(Editor's Note: Time to check the mail! The DallasCowboys.com staff writers answer your questions here in 'Mailbag' presented by Miller Lite.)
Why did the Cowboys sign so many guards in free agency, and then use their first-round pick to draft another guard? Was that the best use of the pick?– Angel Medrano/Baytown, TX**
Patrik: My answer, put simply, is because Tetairoa McMillan was gone. Again, that is my answer. Theirs is the same, but with more context, given their attempts to trade back that went unsuccessful before they ultimately decided to pull the trigger on Tyler Booker, a guard out of Alabama who was the highest-graded player on their board at the time. It wasn't Matthew Golden (I'm told he didn't receive a first-round grade from Dallas) or anyone else at any other position. They chose their BPA (best player available), and it's hard to begrudge them that when looking at the matter of Zack Martin's retirement.
Sure, I believe Brock Hoffman could be a capable starter in the NFL; but it's also true that didn't mean an upgrade wasn't possible and, when considering the defensive interiors of the NFC East rivals, along with injury issues that usually plague Dallas' O-line and require capable depth like Hoffman or T.J. Bass — again, how could you begrudge the Cowboys for picking their BPA who, oh by the way, also happens to instantly, hopefully, make your offensive interior a bit of a force to reckon with alongside Cooper Beebe and All-Pro left guard Tyler Smith.
The prettiest pick? No. But neither was Tyler Smith, or Martin before him, or Travis Frederick before him, or Tyron Smith before all of them.
The pick made perfect sense, all things considered.
Tommy: You can make the argument all day long that the Cowboys could've taken a player at a position of need with the 12th overall pick, but they did exactly what they said they were going to do: take the best players available, regardless of what they did in free agency. That was the position they were in, and Booker was the highest rated player at that spot on the board. When you've got to replace a Hall of Fame talent at the position, you want to use high end draft capital there to ensure as seamless of a transition as you can make, and I think Booker gives you immediate plug-and-play ability, and the signings they made in free agency add depth to the roster if the injury bug bites like it did last year.
Mailbag
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