The Dallas Cowboys picked Penn State LB Micah Parsons in the best way possible

Things got wild on Thursday night. While it was far from inconceivable, it wasn’t considered likely that the Dallas Cowboys would be on the clock at number 10 overall without eitherJaycee Horn or Patrick Surtain II as a viable option. The National Football League has a funny way of making the impossible happen at the most opportune time.

The Cowboys wound up trading out of the pick and picked up a third-rounder (84 overall) in the process before they turned in a card with Penn State LB Micah Parson’s name. The merits of drafting a linebacker that high are well-noted. The team’s previous draft mistakes continue to haunt them at that particular position, and there are a number of people displeased that this is who Dallas picked.

There is one very positive side to this whole deal. The Cowboys’ quick-step pivot towards Parsons is impressive in a vacuum. In a span of about 20 minutes they saw the glass get smashed and the emergency lever get pulled, and they walked away from it all with the player that they are saying that they wanted and change on top of it to boot.

The Dallas Cowboys picked Penn State LB Micah Parsons in the best way possible

We did a live show during night one of the draft (you can watch it right here if you’d like, we will be doing this all throughout draft weekend on the Blogging The Boys YouTube Channel) and panic was high after the Denver Broncos took Surtain. Understandably so.

Immediately trading back made the most sense for the Dallas Cowboys and guess what, they traded back! The Cowboys picked up another top 100 pick for moving back a grand total of two spots. That is pretty solid business right there. They enter Friday with four picks to work with and they obviously need them thanks to the big-time money that Dak Prescott is now making. Cheap labor is an important commodity these days.

It was clear at number 10 that the Cowboys needed to get out, but what’s more is it was undeniable that one of the New York Giants or the Philadelphia Eagles were going to walk away with Alabama WR DeVonta Smith considering they had the next two picks.

By orchestrating a trade with the Eagles, the Cowboys effectively chose where Smith wound up. The Giants have managed to remain largely ineffective since their last season of prominence a decade ago, but the reality is that DeVonta Smith joining an offense that already features Saquon Barkley, Sterling Shepherd, and Evan Engram does not sound like a lot of fun, especially for a defense that had literally just lost out on their top two cornerback options in the draft.

Is it ideal that Smith is an Eagle? Obviously not. But it is far more preferable that he is part of the cellar-dwellers that Philadelphia happen to be right now and the Cowboys made that happen while still picking up a top 100 pick in the process.

Based on everything that the Cowboys are saying, granted they are not going to come out and openly say that their plans fell apart or anything of the sorts, they had their hearts set on Parsons the moment that they were wiped out on Horn and Surtain. They accomplished landing him while netting extra capital to work with and playing a bit of defense within their division. That is an impressive un-tangling of a situation that looked rather bleak when they first were up to make a pick.