Dallas Cowboys Mock Draft: All the rounds, all the fun (Reid 2.0)
By Reid Hanson
Round 3, Pick 90 overall
Emanuel Hall
Wide Receiver
Missouri
Key players off the board: Jace Steinberger, Lil’ Jordan Humphrey, S Juan Thornhill, S Luka Denis, WR JJ Arcega-whiteside
After going defense in the second round, I almost felt compelled to go pass-catcher here at Pick 90. Since my favorite tight end prospects are long off the board and I expect Cole Beasley to leave in free agency, receiver was the clear choice.
The Cowboys must invest in WR and TE this offseason. Even with Amari Cooper on the roster, I can’t think of a time the Cowboys had a pass-catching group this unimpressive at any point in the last 15-years
— Reid D Hanson (@ReidDHanson) February 3, 2019
Just like last year, the third round is going to be the sweet spot for receivers. There are about half-a-dozen who reside in the Day 2 category and a couple are going to be sitting on the board when Dallas goes on the clock in the third.
Emanuel Hall is someone who’s high on some boards and low on some others. The 6’2” wide out is one of the fastest, shiftiest, and most explosive players in this draft. But he’s unrefined and basically a one-trick pony for 2019 while he develops (hence his availability) .
Hall has a knack for making corners look silly. He doesn’t run a full route tree at Missouri so he’ll need to work on that with Sanjay Lal in Dallas, but you can’t teach speed and quickness and Hall has that in spades. The dude always gets open.
Besides being a deep threat, Hall is strong on slants and double-moves. He’s physical in blocking and fighting off press coverage, he can return kicks and handle those jet-sweeps we all know and love. While he’s not a plug-and-play slot man to replace Cole Beasley, he can be an immediate deep threat at the Z with potential for much more down the road.
If the Dallas Cowboys let Cole and Tavon Austin walk, they can slide Amari Cooper inside when in 11 personnel (which is roughly 60% of the time) where Amari thrives. Then Michael Gallup would occupy the X and any combination of Hall and Cedrick Wilson would play the Z (This is a topic I plan to handle in better detail next week, so stay tuned if this might interest you).
This pick doesn’t need to be Emanuel Hall specifically. I expect huge value at WR to fall here so any number of WR options could work. The important thing to keep in mind is it doesn’t NEED to be a slot receiver and the Dallas Cowboys should draft whoever projects the best regardless of specific receiver position.
Just like we predicted last season, someone good is going to fall to them in Round 3. If my top receiving targets are gone at Pick 58, I know I can get one here