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Dallas Cowboys Draft: 7 Wide Receivers for 7 Rounds

By Adithya Prabakaran

INDIANAPOLIS, IN - FEBRUARY 27: Wide receiver Justin Jefferson of LSU runs the 40-yard dash during the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 27, 2020 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
INDIANAPOLIS, IN - FEBRUARY 27: Wide receiver Justin Jefferson of LSU runs the 40-yard dash during the NFL Scouting Combine at Lucas Oil Stadium on February 27, 2020 in Indianapolis, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Kentucky
Lynn Bowden, Wide Receiver (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Lynn Bowden, Kentucky

Round Grade: 6th round

Value: Reach

Percent of Trials Available: 80%

Perhaps the most questionable prospect on this  list, former Kentucky Wildcat wide receiver/wildcat quarterback is slotted to the Cowboys. Bowden was available on 80 percent of the trials I ran, but that number was referring to the compensatory pick the team has later in the round. WIth the team’s original fifth round pick, Bowden was available 100 percent of the time.

Even then, why Bowden and why so early? Later on day 3, teams are always looking for athletic guys to draft with the hope they can develop into something or they can provide special teams value. Bowden can help in both those facets.

The 5-foot-11, 204 prospect has good size to play slot receiver in the NFL. His stature is awfully similar to another Kentucky product that was drafted by a Mike McCarthy-run football team. That Wildcat product also played quarterback in high school and provided some positional versatility coming out of college. (The player was former Cowboys receiver Randall Cobb if you didn’t know)

Bowden would provide a lot of what Cobb provided for the team last season. A big bodied slot receiver who could win with physicality mid-route, he can also line up at running back and carry the ball on fly and jet sweeps. (Cobb didn’t do much of that last season, but he did do that in Green Bay)

Bowden is currently a bigger project than Cobb was coming out of college, but the rate at which Bowden is growing as a player and as an individual is noteworthy. In high school, he was seen as a trouble maker who didn’t have much care for the world. Once he got to Lexington, he learned the value of hard work and how it should supplment talent. This led him to an impressive sophomore campaign where he caught 67 receptions for 745 yards and five touchdowns.

While those numbers might seem relatively pedestrian, Bowden had only caught 17 passes the previous season and he was the leading receiver of the team responsible for 35 percent of the team’s receiving production. To think he was a quarterback not even two years before.

Bowden is a bit technically raw and needs to learn how to be a fluid route runner if he wants to have success at the next level. Currently, the Cowboys might not have the time for Bowden to completely develop into an ideal slot receiver. However, if he was drafted by the team he could give Kellen Moore a creative chess piece. This would feel reminiscent to why the team drafted Tony Pollard in the previous draft.

That sounds fun!

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