FRISCO, Texas – Predictability and the NFL Draft have never been friends, especially in a year like this one. With just 98 days until the 2021 NFL Draft, and under two months until the NFL Scouting Combine, the predictability took another hit as the Combine underwent changes to it's normal format due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
For the first time since 1987, the scouting combine will not take place in Indianapolis but instead will be a virtual format with most the measurements and information coming remotely from different college campuses. It also marks the first time that scouts and medical staffs will not have medical examinations and in-person meetings as a part of the yearly informational gatherings.
With plenty of question yet to be answered around the entire league and even within the walls of The Star in Frisco, the Draft Show takes aim at finding those answers from many different angles. As the offseason continues and the Cowboys coaching staff takes shape, Tuesday's episode allowed Bryan Broaddus, Bucky Brooks, and David Helman to break down the challenges placed on the Cowboys front office. Additionally, here are some important talking points from Tuesday's show, which you can watch here:
Cowboys Angle: How does the changes to the NFL Combine shift the evaluation process?
With no in-person workouts, meetings, or medical examinations, this year's scouting process continues to be the most challenging in quite some time. Former scouts Broaddus and Brooks explain the importance of each step that the scouts take along the way and many of the ways they'll have to adjust to the current situation. One of the ways will be potential traveling across the country via road trips to attend the various pro days. Other options include grinding in the film room on past pro days or even streaming some of them live and watching as a department from team headquarters. David Helman even mentioned the potentials of players putting together workout reels as a type of resume to send to teams in order to raise their draft stock if they had opted out of the 2020 collegiate football season.
Greatest Debate: Are linebackers still worth valuable draft picks in today's NFL?
There is no disagreement that linebackers should be heavily scouted for the Cowboys this offseason, but the thoughts deviate is on where they should be taken in the draft. David Helman opened the flood gates for a heated debate surrounding the linebacker position when he stated that "linebackers are the running backs of defense," and that a team could easily find a linebacker in the later rounds. Immediately, Bucky Brooks took exception to that statement saying that if a linebacker has the talent level that deserves a pick in the top ten, that teams should not listen to the critics, and draft that player. "Good players make good teams," Brooks said. "We manufacture the position of need, and we're only setting ourselves up to fail, just take really good players."
Under the Radar Player: Searching for Defensive Tackle talent in the later rounds
If a team were looking for a draft class to upgrade their defensive tackle position, the 2021 class would not be a welcome sight. As Bucky Brooks said in his initial thought, this is a rough class to find some interior talent for a professional defensive line and that teams may be better served finding that talent through the draft. But then Broaddus mentioned the name Levi Onwuzurike out of Washington, who was liked all the way across the panel of four despite opting out this past season. He went on to elaborate on the dominance he saw from Onwuzurike against Pac-12 competition and added him to the name of players the Cowboys could be interested in throughout the second round of this year's draft.
Thursday Preview: Dissecting the Top 100 and Senior Bowl Lists
A new addition of Draft Show drops Thursday at 10am CT as Dane Brugler, Jeff Cavanaugh, and Kevin 'KT' Turner join Kyle Youmans to discuss the newly released Top 100 players and Senior Bowl rosters. Cavanaugh has already alluded to a debate on twitter as he and Brugler have two very different thought processes over TCU safety Ar'Darius Washington, who was not placed in the Top 100 players.
