The Dallas Cowboys have enjoyed a run of great fortune at quarterback in the past, but they feel like their luck may be turning.
The organization hasn’t won a Super Bowl since 1995. Despite getting the best years out of Tony Romo, an undrafted free agent that sort of fell in their laps just over a decade ago, the team knows their time runs short and their ongoing unwillingness to use their top overall picks at the position is endangering what is their best chance in years to go back to the big game. Romo is 36-years old and missed an extensive amount of game to injury over the past three seasons. It felt like the time was right for them to use the #4 overall pick on the future.
Instead they elected to take Ezekiel Elliott, the star Ohio State running back in order to bolster their ground attack. Their hope was he could help Romo win now and then they would still be able to jump back into the 1st round to get the guy they coveted. Unfortunately, even the best plans don’t survive contact with the action, especially when the team isn’t willing to go all in as it was clear Jerry Jones wasn’t.
Peter King of Sports Illustrated explains how a bout of caution led to Dallas watching their possible future head off to Denver.
"“What no one on the outside world can see on NFL draft weekend is the gut-punch emotion owners and coaches and GMs feel when they miss out on a player they want. Really want. In this case, for the Cowboys, that player was Paxton Lynch, the quarterback they saw as the heir to Tony Romo, and the player featured on the billboard on I-30, near that shiny jewel of a stadium in Arlington through—they hoped—about 2032.But at 9:56 p.m. Central Time Thursday, after 67 minutes talking to nine teams trying to deal for a Lynch-enabling pick, reality bit. Word filtered into the room that Denver had traded up with Seattle to pick Lynch. Pall over the room. Observers say owner Jerry Jones, who’d been standing next to the draft board trying to figure the math it might take to move up, looked and sounded crestfallen.“Well,” Jones said wearily to no one, “guess I’ll sit down now.”"
Mark Sanchez sees the selection of Paxton Lynch as a vote of confidence in himself as the Broncos' No. 1 QB. https://t.co/JyzSx6P2gf
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) May 2, 2016
Lynch was somebody the Dallas Cowboys seemed to gravitate to early in the draft process. They were out in front of the teams who liked him most and a favorite to pick him in the top 10 if anybody would. As it turns out they planned to jump back up the board to do so but weren’t willing to pay the price. Now they enter another season with more questions than answers at quarterback. Romo has screws holding his collarbone together at this point while Dak Prescott, though a solid talent, doesn’t have the same look or arm that has made Russell Wilson successful.
Given the depth at running back in this draft class, it’s fair to wonder why the Cowboys didn’t just trade down and then select Lynch. They could’ve used their 2nd round choice on a top pack and their added choices on the defense. In the end, perhaps nothing will exemplify the franchises’ stubbornness for taking quarterbacks high than if Lynch pans out with the Broncos.