Dallas Cowboys 7-Round Mock Draft: Dak Prescott unsigned and tagged

Dallas Cowboys 7-Round Mock Draft

Round 3, Pick 74

EDGE Dayo Odeyingbo

6-foot-6, 276 lbs

The Dallas Cowboys don’t have an immediate or apparent need at defensive end with Randy Gregory and DeMarcus Lawrence locked in. But with Aldon Smith likely leaving and Tyrone Crawford leaving (a year too late) you have major depth and rotational concerns.

The Cowboys could go a number of directions here:

1. They can try to find a pure edge rusher who can start by playing situationally on passing downs
2. or they can get an early down player who can kick inside in passing situations.

The first one doesn’t make a ton of sense since Randy Gregory is one of the most productive pass rusher in the NFL and the last thing you want to do is take him off the field on passing downs. The second type of guy makes perfect sense since he’d be essentially taking over Crawford’s old role and we know Dallas loves to move their ends inside on passing downs.

That’s what makes Dayo Odeyingbo so attractive.

Dayo is fairly untested and possibly a diamond in the rough. He didn’t get many chances to rush the passer at Vanderbilt so his pass-rush numbers are understandably low. His pass-rush win rate was just slightly above average at 13.9% but that should increase with more chances on obvious passing downs.

He has strong and active hands and a good arsenal of moves. He split his time on the line playing 220 snaps outside and 208 inside. For a team like Dallas that values position flex, this is an attractive trait for a young prospect. He has a build that could hold more weight if the Cowboys wanted to make him a 3-tech DT fulltime too.