Blogging The Boys
The Cowboys are better at drafting than their divisional counterparts, but are the other teams starting to catch up?
The Dallas Cowboys are a good football team with a talented roster, but as we have learned over the last several years, good has not been good enough. And with the two teams representing the NFC in the conference championship game both coming from their division, things aren’t getting any easier for them. The Cowboys must get better.
Recently, we discussed the idea that the Cowboys should consider spending a little more to retain their talent. Whether that means extending George Pickens and paying big money to two wide receivers. or extending DaRon Bland and paying big money to two cornerbacks, they must be willing to spend more money to retain good players.
Most are aware that the Philadelphia Eagles are big spenders. Whether it’s from trades or free agency, they go out and get talent. But it’s not just the Eagles who are being aggressive. The Washington Commanders are putting their foot on the gas as well. In fact, of their 10 most expensive players on the roster, seven of them have come from trades or free agent signings.
That’s okay. The Cowboys are draft savants. We know they’re not going to hold a candle to other teams when it comes to spending money on outside players, so as long as they dominate the draft, they’ll have some good talent.
But are they dominating the draft amongst the teams in their division? That is a question of great importance because if Dallas starts to falter in that department, it could mean bad things for an organization that puts so much weight on that part of roster building.
When you look at the most recent drafts, all the Cowboys' NFC East foes have added some quality talent. We can talk about the financial wizardry of Howie Roseman all we want, but landing two quality starting corners in Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean with back-to-back picks last year was pretty snazzy. The Commanders selected last year’s offensive rookie of the year in Jayden Daniels. Even the New York Giants are making good picks as they have landed Malik Nabers, Kayvon Thibodeaux, and Evan Neal in recent drafts.
But even with the improvement in drafting of their divisional opponents, the Cowboys have still out-drafted their division rivals over the past five seasons. When you look at the average approximate value per year (courtesy of Pro Football Reference) for each player drafted over the last five seasons (2020-2024), the Cowboys have the highest value despite having far less draft capital. This is a testament to the great job Will McClay and company do.
Some nuggets of information about the players these teams have drafted during this span.
Cowboys = 7
Eagles = 4
Commanders = 2
Giants = 2
The Cowboys have drafted almost the same number of Pro Bowlers as the rest of the division combined. And if you don’t...
