00:00All right, so ESPN gives the Cowboys an A grade.
00:04All right, that's, you know, the second.
00:08Looks like they have them right number two, right behind Cleveland.
00:11This is from Mel Kuyper.
00:12So the A grade for the Cowboys, top needs edge, linebacker, corner.
00:17So you notice they're all on defense, terribly, historically bad.
00:20They love the downs pick.
00:21It's no surprise their first three picks, five of their first seven,
00:24came on that side of the ball.
00:26This is what he said about Lawrence.
00:27Getting things, him later in round one made things even better.
00:30Obviously, the number one need for them, according to Mel Kuyper, was him,
00:33and he had the seven sacks.
00:35You know, Clowney led the team with eight and a half still unsigned
00:38between trading for Gary and drafting him,
00:40and then the third rounder, Jayshon Barham, and then LT.
00:44They are building the unit back up after dealing away Micah,
00:47and I thought that the Jayshon and LT picks were very, very good value.
00:51That's from Mel Kuyper.
00:52So he's big.
00:53He loves it, loves the draft.
00:54His highest grade he gave out was just a flat A.
00:57And that's, so Cowboys were tied with that.
00:59They were one of four teams to get an A.
01:00So for Kuyper, it looks like they're right at the top of his highest grades.
01:05I do think that him being a fan of the Lawrence thing,
01:09there's some people who think the Lawrence thing is an overdraft.
01:12We'll probably...
01:12Nick Saban gets caught being fake on air.
01:16He's whispering, apparently, thinks he's not on ESPN television.
01:22This guy's a reach.
01:23This guy's a reach.
01:24And then the light clicks on, and this fraud...
01:26I love this pic.
01:27One of my sleepers.
01:29Dude, how can you be this fake?
01:31How can you be this fake?
01:32No, of course, it's 24-7 ass-kissing time on all these networks.
01:37Oh, yeah.
01:37Charles Davis will say in a very nice way,
01:40the one thing I think he needs, the one thing he needs to do,
01:44because if you come out and give your true negative thoughts,
01:47you're ruining a kid's day.
01:49You're messing up their moment.
01:50So, they're saving caught being fake.
01:52Charles Davis will join us at 8.
01:53And we'll play some of this later this week, I would imagine.
01:56I don't...
01:56I would guess we're going to have time for today,
01:58but some of the stuff we heard from the scouts over the weekend
02:02of their process of discovering and getting to the point
02:04where they graded Lawrence, I think,
02:05should make everybody feel good about it
02:07when you hear the process they went through.
02:08So, you either loved the draft or you hated the draft.
02:11That's what I figured out from these guys.
02:13Not the Cowboys draft.
02:14No?
02:15Well, hang on.
02:16Really?
02:16So, the top five on ESPN, you had Cleveland, Dallas, Vegas,
02:20Philly, the Jets.
02:21Bottom five.
02:22I want you to keep it.
02:23Bottom five.
02:25San Fran got the worst.
02:27Whoa.
02:28Minnie, Jacksonville.
02:30I'm going to reverse order, so 32-32.
02:32Tennessee and the Rams.
02:34Okay, that's your bottom five.
02:35San Fran the worst, Rams fifth worst.
02:37Okay.
02:38That's on ESPN.
02:40Let's go on over to USA Today.
02:42Cannot imagine why they keep shrinking their newspaper.
02:44Oh, no.
02:45By the way, the Cowboys rank basically in the top seven
02:48of everybody else's draft board, except for USA Today.
02:51Where do they rank?
02:53I don't know where they rank.
02:55I know it was not a good grade.
02:5617.
02:57Close.
02:5923rd.
03:00Who's the name on it?
03:01We have to get the name.
03:02I've got to scroll all the way up.
03:04We'll look later.
03:05Oh, here it is.
03:05It's Nate Davis.
03:07Nate Davis.
03:08Love that guy.
03:09Nate's got the Jets, Raiders, Giants, Browns, Seahawks.
03:14Okay, a lot of those teams generally have been near the top.
03:17I haven't paid attention to where Seattle was.
03:19But all the Eagles, fine.
03:21Packers.
03:22Bills at B+.
03:23Ravens at B+.
03:24Broncos at B+.
03:26Those are your top ten.
03:27Then you get to Carolina, Detroit, Miami, Washington at 14.
03:33Everybody loves Washington's draft.
03:36What was his issue with Dallas?
03:38I got to scroll all the way back down.
03:40He had San Fran at 16.
03:42They traded up in round one to get Caleb down.
03:45They traded down in round one to get Malachi.
03:47They spent three additional picks on defense.
03:48They gave up the most points in the league.
03:50They used their third round pick.
03:51Great move.
03:53Tenuous situation.
03:54Bled over with the Pickens deal.
03:55As with most things, Cowboys, it can be interpreted in a number of ways.
03:59Here you go.
04:00But good luck finding anyone who thinks Lawrence, essentially a package from Green Bay,
04:06as part of the Parsons deal, and others will ultimately be worth the ultimate cost.
04:11So here's my issue with them.
04:12That's stupid.
04:13He's grading the Micah trade for the draft.
04:15That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
04:16That's the stupid thing.
04:17That's the worst take Friday.
04:18He's grading it.
04:19Yeah, of course this guy's not going to be Micah Parsons.
04:22That's not the point.
04:23Yeah.
04:24Micah Parsons is now Quinnen Williams and Lawrence.
04:29And, you know, something else.
04:31Jerry said five first.
04:32Kenny Clark.
04:33He's Quinnen Williams.
04:34He's Malachi Lawrence.
04:36Yeah.
04:36And then, I mean, you traded back into the fourth round, so he's your two fourth rounders, too.
04:40He's LTO Overton.
04:41So I think that that's ridiculous.
04:42That's why USA Today is now a pamphlet.
04:44It's not even a newspaper anymore.
04:46That's why they give it away for free at a hotel.
04:49Sporting News, Cowboys gave them the seventh best draft grade, grade with an A.
04:53So that was from Sporting News.
04:54CBS, I love what CBS did.
04:56They graded each individual pick.
04:57They didn't just give a draft grade.
05:00They graded each pick.
05:01Downs with an A.
05:03Malachi, they gave them a C.
05:06Jay Sean, an A.
05:08Shelton, A-.
05:09Moore, B-.
05:11Overton, B-.
05:12Smith, B-.
05:13And let's just reset you on the entire draft class in case you need that.
05:17Downs, Malachi.
05:19Jay Sean, Barham.
05:20Michigan linebacker was the third rounder.
05:23And then three-fourths.
05:24Penn State offensive tackle Drew Shelton.
05:26Florida corner, Devin Moore.
05:28Alabama defensive lineman, L.T.
05:32Overton.
05:33And then East Carolina wideout, Anthony Smith in the seventh.
05:36And I'm going to always remember this as the Christian Parker draft.
05:41And here's Jerry Jones over the weekend explaining how we could remember this as that label.
05:48I made my mind up that I was going to know more through this draft process than I knew when
06:00I was looking at our defense over the last couple of years.
06:07And I made my mind up that through the interview process, as well as the process of talking about the
06:18players who play in this play, that I was going to get out of this draft process.
06:24And where we are with this personnel right now.
06:27And I was going to know more.
06:29Not necessarily feel better, but I was going to know more about what we're trying to do out there this
06:34year.
06:34Okay.
06:36And he was one of the better teachers for me and articulate guys of turning the light on for me
06:45of some of the things he wanted to do.
06:48So the first thing you've got to do is peel that.
06:51Well, we do it this way around here.
06:52You've got to peel that out and sit there and work real hard to see where he's trying to go.
06:58So he's very impressive like that.
07:00And if he can do it to this one, then he'll be a whiz doing it to those players and
07:06their minds and their execution out there.
07:09The injection of youth, knowledge, maybe a little bit of new school ways.
07:16You can feel this permeating throughout the Ford Center.
07:21Yeah.
07:21I mean, he had a huge voice in that room over the last few days.
07:27I'll say this.
07:29There's not going to be a lot of stuff to fall back on if you're Christian Parker in terms of
07:33like by the time this whatever this is, whatever this plays out to be like this is they're letting you
07:38build this the way you want.
07:40There's not a lot built in to say, well, I didn't get this that I wanted this.
07:43And look, I'm sure he has confidence that it's going to work.
07:46I have confidence that he's everything I've heard from him, everything I'm seeing.
07:49I like what they're building defensively.
07:51I think he's going to have a good unit at by at least by next year.
07:55This year, they may be about average, but I think next year they're going to be a pretty solid unit.
07:59And so but this is a lot of this is going to be on him.
08:02You got the players you wanted.
08:03You're going to be allowed to run the scheme the way you want.
08:06Go out there and show us now.
08:07This is Caleb Downs on CP and the first thing that he asked for.
08:11Yeah, super excited.
08:12Honestly, I asked him first thing, where's the playbook at?
08:16Where's the playbook at?
08:17When can I get it?
08:18Just because I'm about ball and that's what I'm looking forward to doing.
08:22So he he's been genuine since the moment I met him and I was glad he got to meet my
08:27parents and my sister today.
08:28So looking forward to where that relationship goes.
08:31Should have got Thienemann.
08:32Tad Carper, Cowboys PR director, flagged me down on Friday.
08:36And he's like, did you hear the Downs press conference?
08:38And I was like, no, I was driving over here.
08:40He goes, you need to go pull like the third answer because he talks about ball.
08:43You're going to have to put that in your open for Sean.
08:46I blame Jason Witten for that.
08:48I know he's the one.
08:49I used to love that saying.
08:50I hate it.
08:51Yeah, he was the one that that started.
08:53And nobody ever talked about it.
08:54It's about ball because ball has always been basketball.
08:56Yeah, it's always been since time of memoriam or whatever the hell that phrase is.
09:00No, OK, then it's about baseball.
09:02But that's not even that.
09:02That's tar.
09:03That's seam.
09:03That's seam.
09:04We're talking seam.
09:05We call it tar.
09:05We're seam if it's pitching.
09:07Yeah.
09:07Tar if it's pine tar.
09:07If it's hitting.
09:08We're talking ball.
09:09We're talking hoop.
09:10We're semen.
09:10Like that's it.
09:11Yeah, we're semen.
09:11Absolutely.
09:12I will say this.
09:13I will say this.
09:14Despite his use of that eye roll term, this kid's got personality.
09:20He has got personality dripping off of him.
09:23Biggest fear with him.
09:24Because he's got personality.
09:26Is that he's like, you know what?
09:28I'm out and I'm out in eight years.
09:30I'm going to go into media because he's that personable.
09:33That's my biggest fear with him.
09:34That's my biggest fear.
09:35Because I don't want to see that.
09:36I want to see these guys play 15 years.
09:37You know, I don't want personable.
09:39Jerry said he reminds me of Dak.
09:40He does.
09:41He's a pied piper.
09:43You are getting what sounds like a defensive coordinator and your leader defensively all in one.
09:52And we got other grades to get to.
09:55Bob, you got one last thing?
09:55Yeah, real quick on downs.
09:57People at Bama have said he is the only player who has entered as a freshman and already knew the
10:03defensive playbook for Saban.
10:05Like the only one who ever is a high schooler got it down on his way into the program.
10:09SI gives the Cowboys an A. Basically, you know, it's all the same.
10:14You know, depth on the edge with Lawrence and Overton and Jay Sean and getting what they desperately needed.
10:19And then we get to NFL.com, who gave the Cowboys a B-plus on the Thursday, day one.
10:27And largely that was not, they weren't huge on the Lawrence, but they thought it probably was a reach.
10:31Whatever.
10:32I mean, Bobby said there was people who had him as a second rounder.
10:34That's fine.
10:35That's fine.
10:35And, you know, when you're picking a tough spot.
10:37Talking about trading up like USA Today did is so ignorant.
10:39It's so stupid.
10:40And you're intentionally being misleading when you're like, they traded up and you don't want to say it was two
10:46-fifths.
10:47Right.
10:48You're intentionally being misleading.
10:50So the analysis, by the way, they gave day one a B-plus, day two a B, day three a
10:54B-plus.
10:55Yeah.
10:56To me, you get a B-plus on day three.
10:58That's a hell of a draft.
10:59I don't care what.
11:00If it works out.
11:00I mean, yeah, again, if you want to talk about process and the way they went about things,
11:05they think their first three picks were all guys that should have gone on day two, and they got downs,
11:09and Barham is a really good value.
11:11Even if you think Lawrence was a reach, which they don't, all of that adds up to being something that,
11:16through their execution, they think they hit everybody.
11:18All right, so the analysis, a couple of things here.
11:20One, they got the steal of the first round, trading two-fifths to move up one spot to get down.
11:25Should be the longtime defensive leader, able to make plays in the deep, half-flat in the box.
11:30And then, obviously, they pick up Lawrence.
11:32This is what he says about Shelton.
11:34His game tape did not scream fourth-round pick to me, but the team could develop him into a swing
11:40tackle.
11:40They received two-fours for Philadelphia, and the team's first trade used one of those selections on the physical,
11:45but injury-plagued Moore, and on the other, Overton, who might compete to replace Osa on the interior.
11:50They filled a glaring need by trading for D winners.
11:53Look for Smith to fight for a roster spot as a receiver who could stretch the field.
11:57Brian did not like the Shelton pick at all.
11:59Brian, I think, had Shelton in the fifth round.
12:02But, I mean, is he a love-hate player?
12:05I'm not a fan.
12:06He is not the kind of tackle that Brian likes.
12:08Brian doesn't like tackles who don't play with a lot of power, and that's not Shelton.
12:12Wolchuk said,
12:13Shelton is a really good athlete that is just a reliable and steady player.
12:16Strong competition for Guyton at left tackle.
12:19Shelton allowed just one sack and 18 pressures in 2025 across 356 pass-block snaps.
12:27Comes from a balanced run scheme.
12:29We'll have immediate swing tackle versatility.
12:31Wolchuk will join us at 840.
12:33Here's the head coach on his tackle.
12:35Yeah, we really like his smooth footwork.
12:39He's a good athlete.
12:39Plays well in space.
12:41We think he, again, is a guy that's going to go out there, and he's got a really good
12:45understanding of angles and how to get in people's way.
12:47We just like the traits.
12:49You know, and we bet on a guy that's played, I think, 34 starts.
12:52And we think that get him in here to compete with some of the guys we got, and we're looking
12:58forward to throwing him in the mix with Guyton and Nate Thomas and those guys, and he'll
13:01be a left tackle that's got some guard versatility, but we also expect him to be able to swing
13:07to the other side as well.
13:08Shelton, when he was talking with us on DallasCowboys.com, he was talking about Caleb Downs
13:12being a Big Ten guy, and he was like, I was all too aware of him as a secondary player
13:17with me on the offensive line.
13:18He was like, because the number of times he would blow up screens was ridiculous.
Comments