Xavier Woods is looking like the newest Dallas Cowboys diamond

31 NFL teams really let the Dallas Cowboys draft Xavier Woods at 191st overall (this is the part where we all laugh hysterically and high-five each other).

When the Cowboys traded up to go grab the hard-hitting safety out of Louisiana Tech, many rejoiced. Xavier is the type of pet cat that was one way before the rest, making him a pet kitten if you will. How he fell to the sixth round is still a mystery.

Dallas let a lot of players from their secondary walk in free agency, and right now it might be fair to say that the most-missed is Barry Church. His fellow safety JJ.. Wilcox though, well people have been trying to get rid of him for years... until he played eh-kind-of-somewhat well recently.

Xavier Woods has, for the moment (it’s a very small sample size), made us all forget about J.J. Wilcox. He’s a younger, cheaper, more-understanding-of-basic-angles carbon copy of J.J.

During the preseason game in Los Angeles, Xavier jarred a fumble out that Kavon Frazier recovered. The play would be reviewed and deemed an incomplete catch, but the epic nature of the moment was something that could not be overturned. He laid the wood so to speak (I hate myself for taking the lay-up pun), which is something he did frequently during his days at Louisiana Tech.

It was just a season ago that the Cowboys had a sixth-round secondary diamond in terms of Anthony Brown, and we might have a tradition on our hands here with Xavier Woods (hopefully Woods doesn’t also get a tattoo of a chip on his shoulder for being drafted so late).

While the secondary has been a subject of concern (and ridicule during the first preseason game in Canton) things felt as if they’d be alright all around during the game in Los Angeles. Byron Jones, Jeff Heath, Kavon Frazier, and now Xavier Woods make a nice little line of safety depth, and if you’re feeling particularly crafty you can throw in Xavier’s fellow rookie Chidobe Awuzie in considering his position flexibility.

The hype around Xavier Woods was insanely high from jump street, and that’s pretty rare for someone drafted in the sixth round. It may have taken two preseason games (what an exorbitant amount of time), but it’s starting to be somewhat justified.