It was fully anticipated that the first Dallas Cowboys draft pick selected in the 2022 NFL Draft would be an offensive lineman. The favorites were one of two guards Kenyon Green and Zion Johnson. Fellow 30 visit offensive tackles Trevor Penning and Bernhard Raimann were also in contention. A long shot would have been Charles Cross in a potential trade up scenario but the player that the Cowboys ultimately drafted was not a player many expected with the 24th overall pick in the draft.
Tyler Smith was the surprise selection for the Cowboys and many Cowboy fans are up in arms thinking that the team reached for a player several experts many consider a second round prospect. The truth is, there was increasing momentum surrounding Tyler Smith as the draft approached and his name started being mentioned in the first round more often than not. Tyler Smith is a bit of a work in progress. He is extremely raw but has athletic traits and potential to become a very high level player and that is what the Cowboys are banking on by taking Smith in the first round.
A player like Tyler Smith is not the type of draft pick that fans typically get excited about. It has a similar feel to how Cowboys fans felt when the team drafted Travis Frederick in the first round of the 2013 draft. That draft pick was widely considered a reach at the time but it worked out extremely well for the Cowboys in the end. In contrast, I was pretty excited about the Cowboys trading up to draft Morris Claiborne in 2011 and we all know how that turned out. For that reason, I refuse to despair. I will remain cautiously optimistic and remind myself that my level of disappointment or excitement on draft day is rarely warranted in the end. Still, there is a sinking feeling in my stomach. The same feeling many Cowboys fans felt (myself included) when they drafted Taco Charlton instead of T.J. Watt. That is because a string of potential studs were drafted immediately after the Cowboys selected Smith. Players like Tyler Linderbaum, Jermaine Johnson, Devin Lloyd, and Devonte Wyatt. All players that I feel would have had an immediate impact on a Cowboys team that should be trying to win now. Instead, because the owner is also the general manager, he is more apt to gamble on players that might take some time to eventually develop into All-Pros.
More disappointing for me than the actual draft pick, was the inactivity of the Cowboys compared to other teams that were moving around and making things happen. Every other team in the division made a splash move or traded down to to get more draft picks. I really thought the Cowboys were going to take advantage of all the trade activity and move back themselves to secure some additional draft capital but they did not. Just as disturbing as watching teams trade up and trade down was seeing all of the WR movement happening around the league. The Ravens and Titans were able to gain significant draft capital for “Hollywood” Brown and A.J. Brown respectively. The Packers and Chiefs each got a substantial haul prior to the draft for trading away their elite receivers and yet the Cowboys got almost nothing for trading away Amari Cooper. It seems like the rest of the league is ready to spend money and draft capital on the wide receiver position and the Cowboys are the only team that can’t take advantage of that trend. Hopefully this is more a case of the Cowboys being the smartest team in the room and everyone else just following each other off of a cliff. Soon enough we will see if the Cowboys lame duck approach to the offseason was the right approach or if they have fallen behind the eight ball. With regards to drafting Tyler Smith, a little more patience will be required to gauge the quality of that decision.