Dallas Cowboys, Alabama’s Patrick Surtain II and the link to Jimmy Johnson | Opinion
The Dallas Cowboys are back in that semi-familiar position that whomever they draft will be both a great pick and a safe one.
Unless they draft another wide receiver. (Don’t rule it out.)
When Jerry is at the helm, the Cowboys could ground a boat in the Suez Canal.
The good news is that the ghost of Jimmy Johnson may be guiding the Cowboys’ first pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
With the 10th pick, there are no less than 10 quality players the Cowboys could potentially select, and he should immediately start.
Don’t bother prioritizing the needs. They need all of them.
Tackle, guard, center, defensive end, defensive tackle, strong safety, weak safety, cornerback, middle linebacker, outside linebacker. Throw in a kicker and a punter while you’re at it.
And a GM, too.
Sorry, Jerry Jones, but your toy has not advanced to an NFC title game since 1996. No one knew when he bought the team in 1989 the GM title came with nine lifetime contracts.
A little more than a year into Mike McCarthy’s tenure as the head coach, he surely has learned the parameters of coaching not America’s Team, but Jerry’s Team.
Jerryhas the final word. Every other word is a suggestion.
The good news is that Jerry can’t possibly run the boat into the embankment with the 10th pick. With the exception of Taco Charlton, the Cowboys have done well in the first round for more than a decade.
We should all expect Jerry and the Cowboys to nail their first pick on April 29.
On Tuesday, the NFL’s top minor league franchise, the University of Alabama, will host its annual pro day. The Tide has what appears to be 56 players who have first-round grades, for this draft.
That’s a slight exaggeration, but it feels like a fact.
Several mock drafts have the Cowboys selecting Alabama cornerback Patrick Surtain II with the 10th pick.
This is a player you want, because this is a player Jimmy would want.
On Monday in a Zoom call with the media, Surtain said he has not talked to the Cowboys yet. This means nothing, other than the Cowboys like him and will probably select him if he’s available.
If the Cowboys take him, it would mean their starting corners will be ’Bama boys. The Cowboys selected Trevon Diggs in the second round a year ago, and he had a solid rookie season.
“He’s my brother for life,” Surtain said of Diggs on Monday. “To lineup with him it would be a special feeling. It would be like college again. It would be like another day here at Alabama.”
Well, it would be if the Cowboys were winning titles every other year like the Crimson Tide has over the past six seasons. But in order to get there, you need the personnel who can get it done.
“Patrick Surtain is first a good person,” Alabama coach Nick Saban said. “He’s never been in my office in three years for anything he didn’t do. If you want to talk about accountability and responsibility, you’re not going to find anybody better than [him].
“He’s a good cover guy. He’s got good feet. He’s smart. He understands the game, the offense and what they are trying to do. He’s always very well-prepared. I think he’s going to have a great career.”
Surtain has the genes. His father, Patrick Surtain Sr., played in the NFL for 11 years.
The coach/GM who drafted him was none other than Jimmy Johnson. Surtain was the 44th pick by the Miami Dolphins in the 1998 NFL Draft.
If junior has senior’s NFL career, he’s a solid pick.
And the son, right now, is projected to be better than his dad.
“I love the guy,” Alabama linebacker Dylan Moses said Monday. “Any team that drafts him gets a competitive, tough guy. He’s a technical machine, but he’s a real football player. He plays with a lot of passion. He’s a great teammate.”
The Cowboys have so many needs that even if Surtain is not their pick, they will have addressed a concern.
For the Cowboys, Patrick Surtain II would be both great, and safe.
