Dallas Cowboys Draft labeled ‘elite’ by Pro Football Focus
By Reid Hanson
The Dallas Cowboys earned high praise when Pro Football Focus graded their draft class, bestowing upon them the rarely awarded ‘elite’ designation.
For the Dallas Cowboys, you can never please everyone at this time of year. On draft day, nearly everyone in Cowboys Nation becomes a draft guru and often claim to know better than the powers-that-be who reside in The Star.
From the clueless to the well-regarded, draft grades and instant analysis are spewing from every corner of the football world. While many of these shouldn’t carry much weight, one respected outlet should: Pro Football Focus
Pro Football Focus (PFF) isn’t the end-all be-all in analysis and grades but they are better than most. They apply scores based on actual performance. While some graders watch stats and highlights, PFF is known to watch execution on each and every play – weather the player has the ball in his hands or not. Far from flawless, it’s a pretty good gauge to determine how good a player actually performs on the field.
Since all college film was watched months ago, grades and rankings on individual players has been available for some time now. That’s why it took no time at all kicking out grades and judgement on the performance of the 32 NFL teams this past weekend.
Cowboys’ draft was “elite”
Clearly, team needs and actual fit within particular schemes must still be factored in when determining the worthiness of a team’s draft class. But based on pure performance and value, PFF determined the Cowboys had an elite draft.
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Leighton Vander Esch may have divided Cowboys Nation but to the performance graders at PFF, it was an A+ pick. Rated as the second linebacker in the draft, LVE was among college football’s most productive players. He led FBS in in total run stops at 57 as well as in run stop percentage with 15.9 percent.
Connor Williams, drafted at pick 50, was also the second best player at his position. PFF ranked him the 15th best player overall and one of the most promising offensive linemen in the draft. Again, this was based off of his total body of work in his college career. No cheery-picking or speculation.
Michael Gallup, drafted by Dallas at pick 81, was PFF’s TOP RATED receiver in this class. His route-running ability, run blocking execution, position-flex, ability to beat a jam, and his overall success last season (100 receptions) all contributed to his top-of-the-class rating.
To find a player of his ilk in the 3rd round was nothing short of astonishing.
Mike White, Cedric Wilson, Dorance Armstrong Jr and Bo Scarbrough all provide an execution-based track record and tremendous value as to where they were picked.
Please Stand By
How these players ultimately perform at the NFL level remains to be seen, but based on their track record of performance, this draft class is nothing short of elite.
It’s important to point out, this, just like any other post-draft analysis, is lacking in some regard. Traditional grades are based on measurable and massive speculation. This one is based on execution at a lower level without looking to the future. Time will tell the tale of how good or bad this class really is. But it’s nice to see some positive fact-based analysis of this draft class today.