching staff, a new philosophy than during the Jason Garrett regime. Much to the surprise to all Dallas chose CeeDee Lamb. Why? Because Lamb was the 5th ranked player on their draft board and they drafted their board. They literally took the best player available. Much as teams say that is their goal what usually takes place is teams take the best player available according to need which is a whole different kettle of fish. Taking Lamb kind of reflects what Mike McCarthy said when he first got to Dallas. He didn’t acquire players to fit a scheme, his deal was to get as many good players as he could and he and his staff would figure out how to use them. An offensive minded coach like McCarthy can certainly figure out what looks like the best wide receiver corps the Cowboys have ever had. And I mean ever.

When Dallas comes out with Amari Cooper, Michael Gallup and now Lamb teams will have a very hard time figuring out how to cover them all. Throw in Ezekiel Elliott and the potential of TE Blake Jarwin, not to mention newly acquired from Kansas City TE Blake Bell and teams will find it quite hard to stop this offense. The only thing stopping this offense is if Dak Prescott is mad about not getting a long term deal done but I doubt if he’s mad enough to pass on the $31 MM the franchise tag guarantees him.

The Cowboys pretty much followed their board sticking to that ‘best player available’ mantra throughout the draft with the possible exception of their last pick, QB Ben DiNucci from James Madison. Was he the best available or just someone to flesh out the QB room for training camp? With a pick near the end of the 7th round it really doesn’t matter much why they picked him. There will be more about the Cowboys draft picks but know that Dallas just got markedly better on offense by drafting CeeDee Lamb.

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Early grades on the NFL draft from last weekend are coming in and it’s almost a total consensus that the Cowboys had one of the best drafts in recent memory. Across the board, the Cowboys have been lauded for having a top notch draft. The top draft class seems to belong to the Baltimore Ravens then, depending on whose grade you read it’s Dallas, Miami, Minnesota or San Francisco. Dallas really went with the best available player on their draft board except for perhaps their 7th round pick, QB Ben DiNucci and he may have been their next best available. In a previous post I talked about the Cowboys 1st round pick, CeeDee Lamb from Oklahoma. But, I wanted to add one more comment. Bucky Brooks who is an analyst for the NFL Network and the Cowboys website compared Lamb to former Houston WR DeAndre Hopkins. If that doesn’t get you excited about Lamb’s potential, I don’t what would. So now, I’ll move on to the 2nd and 3rd round picks today.

With pick # 51 Dallas took the best player available which also happened to be at a position of need, cornerback. According to Jerry Jones the Cowboys were delighted when Trevon Diggs was there for the taking when Dallas selected him with the 19th pick in the 2nd round. Most pre-draft rankings had Diggs going in the first round and most had him ranked in the top 5. At 6’1’’ and 205 lbs. Diggs is long and athletic. He ran a 4.54 at his pro day so he has adequate speed. As a former wide receiver he had very good ball skills and he is touted as prototypical press-man corner. There are minor flaws in his game which should be helped by good coaching and former NFL CB with the Green Bay Packers, Al Harris, is his position coach with the Cowboys. Lance Zierlein of the NFL Channel has even said that with his skill set Diggs could easily play free safety if needed. 4 of the current Cowboys roster DB’s are in the last year of their contracts so getting DB help was really needed. The Cowboys never dreamed they would get a player this good at this point in the draft.

Dallas took another defender with their 3rd round pick. With the 18th pick, 82nd overall, Dallas selected another Oklahoma player in DT Neville Gallimore. At 6’2’’ and 305 lbs. Gallimore impressed at the NFL Combine running a 4.79 40 which is a sick time for someone as big as he is. He is also described as a freakish athlete. The Cowboys actually considered drafting Gallimore in the 2nd round when they decided on Trevon Diggs. So, they got a player they targeted a full round later than they had him ranked. The Cowboys picks are following the best-player-available mantra but they are great value picks as well.

Tomorrow we’ll look at the Cowboys 2-4th round picks which also involves a rare deal made with the hated Philadelphia Eagles.

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Day 3 of this year’s draft was a continuation of signing good players that were high value picks as well. With the 17th pick in the 4th round, # 123 overall, Dallas took another CB. They chose University of Tulsa’s Reggie Robinson II. At 6’1’’ and 205 pounds he’s a physical mirror to 2nd round pick Trevon Diggs. Diggs has an inch wider arm span and Diggs’ hands are a bit bigger but basically Dallas got Trevon Diggs lite in Reggie Robinson. Bucky Brooks compared Diggs to long time NFL CB Aqib Talib and we would surely take that if Diggs lives up to the comparison. Diggs is a press-man type CB but, according to NFL analyst Lance Zierlein, Robinson is not as athletic as Diggs. He has tighter hips and his ability to mirror a receiver downfield is limited. Zierlein does say that Robinson is much better as a zone cover man and he is a play maker. In his senior season Robinson got 4 INT’s and 2 fumble recoveries. He is also known for being a big hitter which makes him better against the run than Diggs. It’s quite possible that Robinson’s best fit would be at safety because of this 4.44 – 40 speed and tackling ability.

Dallas didn’t have 2 – 4th round picks when the day began but the Cowboys worked out a rare deal with the Philadelphia Eagles who had the very last pick in the 4th round. Dallas traded their first 5th round pick and a 2021 5th to move up to that last pick in the 4th. Dallas was targeting an offensive center they had a 2nd round grade on and they got their man. With former Wisconsin center Travis Frederick retiring in March it left a big hole to fill in the middle of their O-line. To fill that gap Dallas chose another Wisconsin man in Tyler Biadasz. When I was playing with the On The Clock draft simulation I ran across Biadasz several times and not knowing how to pronounce his name I called him Tyler Badass. The badass part seems to fit as Biadasz anchored a very good O-line at Wisconsin. Pre-draft analysis of Biadasz was that he was good but inconsistent. While the Cowboys were hammered at the time for drafting Travis Frederick late in the first round when most draft ‘experts’ felt the Cowboys could have gotten him in 3rd round the Cowboys flipped the script this time taking Biadasz at the end of the 4th round when many had him ranked as a 2nd round player. Biadasz is very smart, like Frederick. He’s a fine technician like Frederick and he anchored the Badger line for 3 years and as a senior he won First Team All American honors, All Big Ten honors, he was finalist for the Outland Trophy. Biadasz, Penei Sewell of Oregon and defensive tackle from Auburn Derrick Brown. Brown was the 7th pick overall in the 1st round while Sewell still has another years left at Oregon. Sewell won the 2019 Outland but Biadasz has nothing to hang his head over. The last man to be a finalist for the Outland from Wisconsin wasn’t Frederick, it was Eric Carmini who won the award in 2010. Biadasz also won the Remington Award given to the best center in the nation last year. Judging by the scouting report on Biadasz his only weaknesses look like they can be corrected with time in the weight room with his strength and conditioning coach and some time with his position coach to hone his technique. It seems as though Biadasz is capable of living up to being a Badass. I sort of look at Biadasz (you actually pronounce his name Bee-ah-dish) as a guy who step up and be the biggest surprise in this year’s draft. If it isn’t Biadasz they it could very well be the player taken with the very last pick in the 5th round. We’ll look at Dallas’ final two draft picks tomorrow.

Notes From Cowboys-land

On Monday of this week the Cowboys lost two free agents. S Kavon Frazier was signed by the Miami Dolphins. Frazier played a big role at safety for Dallas and he was a core special teams player. The other loss was DT Christian Covington who signed with the Denver Broncos. Covington was in the DT rotation for Dallas last year. He spent just one season in Dallas after spending the bulk of his career in Houston.

Today the Cowboys signed free agent CB from the Oakland Raiders. Worley was a 3rd round pick by Carolina in 2016 and he spent 2 seasons with the Panthers. In 2018 he was dealt to the Raiders where he started at cornerback and safety for them. Dallas did not draft a safety in this year’s draft but they have several people in the CB room who can play safety. Right now the only true safeties on the roster are Ha-Ha Clinton Dix, Xavier Woods, Darian Thompson and Donovan Wilson.

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Dallas traded away their first 5th round pick to Philadelphia so they could move up to the last pick in the 4th round so they could select C Tyler Biadasz which was a great value pick for them for that player at that point in the draft. They still had one more pick, a compensatory pick given them for the loss of WR Cole Beasley to free agency in 2018. It was pick # 179, the very last pick in round 5. With that pick they chose edge rusher Bradley Anae from the University of Utah. Anae did nothing to impress coaches and scouts at the NFL Scouting Combine. His 40 time of 4.93 was not impressive at all. He did run a 4.73 at his college pro day but his measurables were not jumping off the page at anyone. The Scouting Combine is only part of the story when scouts look at prospective players. When scouts and draft analysts turned on the tape they saw a player who played like a Tasmania devil. A player who had a non-stop motor who just made plays. Anae is athletic enough that he was a disruptive force for a Utah team that was ranked 2nd in total defense in the nation. In 2019 Anae had 13 sacks in his 12 starts and he recorded 20.5 sacks in his final two seasons with the Utes. Most of them coming at the expense of some pretty darn good left tackles in the PAC-12. Jerry Rice was arguably the best WR in NFL history and his combine numbers weren’t all that great but he proved there is combine speed and game speed and while Rice’s 40 time wasn’t all that impressive not many people caught him from behind in games. To get a player with the upside of an Anae at the end of the 5th round is amazing value and if Tyler Biadasz isn’t the sleeper hit of this draft class it very well could be Anae.

Dallas had no picks in the 6th round and when their final pick of the draft rolled around in the 7th Dallas chose a QB, Ben DiNucci from James Madison. DiNucci was a two year starter for the Dukes and in 2019 he led his team to the FCS Championship eventually losing to FCS powerhouse North Dakota State. In 2019 DiNucci threw for over 3,400 yards, 29 TDs and he completed almost 71% of his throws. He added 569 yards rushing with another 7 TDs. I realize this was against FCS competition but he does have skills. At 6’3’’ and 210 lbs. he has the size to play in the NFL. Other notable players from James Madison are HOF DE Charles Haley, Buffalo Bills all-time scorer, K Scott Norwood and Reskins All Pro WR Gary Clark. As with all the other picks in this year’s draft the Cowboys got a good player who was also a great value pick.

The NFL website did preliminary rankings of all 32 teams drafts and the Cowboys were 2nd only to the Baltimore Ravens. Plenty of reason to be excited to see the Cowboys hit the field after this COVID-19 mess is finally beaten.

NOTES:

The Cowboys have released two players, LB Chris Covington and DB D J White. The Cowboys filled those two roster spots with CB Darryl Worley and long snapper Joe Fortunato. Worley has spent 2 two years with Jacksonville and 2 years with the Oakland Raiders. He was a free agent that Dallas signed just after the draft. Fortunato had been with the Colts when he was signed. The Cowboys current long snapper L P Ladouceur is signed to come back for his 16th season with the team so Fortunato is likely nothing more than a camp body. As for Worley, he’s a 4 year NFL starter who has a build similar to the Cowboys 2020 draft picks Trevon Diggs and Reggie Robinson in the 6’1’’- 210 lbs range as it appears the Cowboys are moving toward bigger, more athletic CBs. Just about all the Cowboys CBs are capable of playing safety so it’s not beyond imagination one or more of the group could move to safety, a real position of need for the Cowboys.

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Dallas now has a veteran backup QB, Andy Dalton! Dalton was given his release by the Cincinnati Bengals earlier this offseason after 9 years. Dalton is coming back to Texas and the DFW area as he went to school at TCU. He and the Cowboys agreed to terms on a one year deal the terms of which have not yet been announced.

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The Cowboys are non-stop busy building the 2020 version of this team. On Earlier this week the Cowboys signed former Cincinnati QB Andy Dalton who was released by the Bengals last weekend as part of the aftermath of drafting LSU’s Joe Burrow with the 1st overall pick in this year’s draft. Obviously, Burrow is the QB of the future for the Bengals and Cincy, just as obviously, didn’t want to pay Dalton $17.5 MM to ride pine which is what he would most certainly have done. Dallas got him pretty cheap relatively speaks paying Dalton $3 MM in base salary. He does have incentives that could bump up that number to $7 MM but if everything goes as planned Dalton will spend the 2020 season on the sideline with a ball cap on instead of a helmet. Dalton isn’t replacing Dak Prescott, this is still Dak’s team regardless of his contract status. Dalton knows this and he’s good with it. This upgrades the QB room immediately and even though Dak has never missed a down in his 4 years in the NFL now they have someone who is a 3-time Pro Bowl player is either 1 or 2 in every Cincinnati QB stat category. The most impressive stat is that he is 2nd only to Legendary Cincy QB Ken Anderson is career wins. Anderson had 91 wins while Dalton had 71 wins. Anderson played 7 more years in Cincy than Dalton and Dalton holds the franchise record in winning percentage (.534). This is reminiscent of the Jimmy Johnson days when Dallas always had a veteran backup. From Steve Beuerlein to Rodney Peete to Randall Cunningham there was always, almost always, a quality backup. The last time Dallas had a veteran backup was in 2013 when Kyle Orton was Tony Romo’s backup. The Cowboys have a strong offensive lineup that, on paper, looks like a Super Bowl caliber team. If moves made in free agency and the draft along with the pieces they already had in place comes together Dallas has to be a favorite to go to the Super Bowl next February. One more item about Dalton, people are asking why a guy who could be starter in the NFL would settle for a backup job in Dallas? One reason is he is a native Texan born and raised in Katy TX and he went to school at TCU which is in the Fort Worth area. Dalton and his wife and 3 kids have had a home in Dallas for years so, this is a homecoming of sorts for Dalton. Win-win-win situation for the ‘Red Rocket’.

Dallas added depth to their O-line this week signing former Browns and Chiefs offensive tackle Cameron Erving. Erving was a first round pick of the Browns in 2015. In his two seasons in Cleveland Erving played guard and center with few opportunities at tackle. He also dealt with injury issues that held him back. In late August of 2017 he was traded to Kansas City for a 5th round draft pick so you would have to conclude Erving was a draft bust for the Browns. For the Chiefs Erving started 13 games at left guard in 2018 and in 2019 he made 8 starts for the Chiefs during the regular season and he earned a Super Bowl ring after KC beat the 49ers in SB LIV. KC did not exercise the option in Erving’s contract in 2020 making him a free agent. I cannot state too emphatically how good a job Will McClay and his staff has done in player acquisition. He’s done a great job for the Cowboys since he came to the Cowboys in 2009 but in Mike McCarthy’s ‘players over scheme’ philosophy McClay and his staff can focus on getting the best players available for the Cowboys rather than the Jason Garrett scheme fit philosophy. The most dramatic example of that is in the 2017 draft Dallas selected DE Taco Charlton because they needed edge rushers but in doing so they passed on T J Watt who has been a stud for the Pittsburgh Steelers. I have no doubt in my mind if McCarthy had been in Dallas Watt would have been a Cowboy because of Will McClay’s influence and due diligence. Cameron Erving brings starting experience and a SB ring to the Cowboys locker room as they have filled a need for a dependable swing tackle. Erving is the 2nd free agent signed by Dallas this offseason. Back in late March the Cowboys signed TE Blake Bell to a one year deal. The Cowboys are proceeding as if there will be a 2020 season even though if things were normal they would be holding their rookie mini-camp this week. As things lighten up in Texas and around the country where possible you have to feel like there will be football in the fall and I sure hope there is.

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There has been a lot of TV watching during this self-quarantining thing. Sometimes it isn’t so bad and sometimes you stumble on something you really like. The normal TV seasons have been cut short so there is a bucket-load of reruns and I hate reruns. I watch what episodes are left in this TV season and I watch a lot of HGTV and DIY. I am seriously tired of the same old episodes of Naked and Afraid being shown. If I hear a survivalist say one more time, “I need some protein.” I’m going to shoot my TV. These people are starving for whatever reason and they need FOOD. The desire for PROTEIN has become a cliché you wish to goodness would just go away. I digress, the bottom line is self-quarantining sucks and like everyone else I would love for a solution to this COVID-19 situation to be found so we can get back to some semblance of normal.

Being a Cowboys fan I stumbled onto a series of short films that were very interesting to me. The last two over the past two weeks was a retrospective of the game that defined Emmitt Smith as a player and aided in getting Dallas to their 2nd consecutive Super Bowl in 1993. It was a look at how Smith carried the team in the season’s last game against the NY Giants. A game that Smith played the final 2 quarters plus with a separated shoulder. Dallas won the game and earned them a division championship and a first round bye in the playoffs. The documentaries come the Cowboys website and are titled, Deep Blue. The episode with Emmitt was titled, ‘The Cold Shoulder’ and Smith’s performance on that cold January day is credited with sustaining the Cowboys march as Team of the Decade. The last episode I watched was, ‘Parcells Last Ride’ documenting Bill Parcells tenure as coach of the Cowboys. It was revealing how Parcells drove the team and how in his third year as head coach how devastating the Tony Romo fumbled snap on what would have been a game winning field goal to beat Seattle in the first round of the playoffs was to him. I was so disappointing he resigned as head football coach of the Cowboys. The important thing in the documentary was not that Bill failed at anything it was how he turned a dead-in-the-water franchise around and made it relevant again. That meant something to Bill as he said in a post-game press conference after the Cowboys beat Carolina to run their record to 8-3 guaranteeing Dallas no worse than a .500 record. At one point an emotional Parcells said, “…you can’t call the Cowboys losers anymore.” Dallas went 10-6 on the season and they made the playoffs for the first time in the new millennium. The Deep Blue documentaries can be found on the Cowboys website or on FoxSportsSouthwest on Wednesday nights at 7.

Be well and be safe.