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It's been a busy three days for the Cowboys, not just with the draft, but also appearing in multiple press conferences, news reports and interviews.
From these, we've cobbled together statements from Jason Garrett on each of the eight new Cowboys drafted over the last three days. After the break, meet the new members of the Cowboys family, introduced by Cowboys Head Coach Jason Garrett.
Everything below is a direct transcript of what Jason Garrett had to say about each player. Except where indicated, Garrett's quotes are transcribed from yesterday's press conference, that you can watch in its entirety here.
1st round - Tyron Smith, OT, USC: "Those first round tackles were all very good players. We liked them all, we studied them all, we felt good about all of them. We obviously felt best about Tyron. He's a young football player, he played two year starter at USC. All the measurables. We like the way he plays. If you watch him play, he block his guy a lot in the run game, he blocks his guy a lot as a pass protector, he finishes pays. He's the kind of guy we like. Watch him at the end of a down, watch him finish, watch the passion that he has. We think he's a great worker, we think he's a great young man a nd a great addition to our football team.
He's the right kind of guy. You know, at the end of it you want to have good football players whi look the part at their position, but you want the right kind of guys in your football team. We feel like he's that kind of guy for us." Source: ESPN interview.
2nd round - Bruce Carter, LB, North Carolina: "What we like about him is that he has some versatility. And really, Sean Lee has versatility, and Bradie and Brook have versatility. We like that. We like these guys that are essentially off-the-ball linebackers in our scheme. They're not on-the-ball, Sam and Will type linebackers. They're off-the-ball linebackers but they play both spots, and they both have the traits to do each of these things."
"One of the reason we love Bradie James and Keith Brooking is the kind of people they are. We think Sean Lee is the same kind of guy and we think Bruce Carter is the same kind of guy. They love football, they love to work at it, they're passionate about it. Putting that group together, it's hard for the young guys not to learn from those older guys"
"He is an outstanding special teams player. That's one of the reasons we were attracted to him. We do view him as a starter at some point here with the Cowboys, but in the meantime, he's somebody who is going to help our football team by being out there on teams. His success and his production at North Carolina has been outstanding." Source: 2nd day press conference.
3rd round - DeMarco Murray, RB, Oklahoma: "We just think he's an outstanding football player. A guy who had a lot of touches at Oklahoma over the course of his career there, both as a runner and as a receiver. He's a complete back. He's a guy who's big and sturdy. You get a chance to be around him, you see how long he is, how big his hands are - he's a physical looking halfback. A guy who has versatility as a runner, as a receiver and as a third down blocker."
"We're going to create competition on our football team, and we're going to bring him in there and see where he stacks up against the other guys. We think he's an outstanding football player for a lot of different reasons, but his versatility is a big plus for him." Source: 2nd day press conference.
What you want to do at the end of the day is put some good football players together, and we felt like he was an outstanding football player at the University of Oklahoma. A guy who played for four years. His production is off the charts, both as a runner and as a receiver. He's a mature football player. He knows how to play. He's a strong guy, he understands the game. He can run, he can catch, he can block and he just has production at really the highest level, so we're excited to have a chance to get him. Source: ESPN interview.
4th round - David Arkin, OG, Missouri State: "David Arkin is a smaller school guy from Missouri State. He played in some of the all-star games, and we really liked him. He has the measureables. We liked the tenacity with which he plays. He has some position flexibility and he's one of those guys when you watch him play, he jumps out at you a little bit. The way he finishes the plays, how physically and aggressively he plays. And again, he has the measureables to play a couple of different spots on the offensive line."
5th round - Josh Thomas, CB, Buffalo: "J.T. Thomas is a guy from Buffalo. Actually, he's a local kid. We had him at the Dallas Day. Again, a guy who we like his measurables. He's 5-11, close to 200 pounds, but also you like what he's all about. He's a physical corner, he tackles. He worked out really well for us at Dallas Day. A good combination of physical traits, and also the right kind of guy."
6th round - Dwayne Harris, WR, East Carolina: "Dwayne Harris is a receiver from East Carolina, a guy who was very productive for them both as an offensive player, but also a teams guy. Potential returner for us, but also contributes on teams in other ways. A physical guy. We've had receivers in our history here with the Cowboys who filled this kind of a role. A guy who can be productive on the offensive side of the ball, but physical and willing enough as a receiver to go out there and plays some teams for you."
"We like Dwayne Harris. He's a very versatile player like Mel [Kiper] was talking about. We like him as a receiver. He's a productive receiver, he's shown that throughout his career. But the other thing we like is we like what he does for our football team. On special teams he's a guy who just shows up. We've tried to do a really good job to get the guys with the right measurables, getting the guys who have the right intabgible traits. We also want football players, and we think he fills the bill in all those categories." Source: ESPN interview.
7th round - Shaun Chapas, FB, Georgia: "Shaun Chapas, fullback from Georgia, starter at fullback in the SEC. Big time program, big time competition every week. Has the measureables to play. A smart fullback, who can block, catch the football, has a good feel for playing, seeks out the linebackers, does his blocking assignments well, does a good job getting on them, effective in both the run game and the passing game."
7th round - Bill Nagy, OG, Wisconsin: "Bill Nagy is a guy who we liked from Wisconsin, an interior lineman. A guy who, going into the ‘09 season in Wisconsin, was going to be a starter for them, got into a moped accident - was hit when he was riding his moped - and wasn't able to play that year. Became a guy who was a backup going into this year because the guy who took his place became an established player. He got a chance due to injury to play about half the games this year, and really did a nice job. Again, as an offensive lineman, you like how he plays, it jumps out at you when watch him, how he finishes, how he plays with some intensity and tenacity. So We really liked him as well. He's a very athletic guy too, ran about as well as any of the interior linemen in the draft, so we liked him a lot."