2022 Cowboys Draft: ESPN’s mock draft has Dallas Cowboys helping the offensive line, but not at guard

We are a little bit over two weeks away from the 2022 NFL Draft and it goes without saying that the weekend in question will be the most important days of the offseason for the Dallas Cowboys.

As they usually have, the Cowboys decided to (mostly) sit out of free agency and have put all of their eggs in the annual player selection period known as the draft. It is a bold strategy to employ, but we have seen it have yield success for this team in the past.

Generally the Cowboys walk away with at least one top contributor from the draft, but given the number of needs that their roster has at the moment they are going to need to be on top of their game from start to finish. Dallas has nine total picks to play with at present time, but they could always decide to move up or down.

ESPN’s mock draft has Dallas Cowboys helping the offensive line, but not at guard

On Monday the folks over at ESPN launched a full, seven-round mock draft. This means that a selection was made for literally every single pick which is quite the exercise to take on.

As far as the Cowboys are concerned, we have a general idea at what they are going to do in the first round but so much depends of what they will be able to pull off will depend on how the board shakes out. Right now it feels like Dallas will take one of Kenyon Green (Texas A&M), Zion Johnson (Boston College), Chris Olave (Ohio State), or Treylon Burks (Arkansas). Interestingly ESPN had them going with none of these four.

ESPN’s full mock draft haul for the Dallas Cowboys

• 1.24: Tyler Linderbaum, C, Iowa
• 2.56: Jalen Tolbert, WR, South Alabama
• 3.88: DeAngelo Malone, DE/OLB, Western Kentucky
• 4.129: Markquese Bell, S, Florida A&M
• 5.155: Cade Otton, TE, Washington
• 5.167: Terrel Bernard, LB, Baylor
• 5.176: Jayden Peevy, DL, Texas A&M
• 5.178: Luke Goedeke, OT, Central Michigan
• 5.193: Cameron Dicker, K, Texas

Half of those four targets were unavailable to the Cowboys as Zion Johnson went to the Pittsburgh Steelers and Chris Olave went to the Green Bay Packers. With both Kenyon Green and Treylon Burks on the board, ESPN had the Dallas Cowboys taking Iowa center Tyler Linderbaum.

This would certainly be an interesting pick for the Cowboys as Linderbaum is not among the reported players that were part of the Cowboys’ 30 visits. Dallas has deviated from their 30 visits before as far as first-round picks are concerned, but it is a rather rare occurrence.

It is also a bit uncommon for the Cowboys to select prospects from smaller schools and ESPN has them taking Jalen Tolbert in the second round. Tolbert is a very talented receiver, but as he is coming from South Alabama that isn’t exactly a traditional Dallas Cowboys selection.

Overall the Cowboys address all of their major needs in this mock in getting a receiver and tight end that can contribute both now and in the future as well as depth pieces at defensive end, linebacker, and at tackle. They even take one of the more notable kickers in recent memory here with Texas’ Cameron Dicker.

Ultimately though the Cowboys leave the draft in this mock without any help at left guard. Connor McGovern is the starter at present time, but it feels like the Cowboys would prefer to go with someone like Kenyon Green to fill that void as opposed to Linderbaum, but anything can happen.

We run mock drafts on the Blogging The Boys YouTube Channel every Monday and this week traded back to take Zion Johnson in the first round. You can watch the entire thing right here.

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