Dallas Cowboys stay the course, filling needs on Day 3 of NFL Draft
The Dallas Cowboys continued to check off their list of needs in the NFL Draft by opening the final day with Wisconsin tight end Jake Ferguson in the fourth round Saturday.
But for the Cowboys, the nine players they took in three-day draft was as much about sticking to their board getting guys they targeted with good value as it was about filling needs.
All of the picks on Saturday, save for the final two, were rated as fourth-rounders or higher on their draft board, according to team vice president Stephen Jones.
And all of the picks, per team owner Jerry Jones, were players the team hoped to get and they didn’t need to make a trade achieve their goals.
“We were fortunate the way this draft fell,” Jerry Jones said. “We spent the day talking about the sequence of where the guys in the fifth round should be drafted, not where they were on our board because they were close enough. The trick was which one would last the longest. We got them all.”
Ferguson started 36 games over four seasons with the Badgers and made All-Big Ten the past two years, including first-team honors after posting a team-high 46 catches in 2021. He also had 13 career touchdown catches.
Ferguson will come in as backup tight end behind Dalton Schultz, who will play in the franchise tag for $10.9 million in 2022. He will compete for snaps with Jeremy Sprinkle and Sean McKeon.
Ferguson, the grandson of Wisconsin legendary head coach Barry Alvarez, is a consistency pass catcher. He recorded 30-plus passes in four consecutive seasons and only had one drop on 61 targets in 2021.
Ferguson pairs well with Schultz because he is a willing and competitive blocker.
The Cowboys began their of four picks in the fifth round with North Dakota tackle Matt Waletzko (6-foot-8, 312 pounds).
His length, strength and large frame are most intriguing to the Cowboys. The FCS product is clearly a developmental prospect for the future.
Waletzko was followed by Fresno State cornerback DaRon Bland, who was taken with the 167th overall pick. Bland transferred to Fresno State in 2021 after spending his previous three years at Sacramento State.
The Cowboys brought him into the team’s facility for a pre-draft visit. He has good size and 4.46 speed in the 40-yard dash, allowing him to play physical while also hanging with his man in coverage.
He should make an immediate impact on special teams and give the Cowboys a developmental insurance policy for cornerback Kelvin Joseph, whose status for 2022 is in question due to his connection to a Dallas police investigation of a drive-by shooting in March.
The Cowboys followed with LSU linebacker Damone Clark with the 176th pick in the fifth round in what was another developmental pick.
Clark was an All-SEC player at LSU but his future in the NFL will have to wait.
He underwent spinal fusion surgery in March and he will begin the 2022 season on the physically unable to perform list.
The Cowboys, however, believe Clark has a chance to play this season and think he can be an impact player.
Stephen Jones said they had a third-round grade on Clark and feel fortunate to get him in fifth round.
Clark is considered one of the best value picks in the the entire draft.
In 2021, Clark led the Tigers defense with 135 tackles, 52 more than the next player on the team. He also notched 15 tackles for loss, 5.5 sacks, an interception, a fumble recovery, and two forced fumbles.
And when he does make a full recovery, the Cowboys are getting an tackling machine that should pair well with 2021 Defensive Rookie of the Year in Micah Parsons and 2021 fourth-round pick Jabril Cox to give them a strong athletic linebacker corps for the future.
The Cowboys concluded the fifth round with Arkansas defensive tackle John Ridgeway with pick 178. Ridgeway played three seasons at Illinois State before transferring to Arkansas in 2021 and starting 11 of the final 12 games. At 6-5, 321 pounds, Ridgeway is a space eater who will help stuff the middle of the defense as a run stopper.
The Cowboys then ended the NFL Draft with Oklahoma State linebacker Devin Harper in the sixth round.
Harper only started one season at Oklahoma State but made the most of it in 2021, posting 96 tackles, 11 for loss with six sacks and two pass breakups.
But he became an NFL draft pick because of his 4.49 speed in the 40-yard dash. He should make an instinct impact on special teams.
This story was originally published April 30, 2022 at 12:33 PM.
