With mere hours remaining until the Combine gets rolling, it's time to crank out my first Cowboys mock draft of the year. Of course, coming before the Combine, it's even more worthless than usual, but I wanted to get a sense of the talent pool heading into the Underwear Olympics.
On paper, Dallas has some clear needs despite their 13-win season. Their pass rush remains an issue. The secondary wasn't great to begin with, and is set to lose a raft of free agents. Jason Witten won't last forever at tight end. Depth at wide receiver is also likely to addressed, and they could probably use a developmental QB since Dak Prescott turned out to be anything but.
This mock was done on Fanspeak using their standard board, and user-voted need lists for each team. Without further ado, here's what I came away with:
Round 1 (pick 28): Teez Tabor, CB, Florida. Yes, there were some name-brand edge rushers like Taco Charlton still on the board, but Tabor has too much upside at a position of need to let slide any further. He might not have the elite speed of a Patrick Peterson, but otherwise he's the complete package at corner, showing great athleticism, aptitude in man or press coverage, and a nose for the ball. Off-field concerns also give him a realistic shot at being available at 28, and while the Cowboys have been burned in recent drafts by taking players like Randy Gregory, Tabor's issues include tweeting dumb things about the athletic department at Florida and seem like the kind of things he will mature out of. Dallas is well-positioned to benefit from a player falling into their laps at this point in the draft, and I can see Jerry Jones looking at Tabor as the defensive counterpart to Dez Bryant -- a late first round character "gamble" that paid off handsomely.
Round 2 (pick 60): Bucky Hodges, TE, Virginia Tech. The Cowboys have Witten for at least one more season before he rides off into the sunset towards his inevitable Hall of Fame induction, so drafting a tight end to understudy him makes a great deal of sense. Hodges hasn't been a tight end for very long, having played QB in high school, but he's one of a handful of athletic freaks at TE in this year's draft class who should be mismatches for any safety or linebacker attempting to cover them, and he could be both a downfield threat and a red zone weapon. As a blocker Hodges is a work in progress, but bulking up in an NFL weight room and working with Witten -- a master of the arts -- will go a long way to polishing up that area of his game.
Round 3 (pick 92): Tanoh Kpassagnon, DE, Villanova. There's approximately a zero percent chance he lasts this long in the actual draft, but kooky things happen in early mocks. Kpassagnon is pretty raw when it comes to his skill set, but he's got the size the Cowboys look for in a defensive end and from an athletic perspective, he draws comparisons to Jason Pierre-Paul. Expect him to blow up the Combine and soar up draft boards.
Round 4 (pick 133): Malachi Dupre, WR, LSU. Dupre isn't a game-breaker when it comes to his speed and he might be a little skinnier than the Cowboys like their WRs, but he's 6-foot-3 and has the length and hands to snatch balls away from defenders. If he has at least a decent 40 time at the Combine and shows reasonable athleticism, this seems like a realistic landing spot for him with Dallas likely letting Terrance Williams walk in free agency.
Round 6 (pick 211): Joe Mathis, DE/OLB, Washington. Another edge rusher who almost certainly won't last this long, Mathis does have enough of an injury history (he played only six games last year) that he could slide. He also may not be quite a scheme fit for Rod Marinelli's defense, but man oh man does he pop on tape, showing speed and power plus fantastic instincts both as a pass rusher and against the run. He's the kind of guy who could look like an absolute steal a couple of seasons down the road, even as a Day Two pick.
Round 7 (pick 228): Dwayne Thomas, CB, LSU. A double-dip of Day Three Tigers, Thomas didn't get a Combine invite but has good size and showed up on tape against Alabama, so in the seventh round, what the heck.
Round 7 (pick 246): D.J. Jones, DT, Mississippi. He could win the bench press at the Combine, has nice athleticism and a plus motor, but lacks the length NFL teams prefer at the position. After what Grady Jarrett (called "a squatty ball of power" in his NFL.com draft profile in my all-time favorite scouting description ever), the unsung hero of the Super Bowl, did for the Falcons last year though, players like Jones might start to get a little more love.