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By Jon Machota and Bob Sturm 43m ago
During a Cowboys conversation last week, The Athletic’s Jon Machota and Bob Sturm discussed all of the offensive possibilities for Dallas with the 24th overall pick. Machota and Sturm now take a look at what makes the most sense from a defensive perspective.
Machota: Scrolling through the list of the Cowboys’ official 30 pre-draft visitors, there were some surprises. And one of them was Georgia defensive tackle Jordan Davis. Not that there’s anything wrong with Davis, he makes a lot of sense if he’s still available at 24. It’s just that we haven’t seen the Cowboys draft a defensive tackle in the first round since Russell Maryland in 1991. I’d be just fine with Davis being the pick. Do you think Cowboys fans should be thrilled if he’s the guy they end up drafting in the first round?
Sturm: He’s obviously a very unique player. If you’re the Cowboys, and more specifically defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, are you looking for a very unique player to sort of put this over the top? Because if you are, there’s no question that this is a guy who is a force of nature. Everything they say about the guy is true. He’s 6-6, 350 pounds and he even has a pass-rush component to his game. He certainly is a dominant player. The issue, of course, would be how much he’s been used. Even at Georgia, he did not play anything close to full-time. There are some elements to his game that would give you a little pause, but I think you probably go back to: Do I trust Dan Quinn or not? And another element to this that I think is worth debating is what would he do to the linebacker play?
If Micah Parsons is this good without anyone letting him run free, what would a player like Jordan Davis do to occupy guys up front to allow your linebackers to just run and feed? I said earlier in the draft season that I don’t think he’s Vita Vea (Buccaneers Pro Bowl DT who was the 12th overall pick in 2018), because I don’t think Vita Vea is duplicated anywhere, and I think he has more pass-rush ability and more mobility and even more conditioning, more higher snap usage available. But if you want to talk about a force of nature with a motor, that’s a first-round player there in Davis. He’s special, unique and I think at 24, that would be a pretty nice get.
Machota: I’m glad you mentioned linebacker because of the linebackers on their 30-visit list, the only one I thought would be a consideration at 24 is Devin Lloyd out of Utah. For me, I’d rather they take Jordan Davis over Lloyd, if it comes down to that. Not only do I think Davis would help Parsons and the rest of the linebackers run free and improve the team’s overall run defense, but I think it would elevate the play of the rest of the defensive line, adding a defensive tackle that could draw double teams. Neville Gallimore is a solid-to-good player and I think the same could be expected from Osa Odighizuwa. But to have the type of game-wrecker that Davis could be, that would be tough to pass. It’s been a while since Dallas has had a guy like that in the middle. Where would you go if it came down to Davis or Lloyd?
Sturm: I agree with you. I would go Jordan Davis there. I like Devin Lloyd. He’s a very fine football player. I like Nakobe Dean from Georgia more, and I would caution us to consider that there might be a smokescreen here because I kind of see Lloyd as a guy who might play a little more of Parsons’ spot. He’s a very good athlete. He can rush from the edge, he can play all three downs. There’s a lot to like about Lloyd. But it feels slightly more redundant than a guy like Dean. I would also tell people that when you look at your first-round pick, you have to look at what you currently have in the cupboard.
And what you currently have is another year of Leighton Vander Esch and maybe even more exciting is Jabril Cox. I know he’s coming off a knee injury, but with his speed and his ability to get sideline to sideline, I kind of like their investment in last year’s draft. To me, unless I’m getting a real difference-maker I don’t think I want to use a top-100 pick on another linebacker, just from an asset allocation standpoint. I’d rather look at that line and then I’d look at safety before I’d come back to linebacker. But if Dan Quinn is pounding the table for Lloyd, that would be quite a persuasive argument, to say the least.
Machota: Let’s talk about the edge rushers. It didn’t help the Cowboys’ chances of getting one of this year’s top pass-rushing prospects when Michigan’s David Ojabo injured his Achilles at his pro day last month. He’s expected to miss the start of the 2022 season. With him likely out of consideration, most mock drafts have him projected to go early second round, I think the only other possibilities would be Florida State’s Jermaine Johnson or Purdue’s George Karlaftis. Both are projected to go between 10 and 20, but maybe one of them falls into Dallas’ lap. I think the edge rusher position is so valuable that if either of those guys are there, I think that should be the pick. Do you feel the same way?
Sturm: Karlaftis is absolutely a stud. I realize he’s been dinged a little bit for some testing scores. His wingspan and arm length are not quite what people are looking for, but this kid is a dynamic athlete. I saw a lot of that when he was at Purdue. He’s just a real infectious worker. I don’t have any issue with him at 24. In fact, that might be one of the pound-the-table-type guys. He’s very strong, strong hands, a pure power player. He’s a real force against the run and yet his pass rush moves are pretty well developed. Where is he not great? There’s a little bit of stiffness and a little game conditioning in terms of did he make huge plays late in the game as much as early or was he sort of punched out three hours into his day? I think that’s where you get into the NFL game and the NFL weight room and even the rotation usage at the NFL level that maybe Purdue did not have available for him. Maybe he was playing too many snaps.
Jermaine Johnson has been a little more of an acquired taste for me because I liked him, but I wasn’t sure I loved him until we got to the workouts and kind of saw the type of player he is. He is a one-year player at Florida State after a couple of years at Georgia. Almost like Alabama wide receiver Jameson Williams, who transferred from Ohio State, this is just maybe finding a good fit somewhere where they really cut you loose, because Johnson’s year at Florida State was just wonderful. He checks all the boxes. He was great at the Senior Bowl. I think there is something to go with there. For me, it’s the quiet stretches that bothered me a little bit. But when you look at his full body of work, you say this is probably what we’re looking for, especially with his pass rush. The Dante Fowler signing does sort of provide the Cowboys a year ramping up of maybe a more project-type edge rusher. I don’t know if that would talk me into Ojabo with their second-round pick, but with Fowler, kind of like with Keanu Neal or Damontae Kazee last year, you can sort of hedge your draft pick bets a little bit by having that one year player in front of your rookie and therefore you’re not putting everything on your rookie. Your thoughts?
George Karlaftis (Marc Lebryk / USA Today)
Machota: I agree with that. I found it interesting that none of their 30 pre-draft visitors are first-round type edge rushers. They’re guys they’d likely be targeting in the second round or later. But if Johnson or Karlaftis somehow fell to 24, they don’t need a 30 visit, I think they’d be comfortable there like they were two years ago when CeeDee Lamb fell to them at 17. Having Dante Fowler for a year is great, but if you can get one of those guys at 24, you have to make that move. But to your point, Fowler is good protection in case they don’t find any immediate edge-rushing help in this draft class. In regards to Ojabo, I’d be all about drafting him if he fell to Pick 56. I think there’s a ton of upside there, as long as they feel good about the medical checks on his injury. And that just fits with how the Cowboys have done business in the past in the second round, whether it be with Jaylon Smith in 2016 or Sean Lee in 2010. The Cowboys have proven that they like taking chances on guys in the second round that have fallen because of an injury or off-field situation.
I don’t see much of a need to get into defensive backs at 24 just because of what they have on the current roster and the other areas they’d likely value over corner or safety this year in the first round. And I believe they’re going offense at 24 anyway, probably offensive line or wide receiver. But if they were going to go defense, of all the names we just discussed, which would be your pick? For me, it would be Johnson or Karlaftis just because of the value I put on edge rusher. But what about for you?
Sturm: Would you say Johnson and Karlaftis over Jordan Davis?
Machota: I would. Yes.
Sturm: If I had to pick a guy it would probably be Karlaftis, then Davis and then Johnson. Those three would please me the most on defense, unless Dallas utilizes that smokescreen and takes Dean. That is an exciting player. I can’t imagine having him and Micah Parsons joined at the hip for the next several years. You’re talking Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright. You’re talking Luke Kuechly, Thomas Davis type stuff. That would be phenomenal.
Machota: If they took Dean or Lloyd there at 24, that would make me think there’s probably a little more edge rushing for Parsons in Year 2. Would you feel the same way?
Sturm: Yeah, I would. And I’d be cool with that. Not that it would be a positional move, but one where they feel good enough that the linebacker position is well taken care of so that they can go pedal to the metal on putting Parsons wherever they want for any given situation. That would be pretty exciting to me. I tend to agree with you as far as the secondary, but if they did roll back and say the deep safety position with Dax Hill from Michigan or Lewis Cine from Georgia or Jalen Pitre from Baylor, those are top-50 guys to me and I could be very pleased with any of them. In the past when we’ve looked at defense, we’ve often been frustrated that the Cowboys have a very predictable and frankly somewhat boring approach to their defensive personnel. I want to say with Quinn and Parsons, now we’re thinking they could literally look at any of these game-changing defenders and make it work because now we’ve seen it done. So it’s a little more exciting to consider defense in 2022, yet I think I agree with you that as far as asset allocation on Days 1 and 2, we should expect almost all the picks, if not all, are most likely going to go to the offensive side of the ball.
