I won't lie to you, that was a letdown. Partly, that's the fan in me who dedicated most of a Saturday waiting around for one climactic moment, and ended up with an IOU note redeemable on day two. Grrr. OK, now that I'm past the fan part of me, what about what happened in terms of the team, what did they accomplish by trading out of the second round?
You'd think there had to be a few players on the board that they liked at #51. Then again, I guess not, considering they didn't pick anybody and traded down. So here we are. With 12 picks on the second day.
Instead of trying to get into the reasons behind the trade down, let's get into the possible strategies for using their 12 picks on day two.
Memo: Day Two Strategies
Strategy #1:
Code Name: There's always next year.
Assumption: The Cowboys don't really want to draft 12 players tomorrow.
Operational Plan: Trade 3-5 picks from this year, for picks in next year's draft. Bring 7-9 draft picks into camp.
Reasoning: This draft crop stinks.
Strategy #2:
Code Name: We own it, bitches.
Assumption: The Cowboys don't really want to draft 12 players tomorrow, but want to grab as much quality as possible.
Operational Plan: Trade up to jump into the third and fourth rounds as much as possible. The Cowboys want to own rounds 3-4 and grab 6-8 guys of the best quality on day two.
Reasoning: Limits the number of rookies and takes advantage of the fact that this draft is weighted to the middle rounds in terms of cost vs. quality.
Strategy #3:
Code Name: Death Match
Assumption: The Cowboys plan to utilize most of their picks tomorrow.
Operational Plan: As the draft board comes to them on Sunday, they make their picks.
Reasoning: The Cowboys believe the bottom of their roster needs to be churned and will hold a battle royal - rooks vs. unproductive veterans - for the final roster spots. They want to have a lot of options at training camp.
Strategy #4:
Code Name: Safety First
Assumption: The Cowboys draft 12 safeties tomorrow.
Operational Plan: See above.
Reasoning: Jerry wants to out-crazy Al Davis.
What do you think? Got another strategy?