Photos of Cowboys' first round pick Frederick >>
IRVING, Texas – This draft will boil down to one player.
Never mind the fact that the Cowboys should get production and immediate contributions from at least three or four draft picks. If their first selection doesn’t pan out, that’s all anyone will remember if the running game stalls yet again.
The Cowboys made a bold and heavily criticized decision to trade down from No. 18 to No. 31 and gain a third-round pick, netting them center 
Owner/general manager Jerry Jones, executive vice president Stephen Jones and head coach Jason Garrett went on to describe Frederick as a cornerstone piece that can solidify the line. They see Frederick as a player they can build their team around.
They felt so great about what Frederick could do that they didn’t use another pick in the draft to bolster the position of need.
“We needed and were going to get us a foundation for our offensive line,” Jerry Jones said. “Certainly, there were a couple at the top that magically didn’t fall down there (to pick 31) in the interior. That would have been a dream for them to fall down there and you could have operated like that. As far as base, as far as all the things that will give (Tony) Romo a half of a second, potentially, this was a player.”
Talk about pressure to produce for a player that no one – not even Frederick himself – expected to go in the first round.
Jerry Jones described Frederick as the “last of the Mohicans,” in terms of players the Cowboys valued at the spot that could immediately help out on the offensive line. After Eric Reid was taken by the 49ers, offensive linemen Justin Pugh and Kyle Long immediately got picked up quicker than many anticipated.
As eight valuable offensive line commodities went off the board before the Cowboys used their late first-round pick, they weren’t going to let Frederick do the same by holding off on the Wisconsin lineman until the second or third round. By getting him in the first, they’re also able to get a full five years out of the pick.
“When we have him and (Tyron) Smith on the outside, we can fill in the blanks as we go along over the next few years, if he is the player we expect him to be there,” Jerry Jones said. “We needed that face. Romo called and said, ‘Thank you for my extra half second.’ That is going to mean more to us than anything I can say.”
If the Cowboys promised Romo they’d focus on bolstering the line, all that focus was put into just one pick. Frederick’s the only lineman they took on either side of the ball in a draft where offensive and defensive linemen could have helped.
Frederick said he’s ready to use the criticism the Cowboys garnered for the pick as motivation. For the Cowboys to come out of this draft as winners, they’ll need him to do just that after putting all their faith in a lineman that 31 other teams wouldn’t have considered so early.
If he doesn’t meet the Cowboys’ lofty expectations, the construction of a viable offensive line could be back to square one.
