2026 Draft Week Chatter Thread...

Yea we had an excellent draft and anybody who doesn't see that is probably just caught up in whatever pre-draft ranking they had with Lawrence at 45 or whatever.

Yeah, I get why some don't love the Lawrence pick. They were late to the party. What I would question is, who did you like better at pick 23 for the Cowboys that would have made things better? If you say, well they should have taken Mesidor at 20 and not traded down, I'll take Lawrence, Moore and LT Overton over that any day. But I'd also take Lawrence over Mesidor because of age, fit and all that stuff. Nothing personal against Mesidor just my opinion.

But if you go off of pick 23 who should that Cowboys have taken that would make the pick an A+ pick? Certainly not Concepcion, Thieneman, Rutledge. Those guys are not at positions we would have taken. So next possible player would be Chris Johnson. But where is he playing? He isn't playing the nickel over Downs. I guess you could argue he is better than Bland and/or Revel. But I think the Cowboys think higher of those guys than to replace them right now. So Chris Johnson at that point is just insurance for Bland/Revel not being good.

Next defenders are Peter Woods and Keldric Faulk. And I'm sure if we picked Faulk or Woods they would grade it better. Because these are two players that have gone in the opposite direction. Before the year, potential top 10 picks. By the end of the year they were late firsts. They were basically going in the reverse of Lawrence. But I'll bet on Lawrence over both of those guys.

Anyway, I think those that rank the Lawrence pick as a reach really just don't know Lawrence that well and don't understand the fit for a 3-4 scheme being perfect. And I get it, before the season no one was talking about Lawrence as a first round pick and so they were late in recognizing that NFL teams did view him as a first round pick.
 
The one pick if I could go back and change it would be the Shelton pick. And I know we have all tossed around names that we would have liked there. But for me if you swap Shelton for Elijah Sarratt or Mike Washington Jr. this becomes an A+ draft. I think Washington could be your #2 RB and Sarratt in my opinion is a guy I have confidence will be a top 3 receiver on a roster. Not that he is the level to replace Pickens a year from now but at minimum a couple years from now I think he is filling one of those top 3 spots on the depth chart (Flournoy has 2 years left I believe and obviously Pickens is year to year right now).

I'm just not high on Shelton. My hope is he can carve out a Doug Free like career here. I know the Cowboys are high on Shelton and had him as a third round prospect. I think he has been working with Duke so they have a pretty good understanding of the guy. And ultimately I hope the pick works out. When I watch him, I just don't see the vision of a guy who does much of what I like.
 
The one pick if I could go back and change it would be the Shelton pick. And I know we have all tossed around names that we would have liked there. But for me if you swap Shelton for Elijah Sarratt or Mike Washington Jr. this becomes an A+ draft. I think Washington could be your #2 RB and Sarratt in my opinion is a guy I have confidence will be a top 3 receiver on a roster. Not that he is the level to replace Pickens a year from now but at minimum a couple years from now I think he is filling one of those top 3 spots on the depth chart (Flournoy has 2 years left I believe and obviously Pickens is year to year right now).

I'm just not high on Shelton. My hope is he can carve out a Doug Free like career here. I know the Cowboys are high on Shelton and had him as a third round prospect. I think he has been working with Duke so they have a pretty good understanding of the guy. And ultimately I hope the pick works out. When I watch him, I just don't see the vision of a guy who does much of what I like.

If Shelton turns into a Free-caliber player he'd be more valuable than a WR or RB, but I'm very skeptical of that.

I wouldn't be surprised if part of it was throwing Adams a bone given how the offense was basically ignored all off-season.
 
If Shelton turns into a Free-caliber player he'd be more valuable than a WR or RB, but I'm very skeptical of that.

I wouldn't be surprised if part of it was throwing Adams a bone given how the offense was basically ignored all off-season.

Yeah, I mean Doug Free in the fourth round is a steal. I doubt that's what he becomes but I'd love to see it.

I don't mind throwing offense a bone and that's why I mentioned WR/RB. I think there were some really good players left at those positions. Guys I feel much more confident getting actual playing time on the field. I just don't have the vision for Shelton. But I know our O-line coach really likes him back to his college days and trying to recruit Shelton. So, I wonder a bit if it wasn't his pet cat. Again, I think they had a 3 on him on the board. If that's the case he better work out or they need to start looking at whoever is evaluating the O-lineman on day 3 of the draft.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if part of it was throwing Adams a bone given how the offense was basically ignored all off-season.


I think it was more than throwing Adams a bone, I think they went into the draft determined to take tackle on day 3 and this was the guy they liked that was left given they had a 3rd round grade on him.

I've defended the Shelton pick but even I think the third would have been too high and would have been pissed if they took him there.

But in the 4th I think that's right around where he should have gone and I think his upside is higher than most of us seem to think. He struggles with consistency and keeping his stances and technique where it should be and I think some of that is his lack of power.

But you can see the athleticism and there's some skills to work with.

Every tackle at that point in the draft is going to have flaws.
 
If Klayton Adams is on board, I'm fine with it. Not so sure about the OL coach or what difference his recruiting the player would make, but if Adams strongly approved also, I feel okay about it.
 
I think it was more than throwing Adams a bone, I think they went into the draft determined to take tackle on day 3 and this was the guy they liked that was left given they had a 3rd round grade on him.

I've defended the Shelton pick but even I think the third would have been too high and would have been pissed if they took him there.

But in the 4th I think that's right around where he should have gone and I think his upside is higher than most of us seem to think. He struggles with consistency and keeping his stances and technique where it should be and I think some of that is his lack of power.

But you can see the athleticism and there's some skills to work with.

Every tackle at that point in the draft is going to have flaws.

I don't think it was a ridiculous reach, I just would've went elsewhere if it was me.

I wanted a developmental OT though and if that's who they like, so be it.
 
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