I am not sure Dallas would go the Carriker route.
Reason being, we already have a 1st rounder invested in Spears, a 4th rounder in Canty, and a 7th rounder in Ratliff from the draft two years ago. And we invested a 3rd rounder in Hatcher last year. Without a doubt, Spears needs to step up this year, but his problem has always been playing a 2 gap scheme. Phillips doesn't use a traditional two gap 3-4; he asks his lineman to play 1 gap and stunt/slant. That plays into what Spears did in college (use his quickness/athleticism) to pass rush.
Ditto on Hatcher. Canty is more of a traditional 2 gap DE for the 3-4. Ratliff moves inside when we go nickel, but he can probably play the 3-4 DE in our base set as well. We have depth there and plenty of resources tied into that position; enough so, that there are better ways to spend our 1st rounder.
I think Dallas will look at WR or CB in the first round; possibly an edge rusher (ie, OLB). Spencer would fit that latter mode, allowing us to move Carpenter inside to replace Bradie James.
Or a CB such as Ross/Revis (if there, which I doubt he will be), potentially Houston.....you get the idea. Aaron Glenn is on his last legs; Henry has been injured the past 2 seasons, and we need to groom someone to start opposite Newman.
Everyone knows that Owens/Glenn are getting up there, so there is no need to speak about why that is a need.
A dark horse candidate could be Brandon Merriweather. Jerry Jones spoke in a pre-draft press release and spoke for some length on the issue of guns (ie, one of Merriweather's red flags).
Jones also said he wants to draft a wow player and could potentially trade up if one fell (he said offensively there were 4 such players in the draft....He all but named Calvin and Peterson as two as such). Then he said he wouldn't trade up for the "best WR he has ever seen" because it would cost too much...but he said if someone slipped to 10-12 range, he'd considered it (possibly meaning Peterson). Though, I very much doubt this happens.
But back to the Merriweather idea. He would give us a FS to start alongside Roy. (Hamlin has a 1 year contract; Watkins might not pan out). Furthermore, Merriweather can play some slot CB. This would allow us to stay in our base defense when teams split a 3rd WR out/motion a RB out/motion a TE out. We did this with Woodson in the mid 90's and it would be an attractive benefit of adding Merriweather.
The most likely option IMO is trading down. Jerry said he already has one deal he could take now to trade down. Another deal is dependent upon how the draft pans out. Jerry stated he likes the idea of giving himself 2 #1 picks as resources for next year. This is what I think we'll end up doing. Trading down, selecting a CB/Tweener with our first pick; an OL with the second....
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Last 7 round mock draft.
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