The Cowboys held their annual pre-draft press conference earlier today and the most significant portions of the conference to me revolved around where the Cowboys are selecting this year, at #27.
According to Jerry Jones, picking at 27 increases the chance of the Cowboys moving up or down in the draft, more than it did at #16 last season. The other interesting tidbit from the conference was when Jerry said coming away with a running back in this draft is not a must; conversely he said coming away with defensive help is a must however.
Now we know some of the stuff coming out from Owners and GMs prior to the draft could all be smokescreens, but let’s run with this for now.
Let’s say Jerry means what he does in regards to running backs, and let’s assume the Cowboys want to trade up for a defensive player of significance who they feel will be a game changer on defense. Who could the Cowboys possibly feel they need to trade up for and more importantly, how high are the Cowboys willing to move up?
To me, the Cowboys won’t want to give up future picks, so let’s max out the trade up to include our #27 and #60 pick to move up into the #17-18 range, you may need to throw in a 3rd day pick to massage it, as we’ve seen several trades that do not follow the trade chart to the exact values in recent years.
We’ talking San Diego Chargers and Kansas City Chiefs. To me this is the range where we could see some cornerbacks come off the board. I have a feeling this trade up in this scenario would be for Kevin Johnson, CB, Wake Forest or it could be for Bud Dupree, DE, Kentucky. The shocker could be if Todd Gurley is still on the board and the Cowboys move up and pass on him – can you imagine?
So from picks #17-21, you can look at giving up this year’s #60 to move up.
I’m not saying the Cowboys should move that far up and give up their 2nd round pick, but this could be where they have set their max out. Obviously, the Cowboys will watch how the draft plays out and they could end up just trading a few spots up and lose a 3rd round pick like the 2010 draft where we moved to 24 from 27.
Whatever the Cowboys end up doing, we need to come away with an impact player on defense, one that will start and make a difference on defense.
Ideally, I would rather stay at 27 and make a pick or trade down and accumulate a 2nd or 3rd round pick. Jerry did say trading down was also a possibility, so we’ll see what happens.
How far up would you trade up? What’s the most you are willing to give up to move up and for who?
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