East Notes: Cowboys, Jets, Eagles, Bills

Florida State cornerback Jalen Ramsey has sat atop the Cowboys’ draft board since February, Tony Pauline of DraftInsider.net reports. The corner-needy Cowboys have the fourth pick and seem like a good bet to choose Ramsey if he drops to their selection, but they have inquired on moving up to No. 1 via trade and could grab him there. Like Ramsey, North Dakota State quarterback Carson Wentz – the Cowboys’ top-rated signal-calling prospect, per Pauline – is also a possibility in the first round. The club has mixed feelings on a couple Ohio State standouts – running back Ezekiel Elliott‘s stock is high within the organization, while assistant defensive line coach Leon Lett is bearish on end Joey Bosa.

PFR’s Rob DiRe has one of these four players going to Dallas in his first mock draft of 2016. Click here to find out which of the quartet he currently thinks will end up in a Cowboys uniform.

Here’s more from the NFL’s two East divisions:

• The retirement of D’Brickashaw Ferguson leaves the Jets in need at three of football’s most significant positions – left tackle, quarterback and pass rusher – Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News writes. Ferguson would’ve returned for an 11th season had his $10.375MM salary remained in place, but the Jets wanted to cut that figure in half, according to Mehta, and the 32-year-old wasn’t receptive to the idea. Ferguson also worried about the possibility of the Jets releasing him prior to the season because he didn’t have any interest in signing elsewhere and relocating his family, per Mehta.
• The Eagles’ reported interest in a first-round quarterback is a smokescreen, opines CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora, who believes they could trade down from the eighth overall pick to acquire more selections and ultimately address needs elsewhere. Philadelphia leads the league in real dollars spent since the start of the 2015 league year ($200MM-plus), including deals given to quarterbacks Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel. It’s fair to say the Eagles are in win-now mode, then, and La Canfora doesn’t expect them to eschew immediate help at problem positions in order to add a top-round QB to the mix.
• With Tyrod Taylor entering a contract year, the Bills look poised to select a quarterback by the second day of the draft, as La Canfora details. The Bills are “enamored” of Ohio State’s Cardale Jones, says La Canfora, who reports that they also like Penn State’s Christian Hackenberg and Stanford’s Kevin Hogan.
• Jets wide receiver Brandon Marshall won his civil trial relating to a 2012 altercation outside a Manhattan nightclub, and won’t be responsible for damages, per attorney Harvey Steinberg (Twitter link via Adam Schefter of ESPN.com). The NFL is unlikely to pursue any discipline for Marshall, since he never faced criminal charges and the incident occurred years ago.

Luke Adams contributed to this post.