Dallas Cowboys Draft: Without a trade back, top-5 pick almost pointless

Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports /
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If the Dallas Cowboys don’t trade back, a top-5 pick seems almost pointless.

For a few weeks now, a large segment of Dallas Cowboys fans have been focused on the draft. With about half of the roster stuck on IR by October, little hope remained that the Cowboys could ever field a legitimate team this season. And even if the NFC East was winnable at one point, doing so all but guaranteed a first round exit and resulted in a drop to 19th in the 2021 NFL Draft.

With the loss on Tuesday night, the Dallas Cowboys have solidified their positioning in the cellar of the NFC East. And with only a 2% chance of making the playoffs (according to fivethirtyeight’s most recent calculation), even the staunchest of Dallas Cowboys supporters are ready to wave the white flag and admit defeat.

As things stand today, the 3-9 Dallas Cowboys are positioned for the 4th pick in the draft next spring. For fans who’ve long ago given up on the season, this comes as good news. For those who’ve been resistant to join “Team Tank”, this serves as a pleasant consolation prize.

The debate in Cowboys Nation now becomes what to do with the pick. Some will, no doubt, want to hold fast and take the best possible player. Others are hoping to take advantage of the quarterback rich first round and trade back with a QB needy team. I’m here to make the case for the latter…

Trade Back

Unless you’re in the market for a QB or LT, there’s not much for you inside the top-10. To make matters even worse, there’s but one OT in that top echelon, and he’s probably off the board by PIck 3. While Dak Prescott remains unsigned, most are expecting him to stay in Dallas this coming season and beyond, so the chances of Dallas being interested in one of those top QBs this year aren’t great.

What this tells us is if the Dallas Cowboys have a pick somewhere between 4-10, there’s no single player that jumps out at you. Generally speaking, there’s not much of a difference between a guy you draft at No. 4 and a guy you can get at No. 13. So the entire idea of tanking to move up to No. 4 really doesn’t matter much…unless you trade back to get more picks.

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Like I’ve said, teams will be eager to move up in the draft if they’re looking for a franchise QB, so it’s likely there will be a trade market for the Cowboys. And since there is such little difference between anyone rated 4-13, it’s in the Cowboys’ best interests to trade back and collect an extra top-50 pick or two.

Otherwise, what’s the point of getting that top-5 pick anyway?

If there was a clear shut-down cornerback in this draft or if there was an elite defensive tackle in the top10, then this would be a different story. But the reality is, no DTs in this draft look worthy of a first round pick and the top 2 CBs this year are both flawed and a step below the normal CB1 and CB2 you’ll see in most drafts.

Next. Cowboys Draft: Which team might want to trade up for a QB ?. dark

If you want the Dallas Cowboys to get the best pick they can this year, then you should also want them to trade down because the way things look now, there’s not much of a difference between the 4th pick and the 13th pick.

  • Published on 12/09/2020 at 12:44 PM
  • Last updated at 12/09/2020 at 18:08 PM