That doesn't bother me too much. Pre-draft rankings and the actual draft can be very different. Dallas had guys graded in the 3rd and 4th that went in the 1st round, so it's easy to be wrong when second-guessing. It's not like Frederick was a total unknown to scouts, because there's no such thing when you're a Wisconsin lineman. Maybe he goes in the 3rd, maybe he goes two picks later. We can't know. But we'll find out over the next few years if they've gotten any better at scouting and developing guys.

As far as Frederick as a high 2nd grade being selected at #31, that part is okay if only because you get a 5th year option on his contract. That's nice to have if you develop a good starter and could save you a lot of money one season. For example, Dez...we're a lot better off having him under contract two more seasons than we are with his deal expiring after this year. Imagine having to think about that right now.

Still, there is the question as to having your #5 overall player on the board at #18 and passing. Passing on Eifert (their #15) at #18 is fine though. We don't have much information on how much separation they saw between their #15 and #22 ranked players. And remember the 3rd rounder you get for moving back, which netted them their #23 ranked player.

Playing Devil's advocate, something the pure BPA argument tends to overlook is the idea that top picks need to contribute as a starter just about immediately. You get a first round pick for five years under a rookie deal; what if he's buried behind a veteran for one or two of those years? If Dee Milliner fell to #18, can you really get enough value from him on this team, given your commitments to other cornerbacks? Scandrick would have to stay this season for cap reasons. Mo and Carr are already here and will be for a while.

That makes sense to me when talking about Floyd. Ratliff has age & health concerns but Hatcher is a very good player.

But with an interior lineman, this team could potentially get 5 years of heavy contributions as a starter. They failed to get anybody in free agency (and are still failing at that) as far as o-line. Every o-lineman they graded higher was off the board.

All they have to do is be right about Frederick and Terrence Williams. If Fredbeard can handle the center position that's a big need addressed, and if Williams can be a killer #2 or modest #1 quality next year as his scouting grade suggest, that's an outrageous haul. You can get that pick back AND cut the cap down a good bit by trading Miles in that scenario.

We know their board and while it was executed a little sloppier than I'd like to see, what they did outside of the TE doesn't look insane based on the board, their roster makeup, and their cap situation going forward. Frederick fills a need. Escobar, Williams, Webb are ideally the cheaper/younger replacements for Witten, Miles, and Scandrick.

-Who by the way will collectively eat up about $23m in cap space next year just for the three of them, versus around $2.2m. There'd be some temporary cap charges to trade or release those vets but you can see there's a huge impact to keeping them around. Even if you keep 1 or 2 at least you have some option there. And again, there's possibly some trade value to Witten and Miles.

Anyway for my money, Frederick looks like a pretty solid pick so far especially this last game. You could see him showing a fair command of the line calls and playing tolerably well. Snaps got off okay (crazy! who knew). Centers have a lot to think about up there and he didn't look lost.

It's a little funny seeing him running out to the second level, looks pretty slow. Shows some rookie mistakes and I don't ever want to see him a guard again. But I didn't see anything to complain about for a rookie starter given the position and the weakness surrounding him.

PFR gave him a +0.3 vs the Raiders, brought down by two bad plays while at guard. No issues at center in pass protection. That's a nice showing for a rookie. If he can extend that league-average grade into his rookie season as a starter I'll fist pump all year long. Run blocking is a question but you can see how they have all these screens and runs to the outside they're setting up and that's common in 2-TE sets. (Hey if the interior line sucks and you've got all these TEs and no FB, why not run outside more? They didn't do much of that last year.)

Wish the rest of the draft class looked as comfortable as Frederick. Zero expected to start so that's good at least but some I don't know I trust on the field at all yet.

Well, here's to hoping Webb improves. He was God-awful in Oakland. Obviously, one preseason game isn't enough to judge on... but still.

Those guys being replacements for Witten, Miles, and Scandrick sounds...optimistic to say the least.

http://www.rotoworld.com/player/nfl/7804/ronald-leary

Great.

6 wins is really not impossible

UT: It's not optimism, just inevitability. All three of those vets could be viable one more season but something has to give among all those big contracts. Look at the state of the franchise today. It's all they can do to bring in discount free agents and that's after a ton of restructuring.

I really dislike Rick Gosselin of the DMN, but one thing he harps on which I agree with is how afraid of youth the Cowboys tend to be. They tend not to put a lot of young players out there until forced to.

Now I don't mean every single 6th round rookie should be starting instantly. But guys like Parnell, Lissemore, Wilber, Hanna, maybe Cook, Moore...what are they here for? Why give Costa, Lissemore & Parnell extensions if they can't play?

When you look back at how Ratliff, Romo, Miles, Hatcher, all got their starting jobs, someone had to get hurt. Hatcher rode the bench for 5 seasons behind Igor Olshansky and Marcus Spears types.

And if you try these guys and they fail, you get a Rob Petitti story. Don't know if you guys remember him, he was a 6th round tackle in Cowboys took in the very sick 2005 draft. He went the round before Ratliff. Seriously, look how sick that class was.

But Petitti, for those who forgot: 6th round nobody. Jacob Rogers was supposed to start, but he decides to sit the season out with an elected surgery that could have waited. Pisses team off and they cut him (a year after being a 2nd round pick). Petitti comes in as rookie, plays every single offensive down as starting right tackle all year. Doesn't do so hot but good effort and enough to not be benched, partially because Flozell also lost for the year. They go 9-7 after a rash of injuries. The following year Petitti doesn't even make the team, so they go out and get Marc Colombo.

To me that's fine. They could have gone and grabbed a street FA that year for $2m--sometimes useful, sometimes Alex Barron--but instead they went with a healthy in-house prospect and gave him a good look. Torrin Tucker and Rob Petitti were the tackles with Drew Bledsoe at QB. He took 49 sacks that year (lol), and actually Tucker didn't return to the team the following year either.

So I mean when I see Lissemore getting a 5-year deal, I wonder why? He's been around 3 seasons and barely sees the field. If he can play then give him a shot. If it doesn't work out, the money you save letting Ratliff go can pay for a replacement. And if he can't play, churn him out and get some fresh blood.

I guess I just don't see the point in cultivating career backups. A couple years is okay if there's a strong player with a good value contract in front of them. But if you're going into year 3, 4, 5 and giving them raises to stay backups while hanging on to older and progressively more costly and risky vets, I'm not sure I see how the team improves.

Yeah that Leary situation is tough, but fortunately it's a minor thing and not in the knee everyone's worried about. Livings is unlikely to be cut for salary cap reasons unless his injury worsens, and to lesser extent same with Bernadeau, unless you have five or six interior guys that are better.

Right now this is really more about Arkin and Costa, they need to show that they're worth a roster spot at all. Arkin's been getting plenty of reps past two camps and Costa has experience. They're battling every street free agent and August 31 cut for a job.

Between Leary, Bernadeau, Livings and some as-yet-unknown vet you've got your two starters. Then you need a swing guy and maybe an extra center or guard and those are the spots up for grabs. Injuries make things pretty weird because some players aren't good enough to wait around for. You can't go into a reg season game dressing less than 5 interior linemen so it can get really tricky elsewhere on the roster.

Remember anyone on the roster after Game 1 gets paid for the year. So if they stash a couple extra o-line guys as inactives to protect their rights, guys like McCray or 6th WR could be difficult. DeVonte Holloman, Sims, Moore could be lost because of that also. So at some point they'll have to decide whether a couple guards off the street make more sense if they're healthy and ready to go now.

Very tough spot, more so if anyone else goes down on the o-line. Don't even want to think about what could go wrong with the only 3 viable tackles they have. If Waters can still play and decides to sign that would help a lot but I'm not holding my breath.

Great opportunity for Arkin.

kind of looking forward to 4:30. Few guys I'm really curious about.

Dallas with three turnovers in a little over a quarter against Arizona. Dez, Dwayne Harris, and Dunbar all fumbled.

Cowboys football everyone!

Romo's 7/10 for 142. But he overthrew an open guy.... better blame him!

Whelp....

Guys this is gonna be some year

Dallas 1st team offense: 0 points but looks good outside of turnovers. In regular season form already.

Turnover #4!

HOW HIGH CAN WE GO!

So who is Selvie?

Dammit. Revising my 8-8 prediction to 7-9. I know lol preseason but its that ugly.

Who should our next coach be?

This **** is embarrassing. We should be raping them right now.

haha welcome to the sub .500 club. Plenty of room for you.

I started looking at some 2014 mocks, deep draft! 4 QBs, 3-4 WR's, 2-3 RB's in round 1?

Turnover #5 for us.

gogogogo

lol

Romo looked good but that overthrow was pretty bad

maybe they are just getting the turnovers out of their system? lol

George Selvie has played really well for a guy off the street. I think he makes the team.

Best guess

Romo
Orton

Murrary
Dunbar
Randle
Tanner

Dez
Miles
Harris
Williams
Beasley
Armstrong

Witten
Hanna
Escobar
Rosario

Tyron
Parnell
Free
Bell or Unknown Free Agent

Unknown Free Agent
Livings
Bernadeau
Leary
Arkin
Costa
Frederick

Spencer
Ware
Wilber
Selvie

Ratliff
Hatcher
Lissemore
Bass
Hayden

Lee
Carter
Durant
Holloman
Sims

Claiborne
Carr
Scandrick
Moore
Webb

Church
Allen
Johnson
Wilcox

Bailey
Jones
Ladouceur


Practice squad

QB Tanney
WR Rogers
TE Smith
LB Magee
DT Pendleton
FS Hamilton
Don’t know
Don’t care

Hope we get a half decent look at T Wiliams next game. Sounds like he's a decent player.

He's in a good spot right now. Dez and Miles are healthy, Harris and Cole can appear in their packages as needed. Phase in Williams as he catches on. Hopefully he can work his way into Miles' job and save about $4m in cap space next year, and $5m in 2015. And that's factoring in Williams' salary.

Williams, Webb, Moore, Leary, every TE, every backup defensive lineman, Wilcox, Holloman, Parnell... All have someone old/pricey/expiring contract in front of them. The more of these guys that step up the easier things will be next year. These are the guys they're gambling on to get them out of the mess they're in some are going to have to come through. They don't have any extra draft picks or much cap space beyond the guys they need to re-sign.

Can anybody see keeping Ratliff or Spencer next season? Hatcher is the only guy I see them extending as far as the crew up front. If he's as good as last year he might command a good $4-$5m on the free agent market too. Wilber, Hayden, Bass, Lissemore...show something, please.

Spencer is 100% gone

Ratliff idk

So Dimes has:

Texans -2 wins vs Cowboys

Ya I snap bet that.

6 year extension for Sean Lee at $7-8.5mm per year. I like it as long as he stays on the field and out of the trainer's room.