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By Jon Machota and Bob Sturm
With the Cowboys scheduled to hold their rookie minicamp this weekend at The Star, Cowboys writers Jon Machota and Bob Sturm got together to chat about the team’s draft, the current structure of the roster and where they still could look to improve.
Machota: Stephen Jones has said multiple times over the last few weeks that the Cowboys aren’t done in free agency. I could see them making a few more moves between now and training camp, but for the most part, this is going to be the roster of the 2022 Dallas Cowboys. So when I look at it, three position groups stand out as possibly still needing some help: offensive line, tight end and wide receiver. There are just things about those spots that it would make sense to add a veteran to any of those groups. Do those or any others stand out to you?
Sturm: Well, yeah, with respect to the offensive line, there is some tentativeness as to what we think their offensive line will look like on opening day. A lot of that comes down to three spots, and maybe a fourth if everyone wants to stress Tyron Smith’s health, but I won’t. I bravely enter every season thinking this will be the year Smith is completely healthy. Aside from Zack Martin at right guard being a Rock of Gibraltar, you have some really interesting spots. Left guard is a question of will Connor McGovern actually ever be called a starter for the Cowboys? Or are they going to hide behind the jumbo package where he’s a lead fullback all the way through his entire rookie deal despite being a third-round pick? Because if that is his ceiling, that’s a very poor third-round pick, in my opinion.
The alternative, though, is asking Tyler Smith, who had his struggles at tackle, to switch to guard at the NFL level and to do it seamlessly in his rookie year where he’s going to see some monsters that he’s never seen before lined up across from him. I would also like to talk about Tyler Biadasz. We need to see some strides from him. But we’re definitely being told not to sleep on the progress of Matt Farniok. They seem to think he made real progress behind the scenes this past year. He had a really solid Week 18 at Philadelphia. Whether it’s at guard or center, most likely center is where the competition is open, I wonder if they see him really pushing Biadasz at camp.
Machota: They see him as competition at center. If the season started today, I believe he’d be their backup center. They also added undrafted rookie free-agent centers Alec Lindstrom and James Empey. It’s not a secret that the center position wasn’t great for the Cowboys last year. They brought in Nebraska center Cam Jurgens, who ended up being the 51st pick in the draft, as one of their 30 pre-draft visitors. If they had drafted him, it would have been for him to start. It’s not settled at that spot, but with Farniok, I want to see it before I believe it. If offensive line Joe Philbin prefers Farniok, then like Terence Steele taking over at right tackle, he’ll get the opportunity to run with the starters in training camp.
Sturm: I go back to the Terence Steele stuff with Biadasz just like with Connor McGovern and Connor Williams. I don’t mind paying for veteran contracts up front if they meet a certain threshold. If they don’t, I also certainly don’t mind you bringing in competition every couple years, because what ultimately happens if you don’t draft somebody to push Biadasz, somebody to push McGovern, if you don’t have a plan there then you kind of end up with the Dalton Schultz situation where you’re paying a veteran probably more than you wanted to, almost because you’ve allowed the cupboard to be completely bare behind him. And that’s just not good business. I don’t mean to slander Schultz. I’m very happy that he has $11 million for this year, but I still have a hard time convincing myself that he’s a franchise tag caliber tight end. I almost wonder if signing him to a long-term deal to try to get that number down is throwing crazy money after crazy money. I don’t love that.
So I think part of what the spring teaches us is kind of the conveyor belt concept of roster building where if somebody gets to a Micah Parsons level, you stop looking for somebody to push them and you don’t mind paying them. But those guys in the middle tier, even the guys who start for you but don’t start well enough, I think you have to be willing to walk away from them after four years and hopefully have somebody a year into your system where they can step in and replace. I think that’s the way to do it.
Machota: In regards to the offensive line, if they still had La’el Collins and even Connor Williams, you at least have some starting experience to fall back on. I just think with the current offensive line, there’s a lot of projecting going on. And maybe that only sticks out because this team over the last decade has been pretty solidified up front. Taking Tyler Smith in the first round, there’s just a lot of projection on what they hope he can be. He might end up eventually becoming a standout left tackle or guard, but they need him to be good immediately.
The reason I mentioned tight end and wide receiver is just because I know they want two starting-caliber tight ends. They were hoping it would be Schultz and Blake Jarwin. But now, I’m wondering if that No. 2 guy behind Schultz is going to be Jake Ferguson, their fourth-round pick, or Sean McKeon or Jeremy Sprinkle? And then I mention wide receiver mainly because of the Michael Gallup injury. If he was completely healthy, I’d be fine with what they have, but he might miss several games to start the season. That means you’re going to need a lot right away from James Washington and Jalen Tolbert. And that’s a little concerning.
Michael Gallup (Geoff Burke / USA Today)
Sturm: Another place they didn’t address that’s still wild to me is running back. We do have to consider the fact that Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard could be playing their last season in Dallas. And this was a good chance for them to use one of those fifth-round picks on a running back. They never pulled the trigger on that. If you’re following your board, that’s great. I’ve got no problem with that. But that kind of surprised me. Maybe it’s their confidence in Rico Dowdle and belief that they have guys in house, but I guess I anticipated running back to be one of their plays on Day 3.
Machota: I think the way they’ll address it if Elliott and Pollard are both gone after this season is by using a second- or third-round pick next year on the position and expecting that player to step in and start immediately. Nobody should be expecting that player to put up the numbers Elliott did his rookie season, but there’s some quality value at running back in the second and third rounds. Maybe that’s the way they look at it. I also didn’t hate what they did with their four fifth-round picks. I think the biggest question with those four is Matt Waletzko, just because it’s difficult to project what he’s going to be. I just don’t think they loved any of the running backs at that point in the draft. Speaking of the draft, I was wondering if you have a favorite and least favorite of their nine picks.
Sturm: That’s interesting to me. I think my favorite is Jalen Tolbert because I really like his upside. There is a chance for them to sort of duplicate what they did with Michael Gallup, which is get him in the 80s and basically pull off at least second-round and maybe end of first-round value from a wide receiver that just about every team passed on three times. That’s a very talented player that I think they can really profit from if this turns out correctly. Least favorite, I’ve certainly said my peace about Tyler Smith. After listening to him talk, I don’t want to say I have completely changed my tune, but now I catch myself really rooting for him and hoping that he’s exactly what they want him to be.
Honestly, I have a hard time saying least favorite across the board, but I would say that Sam Williams, after really digging into the fact that many, many teams did not have him on their board at all, I do think it’s interesting that Dallas continues to take guys that other teams are afraid to take and take those chances on Day 2 like they really seem to enjoy. There was some very disconcerting information that a lot of teams seem to say about Sam Williams that they were not touching him. Dallas still ran in there with great courage, so I don’t want to say I think it’s going to fail, I just get very nervous when I hear a giant portion of the league wanted nothing to do with the young man.
Machota: My least favorite would be Tyler Smith. And I agree with what you said, I was very impressed with his press conference. And then even after that, I’ve heard a lot of positives about him. He definitely has a chance to be successful. I just feel there were players available at 24 that would have made a bigger immediate impact, like Jermaine Johnson or George Karlaftis. Maybe this works out and Smith ends up being their left guard of today and left tackle of the future. But that was my least favorite pick.
My favorite was also Tolbert, but since you named him, I’ll go with Damone Clark. We’ve seen the Cowboys use their second-round pick on players with injury or off-the-field concerns, like this year, but the fifth round is a great time to take a gamble like this. If he doesn’t end up being the player he was last season at LSU, you wasted a fifth-round pick, but the upside is that you might get an eventual starter. They have Leighton Vander Esch under contract for one year, so there’s not an immediate need with Clark. In 2023, their linebackers could be Parsons, Jabril Cox and Clark. The upside of that trio is pretty impressive.
Sturm: I agree. That’s a good call on your part. With Pick 24, I have to be honest, when I saw Jermaine Johnson falling, I did talk myself into Johnson or Karlaftis, perhaps helping fill that Randy Gregory void. They went the other way, and obviously, to hear them talk, Tyler Smith very possibly would have been their pick even if Zion Johnson and Kenyon Green were there. And I believe them. They love Tyler Smith. I probably would’ve gotten an edge rusher there because I’m not as convinced that the edges available at 56 were going to be the type of guys you wanted to commit to. I have to tell you, in all my years judging players on tape before the draft, I’ve never seen a team so over the moon about a prospect that seemed to have flawed tape like the Cowboys with Tyler Smith. When they bet that hard on a guy, you almost are willing to concede what you probably don’t know and just sit back and see how it works out for them. They have bet hard on Tyler Smith, don’t you think?
Tyler Smith (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Machota: Absolutely. They’re putting a lot on their offensive line coaches to bring him along and there have to be some questions about that with the way the offensive line played last season. Most thought the Cowboys would make some offensive line coaching changes this offseason because of how badly that group performed. And it will only look worse if they have just as many issues, or more, this year and La’el Collins is playing well in Cincinnati and Connor Williams is playing better in Miami. I have my doubts about the Cowboys offensive line issues being fixed in one offseason, and if they’re not much improved, the team is probably not going any further than it did a year ago.
Sturm: That’s a good point, and I’ll take it a step further and say that I think there’s a great chance, based on what I’ve seen that Tyler Smith is a guard for his whole career. And if it’s a long career, then they did the right thing. But I just don’t see the future left tackle. I think that’s great optimism, but let’s see, I guess.
With the Cowboys scheduled to hold their rookie minicamp this weekend at The Star, Cowboys writers Jon Machota and Bob Sturm got together to chat about the team’s draft, the current structure of the roster and where they still could look to improve.
Machota: Stephen Jones has said multiple times over the last few weeks that the Cowboys aren’t done in free agency. I could see them making a few more moves between now and training camp, but for the most part, this is going to be the roster of the 2022 Dallas Cowboys. So when I look at it, three position groups stand out as possibly still needing some help: offensive line, tight end and wide receiver. There are just things about those spots that it would make sense to add a veteran to any of those groups. Do those or any others stand out to you?
Sturm: Well, yeah, with respect to the offensive line, there is some tentativeness as to what we think their offensive line will look like on opening day. A lot of that comes down to three spots, and maybe a fourth if everyone wants to stress Tyron Smith’s health, but I won’t. I bravely enter every season thinking this will be the year Smith is completely healthy. Aside from Zack Martin at right guard being a Rock of Gibraltar, you have some really interesting spots. Left guard is a question of will Connor McGovern actually ever be called a starter for the Cowboys? Or are they going to hide behind the jumbo package where he’s a lead fullback all the way through his entire rookie deal despite being a third-round pick? Because if that is his ceiling, that’s a very poor third-round pick, in my opinion.
The alternative, though, is asking Tyler Smith, who had his struggles at tackle, to switch to guard at the NFL level and to do it seamlessly in his rookie year where he’s going to see some monsters that he’s never seen before lined up across from him. I would also like to talk about Tyler Biadasz. We need to see some strides from him. But we’re definitely being told not to sleep on the progress of Matt Farniok. They seem to think he made real progress behind the scenes this past year. He had a really solid Week 18 at Philadelphia. Whether it’s at guard or center, most likely center is where the competition is open, I wonder if they see him really pushing Biadasz at camp.
Machota: They see him as competition at center. If the season started today, I believe he’d be their backup center. They also added undrafted rookie free-agent centers Alec Lindstrom and James Empey. It’s not a secret that the center position wasn’t great for the Cowboys last year. They brought in Nebraska center Cam Jurgens, who ended up being the 51st pick in the draft, as one of their 30 pre-draft visitors. If they had drafted him, it would have been for him to start. It’s not settled at that spot, but with Farniok, I want to see it before I believe it. If offensive line Joe Philbin prefers Farniok, then like Terence Steele taking over at right tackle, he’ll get the opportunity to run with the starters in training camp.
Sturm: I go back to the Terence Steele stuff with Biadasz just like with Connor McGovern and Connor Williams. I don’t mind paying for veteran contracts up front if they meet a certain threshold. If they don’t, I also certainly don’t mind you bringing in competition every couple years, because what ultimately happens if you don’t draft somebody to push Biadasz, somebody to push McGovern, if you don’t have a plan there then you kind of end up with the Dalton Schultz situation where you’re paying a veteran probably more than you wanted to, almost because you’ve allowed the cupboard to be completely bare behind him. And that’s just not good business. I don’t mean to slander Schultz. I’m very happy that he has $11 million for this year, but I still have a hard time convincing myself that he’s a franchise tag caliber tight end. I almost wonder if signing him to a long-term deal to try to get that number down is throwing crazy money after crazy money. I don’t love that.
So I think part of what the spring teaches us is kind of the conveyor belt concept of roster building where if somebody gets to a Micah Parsons level, you stop looking for somebody to push them and you don’t mind paying them. But those guys in the middle tier, even the guys who start for you but don’t start well enough, I think you have to be willing to walk away from them after four years and hopefully have somebody a year into your system where they can step in and replace. I think that’s the way to do it.
Machota: In regards to the offensive line, if they still had La’el Collins and even Connor Williams, you at least have some starting experience to fall back on. I just think with the current offensive line, there’s a lot of projecting going on. And maybe that only sticks out because this team over the last decade has been pretty solidified up front. Taking Tyler Smith in the first round, there’s just a lot of projection on what they hope he can be. He might end up eventually becoming a standout left tackle or guard, but they need him to be good immediately.
The reason I mentioned tight end and wide receiver is just because I know they want two starting-caliber tight ends. They were hoping it would be Schultz and Blake Jarwin. But now, I’m wondering if that No. 2 guy behind Schultz is going to be Jake Ferguson, their fourth-round pick, or Sean McKeon or Jeremy Sprinkle? And then I mention wide receiver mainly because of the Michael Gallup injury. If he was completely healthy, I’d be fine with what they have, but he might miss several games to start the season. That means you’re going to need a lot right away from James Washington and Jalen Tolbert. And that’s a little concerning.
Michael Gallup (Geoff Burke / USA Today)
Sturm: Another place they didn’t address that’s still wild to me is running back. We do have to consider the fact that Ezekiel Elliott and Tony Pollard could be playing their last season in Dallas. And this was a good chance for them to use one of those fifth-round picks on a running back. They never pulled the trigger on that. If you’re following your board, that’s great. I’ve got no problem with that. But that kind of surprised me. Maybe it’s their confidence in Rico Dowdle and belief that they have guys in house, but I guess I anticipated running back to be one of their plays on Day 3.
Machota: I think the way they’ll address it if Elliott and Pollard are both gone after this season is by using a second- or third-round pick next year on the position and expecting that player to step in and start immediately. Nobody should be expecting that player to put up the numbers Elliott did his rookie season, but there’s some quality value at running back in the second and third rounds. Maybe that’s the way they look at it. I also didn’t hate what they did with their four fifth-round picks. I think the biggest question with those four is Matt Waletzko, just because it’s difficult to project what he’s going to be. I just don’t think they loved any of the running backs at that point in the draft. Speaking of the draft, I was wondering if you have a favorite and least favorite of their nine picks.
Sturm: That’s interesting to me. I think my favorite is Jalen Tolbert because I really like his upside. There is a chance for them to sort of duplicate what they did with Michael Gallup, which is get him in the 80s and basically pull off at least second-round and maybe end of first-round value from a wide receiver that just about every team passed on three times. That’s a very talented player that I think they can really profit from if this turns out correctly. Least favorite, I’ve certainly said my peace about Tyler Smith. After listening to him talk, I don’t want to say I have completely changed my tune, but now I catch myself really rooting for him and hoping that he’s exactly what they want him to be.
Honestly, I have a hard time saying least favorite across the board, but I would say that Sam Williams, after really digging into the fact that many, many teams did not have him on their board at all, I do think it’s interesting that Dallas continues to take guys that other teams are afraid to take and take those chances on Day 2 like they really seem to enjoy. There was some very disconcerting information that a lot of teams seem to say about Sam Williams that they were not touching him. Dallas still ran in there with great courage, so I don’t want to say I think it’s going to fail, I just get very nervous when I hear a giant portion of the league wanted nothing to do with the young man.
Machota: My least favorite would be Tyler Smith. And I agree with what you said, I was very impressed with his press conference. And then even after that, I’ve heard a lot of positives about him. He definitely has a chance to be successful. I just feel there were players available at 24 that would have made a bigger immediate impact, like Jermaine Johnson or George Karlaftis. Maybe this works out and Smith ends up being their left guard of today and left tackle of the future. But that was my least favorite pick.
My favorite was also Tolbert, but since you named him, I’ll go with Damone Clark. We’ve seen the Cowboys use their second-round pick on players with injury or off-the-field concerns, like this year, but the fifth round is a great time to take a gamble like this. If he doesn’t end up being the player he was last season at LSU, you wasted a fifth-round pick, but the upside is that you might get an eventual starter. They have Leighton Vander Esch under contract for one year, so there’s not an immediate need with Clark. In 2023, their linebackers could be Parsons, Jabril Cox and Clark. The upside of that trio is pretty impressive.
Sturm: I agree. That’s a good call on your part. With Pick 24, I have to be honest, when I saw Jermaine Johnson falling, I did talk myself into Johnson or Karlaftis, perhaps helping fill that Randy Gregory void. They went the other way, and obviously, to hear them talk, Tyler Smith very possibly would have been their pick even if Zion Johnson and Kenyon Green were there. And I believe them. They love Tyler Smith. I probably would’ve gotten an edge rusher there because I’m not as convinced that the edges available at 56 were going to be the type of guys you wanted to commit to. I have to tell you, in all my years judging players on tape before the draft, I’ve never seen a team so over the moon about a prospect that seemed to have flawed tape like the Cowboys with Tyler Smith. When they bet that hard on a guy, you almost are willing to concede what you probably don’t know and just sit back and see how it works out for them. They have bet hard on Tyler Smith, don’t you think?
Tyler Smith (Kirby Lee / USA Today)
Machota: Absolutely. They’re putting a lot on their offensive line coaches to bring him along and there have to be some questions about that with the way the offensive line played last season. Most thought the Cowboys would make some offensive line coaching changes this offseason because of how badly that group performed. And it will only look worse if they have just as many issues, or more, this year and La’el Collins is playing well in Cincinnati and Connor Williams is playing better in Miami. I have my doubts about the Cowboys offensive line issues being fixed in one offseason, and if they’re not much improved, the team is probably not going any further than it did a year ago.
Sturm: That’s a good point, and I’ll take it a step further and say that I think there’s a great chance, based on what I’ve seen that Tyler Smith is a guard for his whole career. And if it’s a long career, then they did the right thing. But I just don’t see the future left tackle. I think that’s great optimism, but let’s see, I guess.
