Welcome to another installment of my series, How they Would Fit. I know it has been awhile since I posted one, so as a quick refresher of my past ones, click Here, Here, Here, Here, Here and Here( am pretty sure I got them all). with that out of the way, let's move on shall we?

:Disclaimer: This series is looking at specific players and how they would fit into the Dallas roster using the current roster as a baseline.  Any opinions expressed are my opinions only and do not reflect the opinions of the Dallas Cowboys, SB Nation or their affiliates. :end Disclaimer.

Now in this edition I want to look at someone that Dallas should be targeting, Phil Taylor, DT, Baylor. For those few people that aren't aware of this kid, here is his profile from NFL Draft Scout:

Name: Phil Taylor Height: 6-3   Weight: 334  Position: DT  Pos2: OG 40 Time: 5.09      Projected Round: 1-2  Stock:      Rated number 6 out of 181 DT's

Now I have been harping on this kid since I first heard about him. So who on Dallas' roster does Taylor most resemble? Here you go:

Now bear in mind that Dallas needs to generate a better pass rush. Now they could go one of two ways. A) Draft another "undersized DE" and convert him to OLB to replace Spencer, or B) Beef up the Defensive line so that Ware, Spencer and Ratliff can reek havoc. If Dallas goes and gets Taylor, then they will be saying,"Ware, Spencer, and Ratliff are enough, We need to Upgrade the supporting Cast."  Now before you say "why would we Draft a NT when we already have two of them?"  Well Rob Ryan likes his Linemen to be versatile. Which Taylor is. With his size and power he can easily anchor in against a double team, and has enough quickness(for his size) to be very disruptive vs a one on one. 

Here is how I see it playing out (Weak side to strong side starting lineup):

Starting LB's- Ware, James, Lee, Spencer

DE's- Taylor and Bowen

NT- Ratliff

Now I have slotted Taylor in between Ware and Ratliff, though He could play the SSDE position. However by playing him on the Weak side it offers Taylor "protection" in two ways:

A. Ware will almost always "take out" the LT. Because ware is such a Beast, the Offense must account for his presence. This means that The LT will almost always focus on Ware. This means that the LT has to account for Ware before he he can help out inside.

B. Ratliff will Occupy the Center and RG, on virtually every play. The key is the Center. With Ratliff at the nose that means that the Center must account for Ratliff before helping out anyone else.

So what does this mean? That means that Taylor will more than likely only be facing the LG on any given play. Taylor vs an LG? I like that matchup.

Now I mentioned Taylor's versatility. Well Like I said earlier, he is strong enough to "anchor in" vs a double team. So You could run out a Defense like this:

LB's- Ware, James, Lee, Spencer

DE's/NT- Ratliff, Taylor, Bowen

Now the Offense has another problem, Do you let the LT take Ware, Double Ratliff, and hope that your RG and RT can handle Taylor and Bowen one on one? If so, what happens if Dallas brings extra people? say Spencer or Lee?Like I said, Versatility...

However there is a catch...The main issue is that Taylor is more than certain to not make it to the second round. Not only is is arguably the best pure NT in the draft, but while this Draft class is deep for D-line it is mostly DE's, whether it be 3-4 or 4-3. There just aren't that many Pure NT's available. Especially ones that are as good as Taylor is. However That doesn't mean that he will go #1. Most Mocks have him around the high to mid 20's, which unfortunately for Dallas is well before #40...but there is a little hope.

The fringe benefit  of picking 9th in the first round is that You also pick 9th in all other rounds(unless you have a record tie, then it rotates as you will see in a minute). So lets say Dallas stays put a #9, and doesn't move up there. That means that Dallas would be in prime contention to move back into the first round. How so? Well if you combine Dallas' 2nd and 3rd rounders you get a total of 735 points value. Which puts Dallas at between #'s 24(740) and 25(720). However There is KC. they would also love to get Taylor, so somehow Dallas will need to "leapfrog" them to get him. They are sitting at # 21, so Dallas would need to really get creative to make them a trade offer. I would suggest this Offer: 

Dallas gets #21(800)

KC would get Dallas' 2012 #1, plus our 2011 3rd and 4th rounders( total of ~811)

While this may seem like a bad deal for both teams it works on many levels:

Dallas gets some significant help on the D-line, which in turn will help out the secondary, while preserving our 2nd rounder in this draft to directly help the secondary.

KC gets and extra 3rd and 4th to move back into the first round if they so wish and will still have multiple picks left.

Now in my opinion Taylor is worth the extra picks. If Dallas does this, then that would mean that Dallas will have gotten two rookies capable of starting immediately, and that is not even factoring in our second rounder which could yield a third starting rookie. And this is on a team that is only a year removed from being a serious Super bowl Contender....

Now I leave it up to you folks. Poll Time: