Here is every Dallas Cowboys draft pick over the last decade

The Dallas Cowboys are hoping to nail the 2022 NFL Draft. The Cowboys have more pressure because they did not make any big-time move in free agency. There are several holes to fill on the roster and Dallas has nine selections to try and do so. Obviously it is possible that they have a high level of contribution from this rookie group à la the 1975 or 2016 seasons.

When it comes to success in the draft there are those who believe that the Cowboys have had a ton of it and those who believe there is more than meets the eye. You cannot deny that Dallas has found their fair share of contributors in the first round over the last decade, but that’s the first round. It is obviously ‘easier’ to hit there.

It has long been time for the Cowboys to have success in the later rounds and outside of a handful of hits (one of them being a quarterback in Dak Prescott which counts for a lot) there isn’t a lot to write home about.

Here is every Dallas Cowboys draft pick over the last decade

Being fair to the process, so much about hitting on the late picks in the NFL Draft is about luck. There aren’t exactly successful rosters that are completely built out of Day 3 selections.

On the whole what the Cowboys have done in the first round is certainly the best whereas what they have done in the fifth round is easily the worst. Among fifth-rounders taken in the last decade, the only one on the roster at the moment is last year’s selection, Simi Fehoko.

A round that doesn’t get talked about all too much as far as success is concerned is the third. There are some fine players and contributors that have come from there, including some second contracts with Michael Gallup’s as the most recent one, but have the Cowboys truly taken a difference-maker in the third? It’s a top 100 pick so it has to be something that they absolutely nail as hard as it is.

The importance of landing a difference-maker is obviously even higher in the second round and Dallas’ history there over the last 10 years is... not great. This is the infamous ‘roll the dice’ round for the Cowboys where they have taken chances on players that were available for different reasons. It doesn’t feel unfair to say that the only true success has been DeMarcus Lawrence (while acknowledging that Randy Gregory had a unique career with the Cowboys).

In looking every single draft pick made over the last decade if I had to pick the worst one (because the best is obviously Dak Prescott) it probably lies in the second round in Gavin Escobar. Not only did Escobar not really amount to much in Dallas, but the Cowboys took him when they already had an established player in place in Jason Witten, who was actually coming off a 1,000-yard season at the time on top of things.

Right now there are nine names who are set to join this list in a little bit over a week. Here’s to them improving the overall average.