Cowboys 1st & 10: A Peek the NFL Draft

A 'way-too-early' look at what the Dallas Cowboys 'could' do in 2021 via the NFL Draft

The Dallas Cowboys, mercifully, are on a bye week. That means you don’t have to watch them lose this week.

Too harsh? Maybe. But, still, enjoy your weekend. While you do that, I spent the week thinking ahead to the 2021 NFL Draft.

1) Draft Time

If the season ended today (mercifully), the Cowboys would have the No. 3 overall pick, which would be their highest overall pick since selecting at No. 4 in 2016 when they picked running back Ezekiel Elliott. So the Cowboys still have some time to ‘screw that up,’ or to engage in some good old-fashioned ‘organic tanking.’

So, with that in mind, I headed over to thedraftnetwork.com and did my own Cowboys mock draft, a full seven-round draft. My goal was just to see what might be out there. Here are the results of the first three rounds.

1 - No. 3 overall – OT Penei Sewell, Oregon

2 - No. 35 overall – CB Shaun Wade, Ohio State

3 - No. 67 overall — LB Jabril Cox, LSU

Those first three picks catch a few key areas. Sewell could prove a ready heir to Tyron Smith’s left tackle position. Or, the Cowboys could slide Sewell inside and move Zack Martin outside when the time comes (and it may be coming sooner than any of us realize). Wade may end up being a first-round pick by April. But, if he slides into the second round, like Alabama’s Trevon Diggs did this year, well, there’s a new starter for the secondary. Cox is an incredibly rangy defender who won national championships at North Dakota State before transferring to LSU this season. He will have no problem fitting into whatever system the Cowboys decide to play.

I would be very happy with those three selections, if that’s how the draft fell out. But, after that, the mock draft I did got interesting.

In my mock draft, the Cowboys ended up with seven more selections, which sounds odd, right? You likely know that the Cowboys have made several trades that impact 2021. For instance, the Eagles have the Cowboys’ fifth-round pick, but the Cowboys have the Eagles’ fourth-round pick. The Cowboys also dealt their sixth-rounder to New England last season for defensive end Michael Bennett, but the Cowboys successfully replaced that by dealing Everson Griffen to Detroit a couple of weeks ago (that sixth-rounder is conditional and it could become a fifth-rounder). The Cowboys dealt their seventh-rounder to Houston for defensive tackle Eli Ankou.

But the Cowboys have a bit of an ace this year — compensatory picks in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth rounds due to free agency losses in the 2020 offseason. That, by my count, gives them seven more selections. This is how the rest of the draft played out

S Paris Ford, Pitt

Edge Myjai Sanders, Cincinnati

Edge Daelin Hayes, Notre Dame

CB T.J. Carter Memphis

DL Cory Durden, Florida State

Edge Chris Rumph, Duke

WR Marquez Stevenson, Houston

With the remaining seven picks I picked up edge rushers, more help on the interior defensive line, more help in the secondary and an intriguing offensive player in Stevenson.

There is potential, given the large number of selections, that the Cowboys could accumulate two or three immediate starters, a wealth of depth or package some of the picks to move up in the draft.

There is a lot of real estate between now and next April.

But, hey, any silver lining at this point, right?

2) The Cowboys in a Word

Who would have thought possibly getting a top-five NFL Draft selection would have been in the cards for the 2020 Dallas Cowboys? And as a result of it all ... What is one word you'd use to describe the current 2-7 Cowboys?

Our CowboysSI.com staff description words range, tremendously... Yet somehow, they all fit this unprecedented year and season.

Click here to check out the words we used.

3) Check out the Cowboy Maven Top 60 All-Time Dallas Cowboys

We published our Top 60 Dallas Cowboys of all-time as part of our celebration of the Cowboys’ 60 seasons in Dallas. We presented the Top 60 in groups of five. We hope you enjoyed the series and if you have an opinion, take them to our Cowboy Maven community or hit me up on Twitter at @PostinsPostcard.

If you missed any of the stories in our Top 60, just click on them below.

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 56-60

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 51-55

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 46-50

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 41-45

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 36-40

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 31-35

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 26-30

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 21-25

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 16-20

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 11-15

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 6-10

➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 1-5

4) Diggs Down

Speaking of the aforementioned Diggs ... hopefully this won't slow his development.

➡️ Cowboys Rookie CB Diggs Could Be Out For Season

Chido Awuzie will hopefully be fine and back to replace Diggs for this week's game at Minnesota. But Diggs has been fun to watch.

5) The Dak Commitment

Hey everyone, No matter how high Dallas drafts, it won't be for a QB. Jerry and Stephen Jones have both made that clear.

➡️ 'It'd Be Crazy' For Cowboys To Draft QB With Dak Here - Jerry

That doesn't keep us from arguing. But I think they are telling their truth.

6) Locked On Cowboys Podcast This Week

Are the Dallas Cowboys really “getting better”?

That was the overwhelming sentiment in the postgame locker room after Sundays loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

But ... do we see it that way?

In an episode earlier this week of the "Locked On Cowboys'' podcast, hosts Marcus Mosher and Landon McCool dig into the Cowboys’ Week 9 home loss to the powerful Steelers with what might be called a “more critical eye.”

But that wasn’t all.

The Dallas Cowboys were dealt a serious blow to their defense with the possibility that they are losing rookie starting cornerback Trevon Diggs to a foot injury, potentially for the rest of the NFL season.

But ... as the Locked On Cowboys podcast noted in their All-22 notes from the Cowboys' Week 9 loss vs. Pittsburgh, they did see some positives with help on the way ... including from another rookie or two.

Listen by clicking here.

Midseason awards? What few there are the Locked On gang handed them out in this podcast.

Finally, Mosher and McCool did a great deal of Dallas assessment, on the one hand digging into a relatively macro issue, and on the other hand digging into a micro one. The issue — who should be quarterback after the Cowboys come back from bye week.

You can listen to that by clicking here.

7) Things that will help you get through the bye week

If you’re still trying to figure out how you’re going to get through the bye week, here is some great content to get you there:

➡️ Is Cowboys Coach McCarthy Really an ‘Analytics Guy’?

➡️ BREAKING: Tyrone Crawford Moved To Cowboys COVID List

➡️ Cowboys Claim Young Pass-Rusher Via Waivers

➡️ Cowboys Midseason Power Rankings - And Those Injuries

8) Keeping Aldon

From our Mike Fisher:

The Dallas Cowboys' claim of "turning down offers'' for Aldon Smith just before the NFL Trade Deadline is the stuff that future negotiations are made of.

The claim makes it much easier for ownership to attempt to extend or re-sign the "rescue-project'' Smith to a new deal for 2021 and beyond, the Joneses being able to say, "Not only did we give you a second chance in the NFL, but we believe in you so strongly that we wouldn't even listen to trade offers!''

But there is some mythology here that gets in the way of the facts, and some truths here that make an Aldon Smith re-signing more complicated than it seems.

Read more by clicking here.

9) Whitt's End: Why This Is Worst Cowboys Bye Week - Ever

From our Richie Whitt:

Bye = Bad. The Dallas Cowboys’ bye rarely comes this late. And it’s never arrived this lousy.

At 2-7 and with arguably their two best offensive players (Dak Prescott and Tyron Smith) not coming back, the Cowboys’ season is kaput. Usually, the bye week is a time to heal injuries, survey the standings and recalibrate for the upcoming stretch. But with JV talent like Terence Steele and Saivion Smith on the field, this situation is hopeless.

How bad exactly?

Since the NFL introduced the off week in 1990, this is the bleakest Cowboys’ bye week. In the previous 30 seasons, they have never been five games under .500. Not even close.

In 2001-02 – fondly remembered as the days of Dave Campo and Quincy Carter – they were three games under .500 at the bye. Both 1-4 in 2001 and 3-6 in 2002 resulted in 5-11. Never has an in-season pause prompted so many Cowboys to consider not the future of this season, but the prospects of next season.

Read Whitt’s End by clicking here.

10) Tweet Of The Week

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr"><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Cowboys?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Cowboys</a> C Tyler Biadasz made <a href="https://twitter.com/PFF?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@PFF</a>&#39;s All-Rookie Team. <br><br>A lot of promising signs from him this early in his career. <a href="https://t.co/YG7bkMqsgx">pic.twitter.com/YG7bkMqsgx</a></p>&mdash; Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) <a href="https://twitter.com/Marcus_Mosher/status/1326991286583382018?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 12, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

I mean, it’s something, right?

Wanna talk Cowboys? Hit up Postins on Twitter at @PostinsPostcard and Mike Fisher on Twitter @FishSports