Welcome to Hypothetical City.
I'm the Mayor, Governor, and President of this land and I've come up with quite the hypothetical situation for you to sink your teeth into. I hope that you're ready.
Pretend that you're the General Manager of the Dallas Cowboys. Congratulations on the promotion!
You have the exact same needs that the Dallas Cowboys do on today – January 13th, 2016. You're coming off of a 4-12 season where Tony Romo broke his clavicle twice, Matt Cassel had an intentional grounding call on an interception, and Byron Jones captured our hearts. All of this heartbreak earned you the 4th Overall Pick in the upcoming Draft.
The reason the name on the sign when you drive into town reads “Hypothetical City” is because the pool of players that you're selecting from is the 2014 NFL Draft Class… and you know everything about them that you do today. Oh AND you already have Zack Martin on your team. Talk about an advantage!
In case you want a list of how that Draft went down, I'm setting this up for you to slam dunk, you can refresh your memory by clicking here.
Shall we begin?
The first three picks are Jadeveon Clowney, Greg Robinson, and Blake Bortles… just like they were in the actual 2014 NFL Draft. You are, with the 2016 Dallas Cowboys needs and knowledge of how this class has performed over the last two seasons, now on the clock. What do you do?
Are you going to take Odell Beckham Jr.? You could pair him nicely with Dez Bryant and have what would easily be the best wide receiver duo on this planet. If you're worried about him handling the big media market that is Dallas you could always go Sammy Watkins or Mike Evans if you really want a receiver. Don't forget that Allen Robinson is an option at this position, too!
How about you go with Khalil Mack? We're talking about the first player to ever be named All-Pro at two positions now! He would immediately provide a big-time pass rush. I mean, the guy sacked Brock Osweiler five times in a game a few weeks ago. You could use that, right?
Of course you could anchor the interior of your defensive line with Aaron Donald. He's been to two Pro Bowls, was a First-Team All-Pro in 2015, and is the reigning Defensive Rookie of the Year with a solid shot at the Defensive Player of the Year. He immediately makes your team better.
Ryan Shazier just announced himself to the world with his fine play against the Cincinnati Bengals in last week's Wild Card Round of the Playoffs. How about him? If Rolando McClain leaves via free agency you could put him in the middle and keep Sean Lee at the weakside spot. And holy moly if McClain sticks around you've got a trio of linebackers that puts some serious fear in anyone running into them.
The same argument can be made for C.J. Mosley or Anthony Barr. Linebackers are always welcome in Rod Marinelli's defense and maybe Shazier isn't as fun to say out loud as Mosley or you want a shirt that says “Barr-barian” so you go one of these routes. Maybe?
If you're still not satisfied, you better hurry though the clock is ticking, there's always Calvin Pryor or Ha Ha Clinton-Dix. You've been trying to find that lockdown safety ever since Darren Woodson retired and surely one of these two along with Byron Jones could put together quite the collection of interceptions for your defense.
This is a lot to think about. Take your time.
…oh wait there's one more position group to consider! My bad!
Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel, and Derek Carr are on the board. Remember now that Tony Romo broke his clavicle twice last season so you really, really, really need a quarterback.
You should probably get one of these guys because that's what's going to help you the most this season, right?
Oh.
You mean to tell me that you're not so sure that Teddy Bridgewater, Johnny Manziel, OR Derek Carr are better than any of the guys that I just named? Are you positive?! They were all thought to be the number one overall pick at one point or another! Teddy's a game manager, Johnny can scramble, and Derek has a big arm!
You wouldn't rather have one of those quarterbacks in a limited capacity than literally anyone that I told you about before for the whole season? Remember, remember… Tony Romo broke his clavicle twice. He's coming off of injury.
YOU NEED TO TAKE A QUARTERBACK WITH YOUR FIRST PICK!
Knowing what you know now… that seems like a silly decision, doesn't it?
Imagine if that situation had really played out and you, the show-runner for the Dallas Cowboys, took one of those quarterbacks at #4. You were coming off of a season where your worst nightmare became a reality and you caught a glimpse of quarterback purgatory. It was terrible so you took one of the top signal callers. You also left these guys on the board:
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Is it perhaps possible that any single one of these guys could have been of more use to you than the backup quarterback that you took? Literally any single one?
That's the situation that the actual 2016 Dallas Cowboys could potentially find themselves in with the 2016 Draft Class.
There are plenty of members of Cowboys Nation who are advocating for the 4th Overall Pick to be used on one of the top quarterbacks in this Draft Class – my fellow Staff Writer Sean Martin wrote about that here if you're in that club.
If you're in my club, we have jackets mind you, then you are against taking a quarterback with the 4th Overall Pick. You can read my argument right here.
Why am I so adamantly against a quarterback, you ask? Because the 4th Overall Pick is the biggest resource at our disposal this offseason. I don't want to regret it in two years. I want the 2016 version of one of these guys:
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They're out there. Let's put a Star on one of them.
[signoff author=”rjochoa” source=”fancred”]
If you were facing this hypothetical situation, who would you take? One of the rising stars in today's NFL or a quarterback for the sake of taking one? Let me know! Comment below, Email me at Roel.Ochoa.Jr@Gmail.com, or Tweet to me at @rjochoa!
