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Perhaps the most shocking thing about the 2021 Dallas Cowboys Draft is that they used all of their draft picks, including the extra one that they picked up during their trade in the first round. There are 11 new players on this football team.
Of the incoming rookie class there are only three players who line up on offense, and among them, only a single one who is not a lineman. The Cowboys didn’t exactly have a glaring need at any skill position, but that didn’t stop them from drafting Stanford’s Simi Fehoko.
Many are intrigued by the athletic prowess that Fehoko is bringing from Palo Alto to the metroplex and excited about the potential redzone weapon that he can become. Physically (his 6’4” frame is what jumps out) he is different than what is currently on the roster and could carve out a nice role for himself in the future.
Odds are that Fehoko will be chosen as a pet cat by a number of BTBers come training camp time, but we might be talking about a lion here. He is entering the National Football League with a combination of athleticism and size that some pretty serious wide receivers have had through their notable careers.
Simi Fehoko has athleticism that puts him in elite NFL company
Mike McCarthy noted that the Cowboys were going to be focused on speed this season and the drafting of players like Micah Parsons and Jabril Cox lines up with that ideology. Dallas also went for size at defensive back (most notably with Nahshon Wright and Israel Mukuamu)
Fehoko has both size and speed as his 6’4”, 222-lb. frame moved through a 40-yard dash in 4.43 seconds at his pro day. He is not just a combination of these two ideal qualities, he is almost an ideal hybrid of the two created in a laboratory.
Between 2005 & 2020, there have been six receivers in our data set to enter the draft with a 90+ athleticism score, 70+ production score and weigh 220+ pounds: Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, Donte Moncrief, DK Metcalf, Miles Boykin and Chase Claypool.
— Next Gen Stats (@NextGenStats) May 1, 2021
Fehoko would be No. 7.
NFL Next Gen Stats noted that from 2005 to last year that six wide receivers fit the particular mold that Simi does as far as physical makeup and athletic regulation. These aren’t some random wide receivers, they include the likes of Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, DK Metcalf, and an arrival last season in Chase Claypool.
Does any of this mean that Fehoko is going to be to the Cowboys what any of these players were/are to their team? Of course not. Being an elite wide receiver is about far more than just how big you are coupled with how fast you can run. You’ve got to have great hands and be a great route runner, few can survive for long without the latter in their skillset.
This is very encouraging, though. Day 3 of the NFL Draft is a lot about throwing darts and trying to hit on specific traits. The Cowboys are betting on the right kind and hopefully they are proven right in the long run.