2016 Re-Draft: QB Dak Prescott Goes First Overall, Cowboys Snag Jared Goff

Bleacher Report continued on with their re-draft series this week, focusing on the infamous 2016 draft this time. The Cowboys killed it during the 2016 draft overall, though their best find came when they selected franchise quarterback Dak Prescott in the fourth round.

In this re-draft, the Cowboys didn’t even get a chance to get their guy. Prescott went number one to the Los Angeles Rams, leading them into their future LA home and getting paired with (at the time) Jeff Fischer.

“This is essentially a toss-up because Wentz might have a higher ceiling based on his MVP-caliber 2017 season for the Philadelphia Eagles, but the North Dakota State product has also failed to finish three consecutive campaigns because of injuries.

Prescott, who has never missed a start in his career, gets the slight edge.”

Prescott getting taken over Eagles quarterback Carson Wentz will no doubt annoy any Eagle fan readers of BR, but their argument is a solid one. Prescott and Sean McVay would be a match made in heaven, getting him out of the pocket and utilizing play action to the highest extent.

So with Dak Prescott taken first overall, where would the Cowboys go when they came on the clock? Both the Eagles and Chargers took their real-life picks second and third overall, leaving the Cowboys with a choice between Ezekiel Elliott, Jalen Ramsey, and…Jared Goff?

“But Dallas is good enough to make a run in 2020 and, again, Goff played a significant role on a Super Bowl team just 18 months ago. The original top pick hasn’t been himself since bombing in Super Bowl LIII, but he’s a two-time Pro Bowler with the skill set to bounce back, and he’d be extremely well-supported in Dallas.”

Goff was originally the first pick of the 2016 draft, so falling to fourth overall isn’t much of a free-fall. Still, it’s notable that Goff wasn’t the same player much of 2019 that we saw during their 2018 Super Bowl run.

Many Cowboys fans would still be rooting for Ezekiel Elliott to be the pick here, but knowing what we know about running back value makes his selection tough to defend. Personally, I would’ve been ecstatic if either Goff or Carson Wentz were the pick back in 2016. I loved both out of college and thought for sure they’d both be studs at the NFL level. There’s been some mixed results there, but Wentz has clearly been “better” than Goff for most of their careers.

But now just four years later, it looks like the fourth round pick turned out better off than the first two picks.