FanPost

Avoiding One-Track Mentality

The NFL Draft Season is now fully underway and Cowboy Fans all over BTB are lining up their mocks and boasting them proudly in their signatures.

The NFL Draft is still more than three months away and some people have already narrowed down which player(s) the Cowboy absolutely should take with the first pick in the 2014 draft. While having draft favorites is not necessarily a bad thing, we should do our best to avoid developing a one-track mentality.

A one track mentality is:

Definition: A focus on one issue or topic, to the exclusion of all else; an obsession with only one thing.

The favorite for most on this blog seems to be DT Aaron Donald from Pittsburgh and it is not hard to see why. Donald has all the tools needed to succeed in a 4-3 One-Gap Scheme. He has an explosive first step "quick twitch" and solid motor "hustle" which are two of the most important traits needed to be a three technique in Marinelli's scheme. However, there are other options in this draft class which happens to be rich in defensive tackles. In fact, there are a other Defensive Tackles like Timmy Jernigan, Will Sutton, Dominique Easley, and Caraun Reid who could potentially be chosen later and fit our scheme. The Defensive End class which is less polished than the Defensive Tackle class, could have one or two guys rated higher than any Defensive Tackle. The Offensive Tackle class is also fairly deep but mostly top heavy. The Wide Receiver class is without a doubt the deepest of all so there are plenty of options to look for. The Defensive Line will no doubtfully be a position of upgrade but which player is taken will depend on the Cowboys Draft Board.

My point here is to avoid obsessing over one player because the chance of us drafting that specific player is slim and all we do is set ourselves up for disappointment and resentment. My best advice is to look for all the options available around our draft number and which players could be there. One example was last year, the BTB consensus pick was Jonathan Cooper from North Carolina who was taken way before our number came around and we decided to trade down. What happened next was even more shocking as we chose Center Travis Frederick from Wisconsin which most draft-nicks had pegged as a mid second to third round talent. The pick was mocked with much scrutiny and the pressure was undoubtedly on Travis to preform well. Not only did the pick turn out to be a great investment on our Offensive Line, a lot of the people where praising the pick months later. The Offensive Line ended up finishing as a top ten unit or higher in most categories and in the 2013 Re-Draft, Travis Frederick is long gone before our draft selection at number 31.

Keeping this in mind, I hope by the time the Draft rolls along everyone keeps an open mind and decides to look at how the draft unravels rather than focus on the one player you wanted who just was not chosen.

Thanks for Reading and leave your thoughts below. - MosesArt

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