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Figuring out the Cowboys’ draft strategy.
Picking at No. 12 for the first time since 2021 when the team selected Micah Parsons, the Cowboys will be looking to get an impact player with their first-round selection that can step in an provide an immediate presence in 2025.
“You’re always looking for game changers when you’re picking 12th,” Schottenheimer said. “We don’t want to ever pick 12th again, let’s be honest. You’re looking for guys that influence the game. How do you influence the game? You rush the quarterback and you get sacks, strip sacks, fumbles, whatever it is. You score touchdowns.”
As positional value continues to be a hot topic around draft time about if certain positions such as running back, tight end or safety should be avoided with such a premium first-round pick, the Cowboys have direct recent history in being a part of that conversation. In 2016, the team drafted running back Ezekiel Elliott with the fourth overall pick, and despite Elliott having a productive career for Dallas, the debate about that pick being a wise one still exists. With another need for an early round running back heading into the 2025 NFL Draft nine years later, the Cowboys are not writing off any position group if a player is there at No. 12.
“There can be exceptions at any position,” Jerry Jones said. “We had no plans to draft a tweener between a linebacker and a pass rusher [in 2021]. Micah Parsons got there...Frankly, we were a little light in our evaluation of CeeDee [Lamb in 2020] just because we thought if he were there, we’d go there.”
“That’s just what the draft is. You are sitting there and you get an opportunity that if you’re doing your job, you thought about all opportunities, you looked around the corners on your roster now and years to come. So all of those things pretty much make it a wide open position to draft [any] player.”
The annual NFL rule changes are summarized here.
No more CeeDee Lamb “nose wipe” celebration
This change was not something voted upon by NFL owners in Palm Beach, but CeeDee Lamb’s favorite celebration, the “nose wipe”, was banned in the league’s rule book after being categorized as a “violent gesture.”
The NFL’s executive vice president of football operations Troy Vincent added that the celebration had “gang connotations” this week. Additionally, the rule change added throat slashes and brandishing a gun as new terminology to the ban, which if performed will now result in a 15-yard penalty.
Changes to the dynamic kickoff rule
The league viewed the new dynamic kickoff as a...
