SB Nation Community Mock Draft: Blogging The Boys picks Kenyon Green for Dallas Cowboys at 24 overall

The Dallas Cowboys are going to be on the clock very soon. We can all hardly wait.

Whenever the time comes things could go a number of different ways. In a perfect world the Cowboys have plenty of options and maybe even trade back to pick up extra draft capital while still walking away with a player who they covet greatly. That doesn’t always happen though as evidenced by last year when Jaycee Horn and Patrick Surtain went the two picks before Dallas was on the clock, although they spun out of that nicely by landing Micah Parsons on top of an extra third-round pick from a division rival on top of things.

Such is the magic of the NFL Draft. At any point you are an accident or a stroke of luck away from fortune or chaos. The Cowboys have ‘lucked’ into a few players in recent history besides Micah Parsons (quarterback Dak Prescott is a notable one), but they have also whiffed on players while passing on options that would have greatly helped their team.

It was our turn to pick on behalf of the Cowboys during SB Nation’s Annual Community Mock Draft where every team site picks on behalf of their team (if that wasn’t obvious). This is the 16th edition of this exercise so it has been going strong for a long time now. Our options were somewhat limited but we tried to keep the choice in line with what makes the most sense for the Dallas Cowboys.

The Dallas Cowboys took Texas A&M guard Kenyon Green at 24 overall in the SB Nation Community Mock Draft

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We have spoken many a time about how the offensive line is Dallas’ most pressing concern at the moment and how guard is the position within that group that needs the most help. Texas A&M’s Kenyon Green is regarded by many as the best guard in this draft and he was available when we were on the clock for the Dallas Cowboys so we turned the card in and were happy to do so.

Green can step in and start for the Cowboys at left guard from day one which is the sort of fix you are looking for with a first-round pick. Incidentally this is exactly what happened the last time that Dallas took a guard this highly although it was Connor Williams out of the other major Texas university. Williams was not a popular player down the stretch of last season but he was a starting-caliber guard for a majority of four seasons. That production absolutely has to be replaced.

Kenyon Green is in fact regarded as the top guard in the class by some, but others feel that it is Boston College’s Zion Johnson. For what it’s worth Johnson was taken by the Arizona Cardinals and Revenge of the Birds just one pick ahead of us at number 23 overall.

Given the fact that Johnson was gone it boiled down to Green or Arkansas wide receiver Treylon Burks (Ohio State’s Chris Olave went to the Philadelphia Eagles and Bleeding Green Nation at 18 overall if you are interested). While receiver is certainly a need for this team in this moment it does not trump guard and the drop-off there with someone picked in a later round is much less. Simply put, Kenyon Green made the most sense.

Best players remaining:

• Nakobe Dean, LB, Georgia
• Skyy Moore, WR, Western Michigan
• Andrew Booth Jr., CB, Clemson
• Tyler Smith, T, Tulsa
• Lewis Cine, S, Georgia