Blogging The Boys
Do you feel like the Cowboys addressed their major needs across the entire offseason?
It’s been almost a month since the NFL draft, and the Dallas Cowboys have done a lot to improve their roster. Leading up to the draft, we expressed some concerns about having several areas of the roster needing attention, but only having so many premium draft resources. That meant some areas would have to go unattended, but we didn’t know which ones.
As we pondered the possibilities of what position groups might be left out in the cold, we proposed the following question...
Surprisingly, the Cowboys' first two draft picks were spent on positions not shown above, and their third-round pick was used on a cornerback who may not be ready when the season starts. That means none of their premium draft resources were used to address any of these position groups with a player who can step in and immediately help them. Yikes.
But that is not to say that none of these groups were addressed. In fact, all of them were. The question becomes, are we comfortable with what the team has done to this point to get better at each of these areas of the roster?
The interesting thing about this is that when we’re talking about draft picks and rookies, we never know if a player the team selected will be the answer, even if it’s a higher draft pick (albeit, higher draft resources inspiring higher levels of confidence). That said, we can say with a reasonable amount of confidence that the trade for wide receiver George Pickens will immediately bolster the team’s passing game. What Pickens ultimately does remains a bit of a mystery, but this “headache” of a player has demonstrated great production in all three of his years in the league, and we wouldn’t expect him to backslide in an all-important contract year.
One might even suggest that Pickens could flourish this season with so much money on the line and in an offense where defenses can’t smother him like a WR1. The table is set for a strong year from the 24-year-old. The only downside for Dallas is that he is a free agent after this year, meaning the Cowboys will have to re-address this area again, and soon.
The Cowboys got a discount on the draft price of Shavon Revel Jr. due to his injury concern, but once he returns to health, he should be a good candidate to hold things down on the outside opposite an All-Pro corner. The team’s cornerback situation is very mysterious, with so many different things going on. Several players are still recovering from a knee injury, while their one healthy corner, DaRon Bland, is entering the final year of his contract.
The team has some immediate concerns at the position. Trevon Diggs probably won’t be ready to start the season. Revel Jr. might not be either. Even last year’s surprise depth...
