Cowboys Top 5 Draft Needs: Re-Make The Secondary

Our Top 5 Dallas Cowboys NFL Draft needs for 2021 - and the need for help is, well, almost everywhere

FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys are 3-8, and the front office is (privately) already looking ahead to 2021 - and a top-five pick is at stake now.

Where are there needs? Is "everywhere'' a good enough answer? No, let's be more specific.

1. Cornerback

This year’s second-round pick, Trevon Diggs, has an injury that may keep him out the rest of the season. But Diggs will be back and he will be a starter in 2021 (right now Diggs leads the Cowboys in interceptions with two, and that’s a larger issue with the defense’s inability to create turnovers). 

Diggs could use a running buddy who is superior to Anthony Brown, and a high first-round draft pick could be just the trick.

Cornerbacks Chidobe Awuzie and Jourdan Lewis in particular are free agents. Our Mike Fisher has reported that some inside The Star think Awuzie was slow to return from injury.

The Cowboys will be fast, we bet, in transforming the cornerback spot next year.

2. Defensive line

We're nudging the defensive line as a high-pick possibility here in part because the Cowboys are in a position where they could grab an impact pass rusher in the first or second round.

READ MORE: Cowboys' Future With Aldon Smith: More Complicated Than It Seems

But there's more: The Cowboys are making noise about keeping Aldon Smith after this season, but CowboysSI.com has reported that he might have different thoughts. But there are other priorities on the defensive line as well. Is Tyrone Crawford's time up? Can somebody like Ron’Dell Carter be kept and step up?

3. Left tackle

The position the Cowboys are in at left tackle has gotten worse. Tyron Smith is out for the rest of the season. Smith will be 31 next season, will have played 11 seasons by then and will have missed 26 games due to injury since 2016 -including this time with neck surgery.

Can Dallas move people (Connor Williams?) to that position? Can Dallas move on from Tyron? (There’s a dead money issue if the Cowboys choose to cut Smith after this season, as overthecap.com has Smith’s dead cap hit being $8.9 million if the Cowboys cut him before June 1, 2021. Can somebody on this roster develop?

FOX's Troy Aikman said during Thursday’s game that Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy doesn’t like to give his tackles a lot of help. That's fine if your tackles are Tyron and La'el Collins (also gone for the year, as Zack Martin might now be as well).

READ MORE: Cowboys' 'Best Player' On Crutches; Martin Could Miss A Month

If you’re drafting to replace Smith, you need a player with the skill set to execute without constant help - an unrealistic demand.

4. Safety

We separate the cornerback and safety position because both are priorities in their own right - but safety might be a bit less of a priority right now as Donovan Wilson has come on. 

READ MORE: 'Hit Man': Are Cowboys Unleashing A 'Stud' on Defense?

McCarthy says he's "a stud.'' Is Xavier Woods one as well?

We say Wilson has emerged as an intriguing player. We say Woods is solid. We say Dallas' secondary is among the poorest in football ... so "stud'' talk is cheap.

5. Linebacker

Leighton Vander Esch is back, but he’s an injury risk. The starters next year will be Vander Esch and Jaylon Smith, and that comes with some risks, too, given Jaylon's ups and downs.

For those of you who are reading "reports'' that the Cowboys might cut Jaylon after this season, good luck with that. Our calculations say it's more than $9 million in dead money in 2021 to go that direction.

Dallas will have a volume of picks. And Dallas figures to pick high. There are not problems there. The holes ... too many of them for what three months ago was considered a "championship roster'' ... mean lots of problems that might not be fixed with two April snaps of the Draft Day fingers.