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Columnist Rick Gosselin recently held a chat to talk all things D-FW sports. Here are some highlights:


Question: How have the Cowboys done in the later rounds of the past few drafts in your opinion? I can't really pick out any good finds that they've snatched up. Dwayne Harris would get my vote for best pick but he's gone...

Gosselin: Past few? Try the past several drafts. This is where the Cowboys have fumbled the ball. When this franchise was competing for Super Bowls, Jimmy Johnson was finding gems in the later rounds -- a Leon Lett and a Brock Marion in the seventh, a Ron Stone in the fourth, Larry Brown in the 12th -- starter caliber players, in many cases Pro Bowl caliber players. But those contributing players from the later rounds have been absent for too long, which is why this team has been struggling. Every NFL team can have a good draft in the first three rounds of the draft, the premium rounds. Those players are by and large known commodities. But it's how well you fare in rounds four through seven that can make a good draft great.


Question: If the Cowboys were to draft a WR, what rounds do you think it'd come in?

Gosselin: You can find a quality receiver in every round of every draft. There are annually more draft prospects at WR than any other position. The leading receiver on the NFC North champion Minnesota Vikings last season was Stefon Diggs, a rookie fifth round draft pick. Arguably the best WR in the NFL is Antonio Brown, a sixth-round draft pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Travis Benjamin just signed a big-money FA deal to leave the Browns for the Chargers. He was a fourth-rounder. You can find quality receivers throughout the draft ... if you know what you're looking for.


Question: Do you think the Cowboys need to find someone to return kicks/punts in the draft or should Dallas stick with what it's got with Lucky?


Gosselin: Whitehead intrigues me. If I can find a WR/KR combo that would address my 3rd or 4th WR position, I jump that player. But Whitehead showed some flashes last season that he could be the answer. But he had some fumble issues and that led to a lack of trust by the coaching staff, which led to weekly fair catches by Cole Beasley on punts. I'd like to see more of Whitehead. He's got all summer to work on his ball security.
 

bvhawkeye

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Last decent late round pick by Jerry was Scandrick. Been saying this for awhile (and having all the idiots on the Ranch Report say I'm wrong) that Jerry doesn't draft well outside the 3rd round.
 

MrB

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If they had drafted Bailey, Beasley, Leary, and Collins their record for drafting players beyond the 3rd round would look a lot better.
 

MrB

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Yeah but they didn't

It's strange that they can find guys after the draft but have had such a difficult time finding players late in the draft. Is it a different scout that searches for undrafted talent?
 

onlyonenow

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It's strange that they can find guys after the draft but have had such a difficult time finding players late in the draft. Is it a different scout that searches for undrafted talent?
when you look at our UDFA record it is probably better than just about anyone elses so that partially makes up for the late round bupkus
 
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It's strange that they can find guys after the draft but have had such a difficult time finding players late in the draft. Is it a different scout that searches for undrafted talent?

It's because so many of our mid to late round draft picks amount to nothing, so UDFA's get more playing time here and as such contribute more.

If our 2-7th rounders were better selections, then our UDFA's would rarely if ever see the field.
 

Doomsday

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Whitehead intrigues me. If I can find a WR/KR combo that would address my 3rd or 4th WR position, I jump that player. But Whitehead showed some flashes last season that he could be the answer. But he had some fumble issues and that led to a lack of trust by the coaching staff, which led to weekly fair catches by Cole Beasley on punts. I'd like to see more of Whitehead. He's got all summer to work on his ball security.
You want to see more fumbles from a shrimp who can't protect the ball with his stick-man arms. You're a moron.
 

ThoughtExperiment

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It's strange that they can find guys after the draft but have had such a difficult time finding players late in the draft. Is it a different scout that searches for undrafted talent?

That's where Jerry's deep pockets come in. Some of these guys like Leary are known by everyone to be talented, but Jerry outbids everyone. That has nothing to do with scouting talent, though. It's just being willing and able to spend money.

If the draft were 12 rounds like in the old days, we wouldn't get those guys.
 

MrB

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That's where Jerry's deep pockets come in. Some of these guys like Leary are known by everyone to be talented, but Jerry outbids everyone. That has nothing to do with scouting talent, though. It's just being willing and able to spend money.

If the draft were 12 rounds like in the old days, we wouldn't get those guys.

That's definitely true for both Leary and Collins. You could put Lucky Whitehead in that category too. He was one of the more coveted Undrafted players last year. Dunbar, and Beasley are local guys so that kind of explains them. And Bailey is kind of a local guy, local to this part of the country. I guess that explains that.
 

cmd34

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The whole UDFA is overblown here. Romo had no business going undrafted and was/is magic. Miles Austin was a short-time success. A lot of kickers are UDFA. La'el Collins was a freak situation.

Also, the thing about Jerry outbidding other teams is exaggerated. Teams can offer just as much, it's all about guaranteed money, specifically signing bonuses. For every Ronald Leary, there is a George Farmer and Jose Acuna. We certainly didn't outbid Seattle for Thomas Rawls last year.
 

cmd34

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That's definitely true for both Leary and Collins. You could put Lucky Whitehead in that category too. He was one of the more coveted Undrafted players last year. Dunbar, and Beasley are local guys so that kind of explains them. And Bailey is kind of a local guy, local to this part of the country. I guess that explains that.

Who the hell coveted Lucky Whitehead?
 

NoShame

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I don't have the time to do the research but I wonder how we would compare to the rest of the league over the last several years for rounds 4-7...
 

boozeman

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The Cowboys' approach the last few years is like the Seahawks, take high grade athletes and try to coach them up.

Doesn't work out too well. They need to concentrate more on taking productive football players and tone down the SPARQ shit.

Seattle might have got lucky with it, but you can look at their drafts and they don't have a lot to show for it either.
 

ThoughtExperiment

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The Cowboys' approach the last few years is like the Seahawks, take high grade athletes and try to coach them up.

Doesn't work out too well. They need to concentrate more on taking productive football players and tone down the SPARQ shit.

Seattle might have got lucky with it, but you can look at their drafts and they don't have a lot to show for it either.

Well Seattle has good coaches and a great culture, too. Total opposite of what we have.
 

Scot

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I don't have the time to do the research but I wonder how we would compare to the rest of the league over the last several years for rounds 4-7...

No real research needed

Just look back at last year and our ineptitude by all positions when it comes to depth. As soon as our starter was out of the game we faltered each and every time

We have a glaring weakness when it comes to depth. The later rounds is where you fill your roster with depth. Last season proved we failed miserably in this regard
 

NoShame

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No real research needed

Just look back at last year and our ineptitude by all positions when it comes to depth. As soon as our starter was out of the game we faltered each and every time

We have a glaring weakness when it comes to depth. The later rounds is where you fill your roster with depth. Last season proved we failed miserably in this regard

Scot, you tard, I know we don't do well. That wasn't the question.

I wanna see how other teams are doing and how we compare to them. If other teams are doing great (probably the packers and bengals) or if they're sucking just like us.
 
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