[h=1]Cowboys Draft Digest, Volume 2: 2019 offers a deep crop of top-level defensive tackles[/h]
By Bob Sturm Feb 14, 2019
Each week during the buildup to the NFL Draft, we will take a look at around five prospects. The hope is to cover what we perceive as the very best players in this spring’s draft, as well as the Dallas Cowboys’ positions of greatest need in the first three rounds, using about 200 snaps of the most recent college tape from each prospect. I am certainly not an NFL scout, but I have found over the years that much can be learned from dedicating a few hours to each player and really studying how he might fit at the next level. With a little luck, we will be plenty familiar with the options when the draft arrives in late April.
This week, we aspire to study five players from the deep crop of elite defensive tackles available in the 2019 NFL Draft. It can be dangerous to speculate which positions have depth and which don’t before the combine, but it would seem from first glance that if you want to stack the players by level of talent to identify this draft’s 32 best, you will find that the lion’s share in 2019 will be made up of defensive linemen. Last week we looked at five edge players and have many more to examine, but this week we shall analyze five defensive tackles.
Aaron Donald was once the subject of my pre-draft fascination back in 2014. Here is what
I wrote in an entry like this one:
“I promised to find negatives, and I know people don’t want their tackles to be 6’1 if they can help it, but he wins with leverage so much that I am fine with his stature. If you want to know who the dream target should be for the Dallas Cowboys when they get to the clock, it is Pitt’s Aaron Donald. And, it appears he might have a chance due to his height and run stopping warts that some have seen. But a guy who averages almost two destructive plays per game over four years in school? Sign me up.”
Donald went 13th in the draft. The Cowboys stayed put and selected Zack Martin at 16 after having Ryan Shazier snagged from under their nose a pick earlier. All three players have been exceptional, leaving us to ask why 12 picks went off the board before any of them. Among the early busts are Oklahoma State’s Justin Gilbert (who is out of the NFL) and Central Florida’s Blake Bortles (who might follow him soon).
Regardless, the draft game is never easy. But, evaluating Donald was for me. If I was going to ever invest in a defensive tackle high in the draft, he had better be making explosive splash plays in the backfield with sacks and tackles for loss. It would be nice if he would force some fumbles as well. Donald has won Defensive Player of the Year in 2017 and 2018, and is coming off a ridiculous 20.5 sack season in which he wrecked everything in his path after getting his big contract.
Here is a list of all of the defensive tackle seasons in the last four years that have resulted in seven sacks or more. There have been 21 in the entire league (about five per season):