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Lest there be any question that the Cowboys have diverted their philosophical approach to player selection, look no further than the past few days and the 2021 NFL Draft. This is absolutely not the old regime of Jason Garrett and his mighty men.
The new management group still features much of the front office filled with familiar scouts, but the head coach and his new defensive coordinator are both from other systems and did things their own ways. Garrett used to speak about leaders of men and team captains from the college ranks that the Cowboys would often put at a premium. Occasionally, they would veer off that track as the Jones family might persuade, but overall, the Cowboys would generally not mess with guys who could not check all the boxes that verified what kind of human they might be.
On Thursday, we talked at great length about Micah Parsons, but the general feeling in his case is that if he did not have some kind of an off-the-field issue, he would be very much a perfect prospect. Competitive, superior athleticism and, yes, groomed through the Penn State Linebacker school after being a five-star recruit — Parsons is pretty close to ideal.
Now, we must summarize a Day 2 when the Cowboys had substantial draft capital and decided to continue to hit the defensive prospects in this draft, trying to make this rebuild under new coordinator Dan Quinn exactly what they hoped to achieve.
The pursuits seem clear. They want to identify players who fit the templates perfectly. Whether their templates are correct or not will be determined in the years to come, but what I desire from a front office is a clear and concise plan. You are not drafting to please the “industrial draft complex” that we have constructed on the outside. You are drafting to put a defense on the field that can quickly rise in form because of the men who have been added with picks that have been earned.
The posture also seems clear. The Cowboys have intimated all through this process that they want to throw numbers at their problems, which are two-fold: They have a defense that needs many prospects to present a new wave of quality, and they don’t have a very big budget to get it done. In other words, they want cheap labor that’s also quality labor. There is only one way to do that in professional football, and that is to draft multiple prospects and watch them work on rookie deals — especially those who can be found on Day 2 and Day 3, where the rookie contracts are relatively small.
To do that, they must hold their water. On Friday, the Cowboys had the third-most draft capital in the league for Rounds 2-7, behind only Jacksonville and Miami. This allowed them — if they elected to do so — to package their 10 remaining picks (four on Friday, six on Saturday) to go get their guy in a trade up or to intentionally stay put and let the draft come to them, which would allow them to bring as many as 10 bodies to camp that met their template checkmarks.
But patience on draft day has no enthusiasts. There is nothing exciting or endearing about conservative approaches. Rather, the public wants aggressive trades up the board for players who have a national conversation verifying their quality and popularity. Go get this guy — a local safety like impressive TCU prospect Trevon Moehrig would have scored well in the instant reaction department — but the Cowboys stood pat, and Moehrig was taken when Las Vegas traded right in front of them. The Raiders came from No. 48 and added a fourth to sneak in front of the Cowboys at No. 44, getting a player many of us liked quite a bit. Moehrig is arguably the best safety in the draft. Richie Grant from UCF went to Atlanta (Quinn’s old workplace) at pick No. 40. With 20 minutes before Dallas’ pick, it appeared the Cowboys could have either one, but by the time their turn arrived, both players were gone. It resembled what happened Thursday night with Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain II.
Was Dallas devastated to see Moehrig and Grant gone and that safety would not get addressed again? Not at all. The Cowboys seemed unruffled by the situation and turned in the name of cornerback Kelvin Joseph from Kentucky. We may never know if they placed the safety in front of the corner, but I would love to wildly speculate here. I think there is a very good chance they would have taken Joseph either way.
The issue was always going to be that their chief priority to play defense properly was cornerback. They had to add talent after losing Byron Jones and Chidobe Awuzie, the two biggest corner investments from draft days gone by before Trevon Diggs last season. We know Diggs is very much part of the new group — even if he predated Quinn, he certainly matched the template.
The interest in improving safety was well up the list. But when the first round kept Horn and Surtain from the roster, you could see the uneasiness of knowing that the crop of starting corners never goes very deep. They might have been quickly going down the list of veteran free agents to chase next week because either they get their guy in Round 2 or maybe it will be missed. And that is something that is pretty tough to navigate around for another draft cycle. They need a lot of spots, but getting a second outside corner was probably as high as any priority.
After Horn and Surtain, three more corners — Caleb Farley, Greg Newsome and Eric Stokes — went on Day 1. Stokes going that high felt a little surprising, but that meant the top five corners would already be gone. Rumors of Tyson Campbell being high on several teams’ wishlists made it clear he would go early Friday. He did, in the first pick of Day 2 to Jacksonville.
That left a shortlist of options. The Cowboys tried not to burn any of their third-round picks in an effort to make sure that one of the remaining corners got to them. The issues of Thursday could emerge again if they just sat there. You could get all the way cleaned out as you sit at No. 44, to a point where you might just want to trade out of there again.
Campbell went at No. 33, so if any other corners would be chosen, it would probably empty out the shelf of the Cowboys’ highest priority entering this draft. Any chance at adding a corner who might go right into the starting lineup would likely not be found in Round 3 or later. That is seldom how this works. They had to get a corner by trading up or standing still.
Luckily for them, it fell into place this time when there was a brief run on offensive and defensive linemen. Five linemen were taken from picks 37 to 43, as well as the two safeties (Grant, Moehrig). That left a highly valued player on the Cowboys’ board — Joseph.
Like Parsons, Joseph has all the attributes. He is a corner with a wide wingspan and tremendous speed and athleticism. He runs like few on the roster and finds the football. Four interceptions in the SEC this year at Kentucky verify his ball skills, competitiveness and the traits Dallas desires. Here are his testing scores with percentiles for NFL corners:
He is a cornerback version of Parsons in many ways, including immaturity issues off the field that scared off some teams. Joseph started his college career at LSU. He was suspended from the 2019 Fiesta Bowl and later entered the transfer portal. Dallas saw him as one of its fallbacks in the event it couldn’t get a corner in Round 1 — the Cowboys felt like the No. 44 might be their last chance to make it happen at a ready-to-play level. He has plenty to learn and clean up, but my profile suggests the upside is high. I really liked him:
He has all the makings on tape of a big-time outside corner who may need development. He is a top athlete who has a big streak of competitiveness that you look for. He is not flawless, but we expect he will go quickly. I might be on the fringes here, but I think he should be in the SECOND ROUND grade mix, but that’s certainly not for everyone.
Not to oversimplify, because the defensive players the Cowboys took in Round 3 will gain the close examination soon, but the draft may come down to Joseph’s outcome. If he is a plug-and-play starter who is at Diggs’ level (No. 51 pick last year after being thought to be a first-round consideration), then Dallas will have added two corners and a linebacker who introduce speed and playmaking at a level that was not here 12 months ago. That might be enough to turn this thing around quickly.
Read what Bob McGinn’s scouts review had to say. Joseph is clearly a player with a chance for greatness:
“He’s as talented as the top three guys,” a third scout said. “He’s got a little bit of inconsistency in his play, but when it was time to play against the big receivers, he would step up to the challenge.”
“As talented as the top three guys” is a bold claim, but watching his tape makes me nod. He is talented, and that is what a cornerback must be these days. And he finds the ball.
Dallas wanted a safety. It needed a corner. Did the Cowboys do the right thing and let the safeties go to grab Joseph?
They will absolutely be criticized if they got this one wrong. The rebuild depends on this pick.
They might rue the day they didn’t show “go get your guy” aggressiveness in the war room. This draft approach seems dissimilar from how the old guard did it, which probably needed to happen. Now, they have speed and playmaking, but they have also ignored some off-the-field red flags.
If that juggling act can be performed well, the profits could be very high. But many on the outside have been made nervous with this approach.
The Cowboys have to make it work.
The new management group still features much of the front office filled with familiar scouts, but the head coach and his new defensive coordinator are both from other systems and did things their own ways. Garrett used to speak about leaders of men and team captains from the college ranks that the Cowboys would often put at a premium. Occasionally, they would veer off that track as the Jones family might persuade, but overall, the Cowboys would generally not mess with guys who could not check all the boxes that verified what kind of human they might be.
On Thursday, we talked at great length about Micah Parsons, but the general feeling in his case is that if he did not have some kind of an off-the-field issue, he would be very much a perfect prospect. Competitive, superior athleticism and, yes, groomed through the Penn State Linebacker school after being a five-star recruit — Parsons is pretty close to ideal.
Now, we must summarize a Day 2 when the Cowboys had substantial draft capital and decided to continue to hit the defensive prospects in this draft, trying to make this rebuild under new coordinator Dan Quinn exactly what they hoped to achieve.
The pursuits seem clear. They want to identify players who fit the templates perfectly. Whether their templates are correct or not will be determined in the years to come, but what I desire from a front office is a clear and concise plan. You are not drafting to please the “industrial draft complex” that we have constructed on the outside. You are drafting to put a defense on the field that can quickly rise in form because of the men who have been added with picks that have been earned.
The posture also seems clear. The Cowboys have intimated all through this process that they want to throw numbers at their problems, which are two-fold: They have a defense that needs many prospects to present a new wave of quality, and they don’t have a very big budget to get it done. In other words, they want cheap labor that’s also quality labor. There is only one way to do that in professional football, and that is to draft multiple prospects and watch them work on rookie deals — especially those who can be found on Day 2 and Day 3, where the rookie contracts are relatively small.
To do that, they must hold their water. On Friday, the Cowboys had the third-most draft capital in the league for Rounds 2-7, behind only Jacksonville and Miami. This allowed them — if they elected to do so — to package their 10 remaining picks (four on Friday, six on Saturday) to go get their guy in a trade up or to intentionally stay put and let the draft come to them, which would allow them to bring as many as 10 bodies to camp that met their template checkmarks.
But patience on draft day has no enthusiasts. There is nothing exciting or endearing about conservative approaches. Rather, the public wants aggressive trades up the board for players who have a national conversation verifying their quality and popularity. Go get this guy — a local safety like impressive TCU prospect Trevon Moehrig would have scored well in the instant reaction department — but the Cowboys stood pat, and Moehrig was taken when Las Vegas traded right in front of them. The Raiders came from No. 48 and added a fourth to sneak in front of the Cowboys at No. 44, getting a player many of us liked quite a bit. Moehrig is arguably the best safety in the draft. Richie Grant from UCF went to Atlanta (Quinn’s old workplace) at pick No. 40. With 20 minutes before Dallas’ pick, it appeared the Cowboys could have either one, but by the time their turn arrived, both players were gone. It resembled what happened Thursday night with Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain II.
Was Dallas devastated to see Moehrig and Grant gone and that safety would not get addressed again? Not at all. The Cowboys seemed unruffled by the situation and turned in the name of cornerback Kelvin Joseph from Kentucky. We may never know if they placed the safety in front of the corner, but I would love to wildly speculate here. I think there is a very good chance they would have taken Joseph either way.
The issue was always going to be that their chief priority to play defense properly was cornerback. They had to add talent after losing Byron Jones and Chidobe Awuzie, the two biggest corner investments from draft days gone by before Trevon Diggs last season. We know Diggs is very much part of the new group — even if he predated Quinn, he certainly matched the template.
The interest in improving safety was well up the list. But when the first round kept Horn and Surtain from the roster, you could see the uneasiness of knowing that the crop of starting corners never goes very deep. They might have been quickly going down the list of veteran free agents to chase next week because either they get their guy in Round 2 or maybe it will be missed. And that is something that is pretty tough to navigate around for another draft cycle. They need a lot of spots, but getting a second outside corner was probably as high as any priority.
After Horn and Surtain, three more corners — Caleb Farley, Greg Newsome and Eric Stokes — went on Day 1. Stokes going that high felt a little surprising, but that meant the top five corners would already be gone. Rumors of Tyson Campbell being high on several teams’ wishlists made it clear he would go early Friday. He did, in the first pick of Day 2 to Jacksonville.
That left a shortlist of options. The Cowboys tried not to burn any of their third-round picks in an effort to make sure that one of the remaining corners got to them. The issues of Thursday could emerge again if they just sat there. You could get all the way cleaned out as you sit at No. 44, to a point where you might just want to trade out of there again.
Campbell went at No. 33, so if any other corners would be chosen, it would probably empty out the shelf of the Cowboys’ highest priority entering this draft. Any chance at adding a corner who might go right into the starting lineup would likely not be found in Round 3 or later. That is seldom how this works. They had to get a corner by trading up or standing still.
Luckily for them, it fell into place this time when there was a brief run on offensive and defensive linemen. Five linemen were taken from picks 37 to 43, as well as the two safeties (Grant, Moehrig). That left a highly valued player on the Cowboys’ board — Joseph.
Like Parsons, Joseph has all the attributes. He is a corner with a wide wingspan and tremendous speed and athleticism. He runs like few on the roster and finds the football. Four interceptions in the SEC this year at Kentucky verify his ball skills, competitiveness and the traits Dallas desires. Here are his testing scores with percentiles for NFL corners:
| CATEGORY | MEASUREMENT | PERCENTILE |
|---|---|---|
| Height | 5-11 1/2 | 57th |
| Weight | 197 pounds | 68th |
| Wingspan | 77 1/8 inches | 73rd |
| Arm length | 31 7/8 inches | 67th |
| Hand size | 9 1/4 inches | 59th |
| 10-yard split | 1.44 seconds | 98th |
| 20-yard split | 2.48 seconds | 97th |
| 40-yard dash | 4.35 seconds | 92nd |
| Vertical jump | 35 inches | 37th |
| Broad jump | 128 inches | 85th |
| 3-cone drill | 7.21 seconds | 7th |
| 20-yard shuttle | 4.23 seconds | 36th |
He is a cornerback version of Parsons in many ways, including immaturity issues off the field that scared off some teams. Joseph started his college career at LSU. He was suspended from the 2019 Fiesta Bowl and later entered the transfer portal. Dallas saw him as one of its fallbacks in the event it couldn’t get a corner in Round 1 — the Cowboys felt like the No. 44 might be their last chance to make it happen at a ready-to-play level. He has plenty to learn and clean up, but my profile suggests the upside is high. I really liked him:
He has all the makings on tape of a big-time outside corner who may need development. He is a top athlete who has a big streak of competitiveness that you look for. He is not flawless, but we expect he will go quickly. I might be on the fringes here, but I think he should be in the SECOND ROUND grade mix, but that’s certainly not for everyone.
Not to oversimplify, because the defensive players the Cowboys took in Round 3 will gain the close examination soon, but the draft may come down to Joseph’s outcome. If he is a plug-and-play starter who is at Diggs’ level (No. 51 pick last year after being thought to be a first-round consideration), then Dallas will have added two corners and a linebacker who introduce speed and playmaking at a level that was not here 12 months ago. That might be enough to turn this thing around quickly.
Read what Bob McGinn’s scouts review had to say. Joseph is clearly a player with a chance for greatness:
“He’s as talented as the top three guys,” a third scout said. “He’s got a little bit of inconsistency in his play, but when it was time to play against the big receivers, he would step up to the challenge.”
“As talented as the top three guys” is a bold claim, but watching his tape makes me nod. He is talented, and that is what a cornerback must be these days. And he finds the ball.
Dallas wanted a safety. It needed a corner. Did the Cowboys do the right thing and let the safeties go to grab Joseph?
They will absolutely be criticized if they got this one wrong. The rebuild depends on this pick.
They might rue the day they didn’t show “go get your guy” aggressiveness in the war room. This draft approach seems dissimilar from how the old guard did it, which probably needed to happen. Now, they have speed and playmaking, but they have also ignored some off-the-field red flags.
If that juggling act can be performed well, the profits could be very high. But many on the outside have been made nervous with this approach.
The Cowboys have to make it work.
