Dallas Cowboys 7-Round Mock Draft: Trade Downs and Double Ups

Tre Norwood, Safety, Oklahoma Mandatory Credit: Tim Heitman-USA TODAY Sports

6th Round, Pick 205

Tre Norwood, SAF, Oklahoma

The two defensive positions I had yet to draft were linebacker and safety. Linebacker felt like a reach no matter where I picked and the safety class is filled with box players and not rangy single-high prospects.

At this point in the draft, the options were players with defined athletic ceilings or players with developing instincts. Norwood fits the latter as the former cornerback shows good ball skills grabbing five interceptions last season for the Sooners.

In his lone season as a safety, Norwood tallied 23 total tackles, 13 solo tackles, five interceptions, two pass deflections, and one touchdown. The ball production was a lot better this season than his two past seasons as a cornerback; this explains a lot about his strengths as a player.

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Norwood clearly is stronger at playing in zone coverage standing deep center field and reacting to the QB as opposed to a wide receiver off the line of scrimmage. At 5-foot-11, 192 pounds he displays good athletic ability with good lateral quickness/change of direction, good agility, good acceleration, and solid footwork. He, unfortunately, doesn’t play bigger and struggles with play strength on tackles and leverage alleys but his running ability is a valuable asset to any team.

Norwood displays ball skills, solid range, mental processing, and athletic ability. He has his inconsistencies as free safeties but likely projects as such because of his ability to overlap routes.

That is a wrap on another mock draft. The players drafted here are quite a bit different than the one’s usually on Cowboys’ mock drafts. We don’t know who they’ve talked to so it is hard to definitively mock someone, but what that does allow us to do is to take a complex team-building exercise and approach in a multitude of different ways. The team got better but in an unorthodox fashion.