The Cowboys Can’t Miss This Draft… Mavericks Already Missed Theirs | Just Wondering with Norm

On today's episode of Just Wondering,
two different segments on the incredibly important draft
coming up for the Cowboys and lots of different scenarios
for them, including the names of draftable players
that the Cowboys like.
And then, when is a win actually a loss?
Ask the Dallas Mavericks.
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I don't think you know overstated just how critical
next week's NFL draft is for the Cowboys.
They have picks 12 and 20 in the first round.
They have no second-rounder.
They have eight picks and all.
When free agents began, this team had a lot of holes.
Now they signed free agent safety training.
This team had a lot of holes.
Now they signed free agent safety jail in Thompson
who will step right in and start here.
Also, cornerback Kobe Durant is probably a starter
at this moment.
That's awaiting results of the draft and the health of Durant blend.
They traded for outside linebacker defensive end,
Russian Gary from Green Bay.
And what is now a starting defensive tackle
in Othito Bonilla.
Now, his history is in all that good.
In four years in the league with the chargers,
he only started one of his four years.
And in his four years, he has one half of a sack
and four tackles for a loss.
But right now, he's a starter.
There are still so many holes.
And remember, they traded away defensive tackle
Osaru Digizua to get a third-rounder in this draft.
He was pretty good player.
So, what's left?
Where do they need?
Well, they need an edge rusher.
I think they need two linebackers, a cornerback and a safety.
That's all on the defensive side of the ball.
And let's hone in on that number 12 pick in the first round.
That pick's got to be a walking starter for the Cowboys this year.
Several top defensive players are at the very top of the draft.
But there's always a bud.
There might be a very real scenario happen,
where the Cowboys don't get any of the five or six defensive players
they'd like still on the board at number 12.
Here's the Cowboys first-round wish list, if you would,
for who they'd like to be at number 12.
I think they'd take any of these players at 12.
Linebacker sunny styles.
I think that would be the very best pick.
This is a star out of Ohio State.
Safety Caleb Downs.
Another star out of Ohio State.
There's defensive end David Bailey from Texas Tech,
probably the best edge rusher in the draft.
There's Ruben Bain, the Miami of Florida, edge rusher.
Good player.
There's the cornerback Mansour Delane out of LSU.
And finally, there's yet another Ohio State player.
Outside linebacker edge rusher Arvel Reese.
But here's a very real problem.
The consensus draft experts I follow,
when I take all their picks combined.
All these players are gone before number 12 in the draft.
That doesn't mean one of them might not slide.
But right now, there's a very real chance that that happens.
That might leave Dallas taking the best player left available.
Carback German McCoy from Tennessee.
Fantastic player in 2024.
Looked like a top 10 draft choice until he blew out his knee in 2025.
And didn't play a single snap.
He has run at the combine and ran a solid 4.3840.
But Dallas got burned last year,
taking the cornerback, Shavan Ravel,
who'd blown out his knee while he was playing at East Carolina.
He wasn't ready to start the season.
Cowboys and cannot have a ready,
not have a non-ready player at number 12.
And they also said right after the season ended that in this draft
they didn't intend to take anybody coming off a significant injury.
They'd gotten burned with Rval.
And they didn't want that to happen again.
But McCoy might have to be the choice if those first six are gone.
There's talk of Dallas trading up a few spots.
Maybe into the top, I don't know, seven or so.
But Dallas doesn't have the ammo to potentially trade up that far.
Unless they're willing to give up that third round draft choice
that they acquired for O'Jiggie Zoo,
and they need that third round pick.
But still, how far would that get them up in the first round anyway?
And Dallas must have whoever they take starting again.
Now there is one possible trade scenario
Dallas is willing to do it.
To move up to say, I don't know, number six,
where I think they would gut styles.
Would they give up next year's number one draft pick,
leaving them no number one next year?
And also realize that the people who study drafts for a living
suggest the 27 draft may be one of the richest they've ever seen.
And if they do make that trade,
Dallas also doesn't have a number two next year.
So their first pick would be in the third round.
I don't know if Dallas would give up next year's pick.
But they want a star.
They want a star.
And they'd like to get another really good player at number 20.
If they did give up number one next year,
well, they'd still have that star they traded up for this year
and the 20th pick at the first round.
Now, understand that cowboy, the cowboy's heavy picks.
But only four of them come in the first 151 players drafted.
The cowboys have three number fives and a number seven.
Dallas, Dallas needs this draft to be a big hit.
They need both number one thing to three
and the four to provide really good players.
Would they give up draft capital to try to get the one player
they could call is going to be a star?
Well, that's the first round.
The 12th pick.
But you know, there are lots of other scenarios
for their second first round pick.
Number 12, and that's next.
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In every first round of the NFL draft every year,
there are exactly 32 picks, one each for every team.
But that doesn't mean there are actually 32 first round talents.
I've seen years where there may be only 13 or 14 players
that you could actually call first rounders.
This year, well, the people who studied the draft
and that includes me, by the way, think there may be 16, 17,
18 players who actually qualify as first round talents.
And this is a draft, though, that has really solid depth
for the second, third and fourth rounds.
And if Dallas gets the chance,
they might be thrilled to swap the number 20 pick
for perhaps an early second rounder and third rounder.
Why do that?
Well, this draft has lots of players
at positions the Cowboys wouldn't love to have.
It's got solid depth at corner.
And there's good linebackers available.
And there's even an edge rusher or two
that the Cowboys like.
And by the way, many of these players, most of them,
the Cowboys have had in to visit at the star this off season.
So, who might be on this list of second round potential Dallas targets?
These are potential second rounders the Cowboys could very much like to have.
Linebacker Jacob Rodriguez from Texas Tech is a tackle machine.
Oklahoma edge rusher are Mason Thomas.
Another linebacker from Texas, Anthony Hill from the Texas Longhorns.
And there's several cornerbacks who could be available
in the middle of the second round.
So if Dallas hadn't filled their needed corner
with their first pick, either number 12 or by trade,
they would be looking for a corner.
And that list could include San Diego State Corner, Chris Johnson.
He's a rising player in this draft.
Miami corner Colante Scott, another player the Cowboys have brought in.
And there's even a chance that South Carolina's Brandon Cece could fall that far.
All six of these players are projected to be taken somewhere between about picks 35 and 60.
But to dance, you've got to have someone to dance with.
You need a trade partner who's identified someone at number 20 still on the board
that they really want and they're willing to pay for it.
But if such a trade is made, the Cowboys are amongst the NFL teams most likely to do it.
Since Jerry Jones took over this team in 1989,
Dallas has made a whopping 73 draft day deals,
more than any other team in the NFL over that period.
So here's the Cowboys dream draft scenario for me.
Have one of those players fall to a 12 or be aggressive
and perhaps trade next year's number one to go up to maybe six to get styles
or I don't think Bailey's there. I don't think Reese's there.
Downs could be there, but to get a star at that point.
And then to be able to trade down in the second round
so that they could have a second and an extra third
and get one of those players we identified who would be second round targets for the Cowboys.
And speaking of drafts, the Mavericks draft,
and a scenario about a forgettable victory on last Sunday.
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Staying with Draft Talk for this third and final segment of just wondering,
when is a win actually a loss?
I know that sounds somewhere between silly and dumb,
but the maverick's season closing win over Chicago.
That victory was actually a loss.
The maves blueprint for the future depends on how many quality players
they can put around superstar in the waiting coop flag.
The maves have this year's lottery pick
to add a terrific young player,
probably they'd like to add a point guard in this year's draft,
to add the importance of this year's pick.
Next year, 2027,
Dallas does not have any picks,
not a first or second rounder.
And this number one then
must be a centerpiece part of the maverick's future.
That brings us back to that win over Chicago.
On Sunday, that victory was truly a totally useless win.
That victory ensured the maverick's draft position this year.
Going of that game,
Dallas was tied for sixth,
the sixth pick, sixth or seventh pick, with Memphis.
But by winning Sunday,
and when the Grizzlies lost,
Dallas moved up in the draft.
They moved into a tie for seventh or eighth
with the New Orleans Pelicans.
Memphis will now assuredly select before Dallas,
unless the mavericks again get crazy lucky in the draft,
in the lottery, and move into the top four,
as they did last year when they got Cooper flag at number one.
But if lightning doesn't strike twice in the same place,
that means the mavericks will choose either seventh or eighth
in this draft.
If after the lottery,
the mavericks and New Orleans remain tied,
that means neither of them have moved into top four.
If they remain tied,
there'll be a draw to tell which one gets to pick seventh
and which one gets to pick eighth.
By the way, that Sunday victory,
it also means that the mavs will have less ping pong balls
in that lottery pick.
So if Dallas doesn't move up,
thereby not getting one to four in the draft,
and then they lose the draw with New Orleans,
they will pick number eight.
And if one of the teams further down gets lucky
and jumps up into the top four,
as Dallas did last year,
it would move the mavs down yet another notch.
Listen,
there are lots of good players available in this draft.
But this dropping down a notch or two or three,
Dallas, by everyone's thinking,
wants a terrific point guard in this draft.
My favorite,
Arkansas's Darius Acuff,
I believe he'll be gone by the sixth pick.
And probably, almost certainly,
Houston's Kingston Flemmings,
not a great name,
Kingston Flemmings will also be off the board.
Should Dallas fall even that spotter too later,
if they don't win the draw with New Orleans,
if they fall down because someone jumps up in the lottery,
Illinois freshman point guard Keaton Wagler
may have disappeared also.
That would leave only one pretty accomplished young guard.
And that's still a pretty good player.
His name is Braden Burries from Arizona.
But I think in the estimation of the people
who follow college basketball,
Flemmings and Acuff would be considered
a notch above Wagler and Burries.
And maybe Wagler still a touch before Burries.
In that final game,
it can Chicago.
Dallas played a whole bunch of its kids,
rested a whole bunch of veterans,
just threw a bunch of kids out on the floor.
Kids like Guard Ryan Nemhard,
the center Musa-Sise,
one of the great names in NBA basketball,
Musa-Sise,
Tyler Smith,
and John Polakidis,
who just started appearing games for the Mavericks about,
maybe a month ago.
But those kids,
desperately wanting to show
they belonged in the NBA,
those kids didn't give a damn
about NBA draft positioning.
They played their hearts out.
They wanted to show Dallas the whole league,
hey, I belong here.
None of these players started the year in the NBA.
They all worked their way up onto a Maverick team.
Now, in that game Sunday,
Nemhard set the all-time Mavericks record
for assists in a game with 23.
Sise had an incredible 20 rebounds.
Polakidis poured in his career high by a lot,
scoring 28,
and Smith chipped in 20.
They totaled these four kids
in a game totaled.
80 points,
38 rebounds,
and 29 assists.
Hey,
they don't care about the Maverick's draft position.
They had to feel thrilled
at their last game performances,
and you know what?
You had to be happy for them,
but what might that one win
eventually cost the Mavericks?
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