Dallas Cowboys Trending Upward as Title Contender

Somehow, things just worked out for the Dallas Cowboys to perfection.

The 2015 NFL Draft was very kind to Jerry Jones and the rest of the crew in Dallas, who left the first round with only Byron Jones, a cornerback out of UConn, but may have come away with three first round talents in the end.

Think about this for bad luck — The Jacksonville Jaguars, who had the third overall selection in this year’s draft, watched Dante Fowler Jr. (their top pick at #3 overall) go down on the first week of camp with a season-ending ACL injury. In essence, they’ll see nothing of their first round investment this year, and hope that he’ll be ready for next year.

The Cowboys, who picked at no. 27 overall, will have three players that most had graded as top 20-25 talents in this year’s draft, and it only cost them one first round pick.

That’s just dumb luck.

After picking Jones in the first round, the Cowboys took a big risk in the second by taking Nebraska pass rusher Randy Gregory, a player I felt was a top three edge rusher in this class and a top 10-15 talent on tape. If you look at Gregory’s 2013 season at Nebraska, you see an absolute stud, a player that can change the course of a game.

The 2014 tape is not as good, but Gregory played with some injury and weight issues.

Couple all that with a failed drug test at the Combine, and it’s no wonder the talented, yet troubled, player fell to Dallas’ second round pick.

And by the way, they gave him DeMarcus Ware’s old number…

The haul didn’t end there for the Cowboys either. After their first two picks, Dallas had some underwhelming selections the rest of the draft, though they may have a successor at right tackle for Doug Free in former Florida Gators tackle Chaz Green. That said, the Cowboys made a humongous splash in the undrafted free agent pool when they signed LSU offensive tackle La’El Collins. Collins fell completely out of the draft after questions arose of his involvement — or lack thereof — in the murder of his ex-girlfriend who was pregnant at the time. Sadly, the baby also passed away, and the situation was too scary for NFL teams to take the risk on drafting him. But, the Cowboys feel comfortable, and Collins said he wanted to be a Cowboy all along.

— Dallas Cowboys (@dallascowboys) May 7, 2015

This is a huge class of rookies for the Cowboys. These guys are going to be able to come in and make a significant impact right away. I think Collins will start at either left guard or right tackle eventually, and both Gregory and Jones can play a huge role in the defense immediately.

The fact is, this team was good enough to at least contend for a Super Bowl last year, and I think the same will be true this year. Adding Jones was a nice piece of the puzzle, but getting Gregory was possibly a game changer. Adding Collins to what was already probably the best line in football is a huge pickup for this team.

Dallas is ready to make waves in the NFC. With the right pieces in place, this could be the year to strike.

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