Reaching and drafting for need go hand-in-hand. The reason why is because usually when a team reaches on a draft pick, they do it to fill a need. Sports teams reach every year in their drafts. Since it happens in the NFL more than any of the other major sports leagues, I'll just focus on them for this piece to keep things simple. Before I go any further, let me give you my definition of reaching:
reach- when you draft a player ahead of where they should be drafted.
In other words, that player's talent wasn't worth the value of the draft pick used to select him and he would have been available at a later spot. Usually desperation, fear, or ego are the main motivators for teams drafting a player too high to fill a pressing need. There are 2 types of teams that draft for need: one that's poorly run and one that has a gaping hole at a premium position. From my observation, reaching for need is DANGEROUS and very rarely seems to work out.
As a matter of fact, I feel like drafting for need is football suicide. Often when a team reaches and takes a player higher than they are projected to go, they miss out on a better prospect that was available. These misses get magnified because the decision maker's focus was so narrow. They ignored other players with star potential at other positions for the sake of a short term fix. Let me also point out that the same needs you have on draft day might not be the same needs you have when you break training camp and get ready for your first game. As violent as the NFL is, any position can become a need on any given play.
I'm all for drafting the best player available. Even if a player doesn't fill a need, drafting him can still help your team. Going BPA can make a great strength even stronger or turn something mediocre into a great strength. Drafting for need can turn something you are terrible at into a mediocre strength. There's also the fact that the prospect you reached on to fill a need might not be developed enough to fill that need right away. You never want to waste the value of a draft spot because of a perceived roster hole.
The most common logic among Cowboys fans in recent years has been, "Our offense is already good enough. We need defense." The defense has so many holes in it that by the time it gets fixed it'll be time to rebuild the offense. In fact, the Cowboys need defense every year. We spend more draft picks on defense in every draft and STILL need defense. I'm always looking for the defensive players that they draft and barely see any of them on the field, and the ones I do see are playing, but not making much of an impact. It's the same old problem every year.
Reaching or drafting for need usually results in getting a substandard player. Most of the times the Cowboys have done it, like when we drafted Shante Carver, Greg Ellis, Ebeneezer Ekuban, and Taco Charlton, the administration graded on a curve and talked themselves into believing that the grade was close enough. At the end of the day, you should NOT have to talk yourself into a guy. If you have to talk yourself into a prospect, you are definitely making a mistake if you draft him.
I'm well aware of how many holes the Cowboys have on defense and how they were historically bad this past season. Because they have so many holes on that side of the ball, it would be easy for the front office to get fixated on a defensive player with the 10th overall pick in this year's draft. The problem with that is the 2021 draft class being so thin on defensive players at the top. In my opinion, the defensive class as a whole is not all that great. But if the Cowboys went defense with their first pick, I wouldn't be upset as long as that player is the BPA.
Before I get into my thoughts on how the Cowboys should approach this year's draft here are my 2 biggest cardinal sins of drafting:
Reaching/Drafting For Need: Again, I combine both of these things because a reach usually is a need pick. To me, reaching for a player in the draft has the same effect as overpaying a free agent, whether it's one of your own or one from another team. Either way, you eventually end up having "buyer's remorse" in both situations because the player doesn't perform up to the standards of his draft status/contract. Every time you go for need, you will be angry with yourself, especially if you draft that player too high.
Putting Limits On The Talent At A Position: This goes under the concept of taking the best player available in the draft. I can't speak for anybody else, but if the best player on my draft board plays a position that's well-stocked, guess what? I'm picking him anyway. It's all about accumulating talent and giving yourself flexibility. Besides, you can never have too many great players at one position. You also have to create competition at every position. Because if you don't, human nature can take over and players can get complacent and think they don't have to work as hard, which is another blog in itself.
As far as the 2021 NFL Draft goes, at least in the 1st round, the Cowboys' brain trust can't let themselves get caught up in reaching for a need. It usually doesn't end well for teams when they pass on a better player to check a box. Also, with so many players having similar grades and being closer in talent levels later in the draft, there is too muck risk in reaching at the top. Besides, if the player filling the need was really worth picking in the first place, the team wouldn't need to reach because he would already have a grade that's worthy of that draft slot.
With the 10th pick in the 1st round, the Cowboys are in a good position. From that spot, they have the ability to see how the draft board starts to fall, which prospects might start sliding, and which teams behind them might be looking to trade up. I know the "we need defense" crowd doesn't want to hear this, but if the Cowboys stay at 10, they have to be ready to take the highest rated prospect on their board......even if it is an offensive player. Defense very well could be the priority with the No. 10 pick, but it should NOT take precedence over drafting the best player available.
Before I go any further, let me admit that I do have my preference for who I want the Cowboys to draft with their first pick. I would like either Penei Sewell, Rashawn Slater, or Kyle Pitts. I would be ecstatic to hear one of their names called. But let's not get it twisted, this IS NOT my personal campaign for the team to draft one of these guys. What I am saying is that if one of them falls to No. 10, they will be the best player available. If that happens to be the case, you take them and figure out the rest later.
If we get one of those tackles, it would be insurance for the offensive line in case one of our incumbent starters went down. Tyron Smith is going into his 11th season and coming off of neck surgery. He also has had back issues for several years and hasn't played a full season since 2015. La'el Collins missed all of last season after having hip surgery. It's been said that his hip is didn't have any cartilage in it, that it's bone on bone. Whether that's true or not, he did have a hip injury that was serious enough to require surgery and keep him out for the season. It doesn't bode well for his future.
Tyron Smith and La'el Collins are one of the better tackle tandems in the NFL when healthy, but the "when healthy" is used to describe the Cowboys' offensive line situation as a whole. Now when you factor in the back issues that Zack Martin has been dealing with the last couple of years, you have an aging O-line with injuries to parts of the body that are crucial to the performance of an offensive lineman. Their necks, backs, and hips will be involved in every single play. Even if you have a good feeling about them holding up this year, O-line SHOULD NOT be ignored.
I personally don't trust either one of our tackles to stay healthy for the season. Back issues don't get better as you get older, and when you compound them with a neck injury, it makes the situation that much worse. A hip with bones grinding against each other sounds like a career-threatening issue to me. I would love to be wrong about both of these guys and have them for the whole season. If it works out that way, that would be great, and we could put Sewell/Slater at guard for the time being. The good thing about this year's draft is that there are about 10 tackles worthy of being picked in the first 3 rounds if we don't get one of those 2 guys.
The offensive line started their decline when Travis Fredrick retired last year. Then the decline accelerated with La'el Collins having a hip surgery that ended his season before it got started. Then came Tyron Smith's neck issues that kept him out of all but 2 games, eventually leading to surgery. Then Zack Martin had an assortment of injuries (back, concussion, calf strain) that caused him to miss significant time. Here's one more reason why I would like to have one of those tackles: After committing to our quarterback long-term with a new contract, I would like to protect that investment.
Even though the Cowboys are strong at wide receiver and solid at tight end, they still shouldn't shy away from drafting Kyle Pitts, or maybe even Jaylen Waddle if either one of them are the best player available on their board. Pitts is considered a "unicorn" and a generational talent at TE, and Waddle has a gear that the other receivers in this draft class don't have. His speed is just different. A great player at a position of lesser need is better than a bust at a position of need. It's all about "keeping your strength strong".
Also, adding one of those guys to your offense would give you even more roster flexibility with the possibility of losing Michael Gallup in free agency in 2022, as well as the ability to cut ties with Amari Cooper if they see fit. Bottom line, the Cowboys shouldn't gamble on a player they don't fully believe in if a player they have ranked higher falls to them. We also shouldn't lose sight of the fact that teams draft players for what they can do in the future, not just as rookies. It might be tough for Pitts or Waddle to have much of an impact in Year 1 because of how the current roster is built, but in the following 2 years when Gallup or Dalton Schultz's contracts are up, more opportunities would open up for them.
Let me put it to you another way: Being on the clock with the No. 10 pick, your offensive line has been having trouble staying healthy in recent years, and you have a blue chip offensive lineman in Penei Sewell, widely considered the top lineman in the draft, fall in your lap. Or, you already have solid players on your team at tight end, but a potential all-time great in Kyle Pitts slides to No. 10. If either one of these situations played out, why would you pass on the blue chip talent to take a lesser talent at a position of need? This is where franchises can get themselves in a lot of trouble. If you go by who the best player is on your board at that time and not worry about need or depth at a position, it usually works out well for you.
The draft is an imperfect science, and the process is already hard enough. Reaching with a pick and hoping you are right only compounds the problem. There is nothing worse than knowing who you could have had, it will make you sick. If you reach on a player and he turns out to be awful, it looks even worse when you see who you could have gotten instead. It makes it that much worse if you pass on a blue chip player. In fact, it could turn out to be a generational mistake for your franchise.
To an owner or a GM, a draft bust means putting millions of dollars into a paper shredder. To a fan, it just means having to wait another year for a chance to draft a player that could help their favorite team. It might seem easy from the outside, but there is so much more that goes into these draft choices than the average fan will ever know. But here's one thing that will never change: Having a special player trumps having a good player at a position of need.
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