It was an interesting evening for the Cowboys, who used their fourth overall pick to make Ezekiel Elliott the first running back to come off the board in the top five since Trent Richardson in 2012. The team also made a run at trading back into the first round for Memphis quarterback Paxton Lynch, as owner Jerry Jones confirmed tonight. Here’s more on those efforts, along with a few more Cowboys updates:
- The Cowboys offered their second- and third-round picks to the Seahawks for the No. 26 pick in an effort to nab Lynch, per Todd Archer and Adam Schefter of ESPN.com (Twitter link). It seems odd that the Seahawks wouldn’t have accepted that offer, since I’d think the 34th and 67th overall picks would have been a little more appealing than the 31st and 94th they got from Denver.
- According to Ed Werder of ESPN.com and Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Twitter links), the Cowboys made a strong effort to land Lynch, and Jerry Jones suggested that, in hindsight, the club might have been willing to match or exceed Denver’s offer. So perhaps Dallas would have been open to offering its second- and third-rounders, but never officially put that proposal on the table. It’s also possible that the Cowboys formally offered their second- and third-round picks, but wanted more in return than just the Seahawks’ first-rounder — or maybe Seattle simply didn’t want to move down an extra three spots and risk missing out on its top target(s).
- The Cowboys considered sending their No. 4 overall pick to the Ravens for the No. 6 pick and a fourth-rounder, tweets Adam Schefter. However, talks broke down due to the fact that Baltimore would have been moving up for Elliott, and the Cowboys didn’t want to miss out on the running back, tweets Clarence Hill.
- Elliott was the top-rated player on the Cowboys’ board and was the club’s top-graded running back in several years, according to executive VP Stephen Jones (Twitter link via Ed Werder).
- Before the draft got underway, the Cowboys re-signed guard Ronald Leary to his RFA tender, and exercised the 2017 option for center Travis Frederick. According to Stephen Jones, the Cowboys would consider trading Leary during the draft to allow him to start somewhere. Jones also indicated the club wants to lock up Frederick to a longer-term deal (Twitter links via Clarence Hill).
To follow up on this: I’ve seen a couple people point to the fifth-year option as the reason Seattle would prefer Denver’s offer, which allowed them to stay in the first round. I’m not sure I buy that.
Generally, the fifth-year option is least beneficial for an offensive lineman who doesn’t play left tackle, since you still have to pay him like a left tackle via the fifth-year option. Ifedi will likely end up as a right tackle or a guard, so he fits that bill.
Plus, the Seahawks have generally been hesitant to pay much for offensive linemen, and haven’t been all that aggressive when it comes to picking up fifth-year options (they turned down Bruce Irvin’s $7.75MM option and he eventually signed for more than that).