For the record, I think the Cowboys need to walk away from draft weekend this year with another Wide Receiver. TO is going on 35 although still playing at a high level. Terry Glenn has become one of my all time favorites, but coming off 2 knee surgeries last season and his age we can’t really count on him for the long haul. Maybe not even for the short haul. Patrick Crayton is a nice player. He is a good #3, but he is never going to be a #1 and honestly he is best suited behind a solid #2. Miles Austin and Sam Hurd? They are getting to the “they are what they are phase” in their careers. Solid contributors? Maybe. Superstars in the making—-NO. So why not. We have the draft choices. Why not use them!

(My man Limas Sweed not only plays great—he is not a jerk with character issues!!)

BUT–probably not in the way you are thinking. I said the Cowboys need to come way from draft weekend with another WR. I didn’t say they had to draft one!!! So far the rumors have been rampant! Anquan Boldin wants out of Arizona after Fitzgerald signed his mega deal. Roy Williams is rumored to want out of Detroit, and would love to get back to his home state of Texas—again rumored. The Lions and Roy both claim publicly that’s not the case, but the rumors keep swirling anyway. Chad Johnson is telling anyone that will listen he wants out of the ‘Nati. Where would he like to go—-well he answered that question by saying “its just a question of which finger to put the ring on if I go to Dallas.” Without thinking about it twice I would give the #28 pick for any of those 3. I would give the #22 for any of those 3. All of these players are on teams that insist they will not be traded. Funny, the Raiders said the same thing last year about Moss. Any one of these 3 gives Romo another huge target. In order of my wish list I would take Roy Williams first, Anquan Boldin second, and Chad Johnson third. BUT the reality is if Jerry can swing it with any of these—–pull the trigger NOW!!!

There are some nice players in this draft, but WR is not a position of strength per the scouts. Some team is going to find a Pro Bowl wideout in this draft. Do you know which guy? Neither does anyone else. Many more teams are going to land nice complimentary players. We need a sure fire, already proven STAR to put on the field now. Which brings me to the other point… Name the last WR who had a sensational break out year as a rookie. Can you? The last one I can think of was Moss. He may end up being #1a with Rice when it is all said and done. WRs take time to develop. It usually takes 3 years to grow one within your system out of college. It did with Michael Irvin out of Miami too. Lets just get a guy now that can make the difference between the Crayton drop that beats the Giants in that stupid playoff game—and someone making that catch and getting a trophy of our own!

Like Parcells is famous for saying, “They don’t sell insurance for this kind of thing.” Being able to make a trade depends on another teams willingness to make a deal. If not, there are some options out there. Each one of them comes with his own set of questions though. Jerry has to be ready to draft one if he can’t make a trade. So lets take a look at the likely suspects (and suspects is probably the right term legal and otherwise for some of these characters!!):

Malcom Kelly from the University of Oklahoma. I was convinced he would be long gone by the time we draft. Now, I am not sure at all. During his college career he was simply great. Every time he touches the ball he may take it the distance. He is big, solid (although he will need to add 10 pounds), catches the ball very well, and runs like a deer. He gets great separation, runs great routes, and pretty much kills the Texas Longhorns annually—which is the negative I would tell you about him. I thought for sure he would go #11 to Buffalo as the first WR off the board. However, I think he just blew it!! There was never any indication of character issues with Kelley. Not until today anyway. Kelly injured a quad late in OU’s season. The injury slowed him, forced him to miss the Fiesta Bowl, and then to miss the combine. Indications were that he had been preparing hard for his Pro Day. That took place earlier this week, and it was a disater. He ran 40 times in the high 4.6s. That was not good, but what he did after was worse. He got into a screaming match with his OU Strength and Conditioning coach. He told everyone that would listen that he had set Kelly up to fail in his Pro Day workouts. His big beef was that he had to run the 40 on field turf instead of astroturf. Exactly what do NFL teams play on? Field turf!!! Then he accused the OU medical staff of intentionally misleading him about his thigh injury to hold him back!! Now, I hate OU. Really—not a fan! But are you kidding me!! Why would OU want one of their big time guys sliding in the draft? Wouldn’t that be a great recruiting draw to hold Kelly up as a top pick? Most WRs have a lot of drama in them—just comes with the position—but I really don’t want that crap from a rookie!! I say pass on him even if he is there.

DeSean Jackson from Cal is a guy I have seen in many mock drafts winding up going somewhere between the #21 and #29 picks in the draft. We have 2 picks in that range—so he is a serious candidate to wind up in Dallas. I have heard him referred to as this years version of Ted Ginn, Jr. who the Dolphins drafted very high last year. Most people think too high. Jackson can absolutely catch the ball. He may have the best hands in the draft. From what I have seen he could catch a beebee in the dark! On the field, he was typically impressive on the college level. I don’t think I saw him have any drops. He also has very good speed(mid 4.4s), and because of that he can not only stretch the field on routes, but is a legitimate threat in the kick return game. It seems like the Cowboys are looking at a lot of those types of guys this draft, but ultimately—-how many guys can you have doing it? Jackson’s most likely to contribute in the return game as a rookie. Why? Well other than the fact it takes time to develop as a WR in the NFL he is a very small guy. He weighs 170 pounds soaking wet, and from the sounds of his college coach he may be allergic to the weight room. I can think of some safeties in our division alone (Dawkins and Landry) that would love nothing more than to catch him running across the field on a bubble screen or short slant. My next concern is that he is a bit immature. His attitude has been called into question a number of times. He is not a bad guy—just maybe not a solid team guy. Maybe you put up with that from a star because his play overcomes it—-but from a rookie? He was benched for the first quarter of Cal’s bowl game this year for some kind of misconduct. I don’t know. Something about a guy that doesn’t care enough about his college team or college career enough to stay out of the doghouse to end his time at Cal right—that just bothers me, a lot. My final knock/thoughts on DeSean are that some people think he looks like Santana Moss who has been able to make the most out of his abilities (but slight build) to have a very good NFL career. I loved this player, but to me he looks more like Rocket Ismail. Rocket was awesome when he could play, but about the 3rd catch in every game I remember him on the bench injured or dinged for the rest of the game. And then sometimes out for the next game. Could he help, yes. Does he make an immediate impact—I have to say no.

Early Doucet of LSU is another guy that may be there at #22 for us—most likely gone before #28. He played with Dwayne Bowe at LSU, and is compared to him in many ways. Dwayne Bowe did have a solid rookie year, and a contribution like that would be welcomed. Doucet has battled a number of injury issues over the last year so I am not sure I got the best read on watching him play. LSU did when a National Championship—-and Doucet is widely considered the teams go to play maker. That counts for something. The 2 things that don’t excite me about him are his speed and his lack of contribution to the running game. Think of the really good WRs the Boys have had over the past 15 years. I would say the 3 best over that time period are Irvin, Keyshawn Johnson (although one could argue Glenn—but that would be counter to my argument), and TO. All 3 of those guys not only caught the rock, but they would knock the heck out of their guys on run plays. Doucet does not do that, and I don’t think he wants to do that. The other knock is he just doesn’t play fast or explode off the line. His 40 times were not great (mid 4.6s), but some players over come that by just playing fast. I don’t think he does that. I am probably being to harsh on him, but he doesn’t excite me nearly as much as the thought of a Roy Williams, Boldin, or Chad Johnson. Not fair to compare a college kid in the draft to those guys—but thats what I am holding him up to. Ironic because I really wanted Dallas to draft Bowe last year, but I could pass on Doucet and not lose sleep over it.

That brings us to our next enigma. Devin Thomas from Michigan State. Devin Thomas had a great 2007. He caught 79 balls for almost 1300 yards during his Junior year. He is also a dangerous kick return threat. He was 11th in the nation averaging just about 30 yards per return. Get this, he averaged over 199 yards per game between his receptions and kick returns! What would that mean in an NFL game! One player giving your team 200 yards a game! Thats probably worth 7 - 10 points by himself! He is probably the strongest WR coming out of college this year. Not only is he super strong—-he is also really fast. Not blazing, but for his size he is as fast as you would ever need him to be. Based on his 2007 he maybe that future Pro Bowl guy we mentioned earlier. So why am I not drooling over him wearing a star? How can I say this—without saying it? I can’t. Odds are pretty good he is DUM-B!!! I mean rock D-U-M-B!!!! He was a TOP rated college football player who grew up in of all places Ann Arbor, MI. Don’t you think that Coach Carr at Michigan would have traded heaven and earth to get this kid in a winged helmet? The fact that he didn’t has to say something. But worse, he didn’t even go straight to Michigan State. He went to a Community College, and here is the kicker—-he redshirted!!!! Who redshrits at a JUCO!!!!!!!! Now some people just need some time to mature and I get that. In 2005 he did play very well at the JUCO he attended. Somehow he managed to become academically eligible to enroll and play at MSU. My guess is he had to pick his name from a list of 3 on the application and circle it. Not only that, but in his first year at MSU he caught a total of 6 passes. 6! What does that tell you about the team’s faith that he could contribute and stay in school. My guess is in 2007 they didn’t worry about it. Who cared what his grades would be because he wasn’t coming back!! Get him on the field and put him to work. AND he did. Fantastically. He accomplished more than I think anyone could have expected of him. But even scouts are warning teams that he will very likely struggle to learn a complicated playbook. Who in the NFL doesn’t have a complicated playbook? Seriously. Could I be wrong about him? Absolutely. I really hope that I am. I have been wrong about tons of stuff—especially as it relates to football. I hope he has a successful career, and goes on to the kind of success Roger Staubach has (and people forget some questioned his IQ before getting to the Naval Academy) had after football. It could happen, but I am not jumping up and down to bet my #22 or #28 pick on it. Can you imagine Romo in the huddle calling out a complicated play and then looking at Thomas and telling him just run 12 steps and then go left, I mean that way because he gets right and left confused. How do you make an audible off of that at the line!!??

So far have you read or seen anything that makes you want to spend a pick on these guys so much you wouldn’t take a proven guy in a trade? I haven’t. These next two guys hurt me to review because I cheered for both of them their entire careers at Michigan and Texas respectively. Lets start with the guy I hoped we would get all fall, and then had to decide wasn’t worth the risk. This hurts….

Super Mario Manningham. Mario made play after play after play. He and Henne had that rarest of special bonds that happens in football when a WR and a QB just absolutely know what the other is going to do. Mario runs one of the prettiest deep routes I have ever seen in college. He catches the ball effortlessly. I have seen pretty much every Michigan game (not everyone—but 85%) of them while he has been there, and I don’t remember him EVER dropping a pass. I imagined him in a Cowboys uniform for years!!! Then when the first mock drafts came out most of them had Manningham landing here in Dallas!! Perfect! Thats about the time that the bottom feel out. Michigan is very secretive about player misconduct. There were a handful of games over his career in which Manningham was listed as unavailable. Lloyd Carr, his coach, went out of his way to say that he never said suspended. Just unavailable. Michigan is also crazy secretive about injuries—-so we all assumed he had some kind of undisclosed injury. Well unfortunately, now the truth has come out—-well kind of… Manningham showed up at the combine out of shape and unready to perform. How stupid is that with millions of dollars on the line. Then to make things worse he was asked if he had ever failed a drug test. He said no. It has now come out that Manningham failed not one but 2 drug test for the use of marijuana. Not only that, but during his time in Ann Arbor he apparently had a series of “off field incidents” that were dealt with quietly. These revelations have motivated some teams to remove Manningham from their draft boards entirely. Would I still love to see him as a Cowboy. Yeah, I can’t let it go—I would. But if you asked me objectively if we should spend a first round pick on him than the answer is no.

(Why Mario!!! Why!!!???)

That brings me to my other favorite that I can’t really say I want to spend a first round pick on—-Limas Sweed. Other than maybe Manningham there is not a WR in football I have cheered more for than Limas. Limas started the year as the top WR on the board period. He was expected to do great things. How is this for a stat—-nearly half of his catches in his first 3 years (71 of them) went for touchdowns (31). Find me a player with that many catches that can say that. If Limas had entered the 2007 NFL draft I am almost 100% sure it would have been him rather that Ted Ginn taken at #11 overall by the Dolphins. Why did Sweed come back? Because he felt like the team needed him, and that he was a leader on the team. So what is there not too love about taking him in round one. Well, he drops passes at really bad times. Not a lot, but more than you want a top WR to drop. In the Cowboys offense he would be a player that could not drop any passes. When he gets his chances—he will have to make the most of them, or we might as well keep Hurd or Miles out there. For this draft and this WR need—-its about 2008—-not the long run. The long runs must come in rounds 4 and on this year to accomplish the goal of getting to a Super Bowl. Complicating matters further, Limas hurt his left wrist before the season began. He just could not get himself healthy. The injury ultimately required surgery, and ended his year 6 games into his Sr. campaign. Rumors have been somewhat rampant that the wrist is still not right, and may never quite be 100% again. That is a HUGE risk to take in the first round. I also have perspective that many teams refused to pick Adrian Peterson last year because of his shoulder injury. Now many of those teams are kicking themselves. So would I take Limas at #22, no. Would I take him at #28. I would love it as a Texas fan, but I still don’t think we should if there is a solid player that fills a more pressing need. If I could get him in round 2 would I? I would throw a parade if that happened!

After those guys there are some really talented project guys that should be around from the start of round 3 on. James Hardy from Indiana probably goes early in round 2. I have not seen enough of him to speak much about him, but he is 6′6″, 220 pounds. That alone coupled with his speed make him a worth while project for some team. BUT with Dallas looking to find the speed guy to go across from TO I don’t think he is the fit. Not to mention the fact he was arrested and charged with assaulting his girlfriend and infant son. Can’t make some of this stuff up. I watched D.J. Hall a lot at the University of Alabama. I really like him in the 3rd round or beyond, but again he is a project. He is not a week 1 change your offense guy. Beyond those 2 there are 35 other guys in the draft to pick from. The ones that I like as mid - late round projects are Adrian Arrington (character issues), Billy Pittman, and Maurice Purify(domestic violence charges). What does it tell you about this years draft class for WRs that so many of them are goofballs???

In summary—get me Roy Williams from Detroit!! If you can’t then get me Anquan Boldin or Chad Johnson. If you can’t do that—well get me value. Whether its a trade down for Sweed or Manningham at the top of the 2nd round I can live with it. What we can’t do is miss with the pick in round 1!!!!

Thoughts, ideas, questions, disagreements?

Let me know.

Next up - Cornerback.