A Cowboys team source tells CowboysCountry.com that as comfortable as they are with passing on the trade offer and as delighted as they are with the Tyler Booker pick, their optimal scenario – their “No. 1 target at 12” – was Tetairoa McMillan of Arizona.<\/p>\n
Jerry Jones and the\u00a0Dallas Cowboys\u00a0front office didn’t obsess over one singular plan or one targeted player in Thursday’s Round 1 of the\u00a0NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
And Dallas, which held the No. 12 pick in the first round, vowed to really avoid being bound to a certain position once were on the clock.<\/p>\n
But now we know three things that played out in a key way. …<\/p>\n
1 – As CowboysCountry.com predicted would happen, Dallas received a trade-back offer from the\u00a0Houston Texans. (We also said the Steelers and Broncos would be on the phone here.)<\/p>\n
And after the draft, late into the night here at The Star, COO Stephen Jones conceded: \u201cWe had hard offers for the pick.\u201d<\/p>\n
They declined those offers.<\/p>\n
2 – As everyone now knows, the\u00a0Cowboys\u00a0opted to “stick and pick” at 12 and landed a guy they believe is a “classy bully,” a 6-5, 320-pound mauler from Alabama named Tyler Booker, who they pencil in right now at the starting guard and heir to the just-retired Zack Martin.<\/p>\n
Said personnel boss Will McClay:\u00a0\u201cOur grades (on Booker) are very similar to what we had with (Martin in 2014). And then some of the character traits, there are a lot of things that are very similar.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s his own individual, but he\u2019s a grown-ass man like Zack is.\u201d<\/p>\n
3 – And finally … a team source tells CowboysCountry.com that as comfortable as they are with passing on the trade offer and as delighted as they are with the Booker pick, their optimal scenario – their “No. 1 target at 12” – was\u00a0Tetairoa McMillan of Arizona<\/p>\n
Stephen Jones stoked the “flames of need” ahead of the draft with his comments regarding the position by saying Dallass would be “looking at a really explosive No. 2 that could upgrade us.”<\/p>\n
The 6-4, 220-pound McMillan was that pinpointed guy.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys’ draft plans – which on Friday for Rounds 2 and 3 surely include trying to find such a receiver – can also be about running back and cornerback and more.<\/p>\n
But someone who provides the “explosiveness” missing alongside\u00a0CeeDee Lamb\u00a0among this group of receivers … and someone who can be a top-notch target for Dak Prescott?<\/p>\n
That was the Tet plan (with Texas’ Matthew Golden not quite on the same plane) even as McMillan stirred some controversy of late after an old video surfaced of him explaining his distaste for the film room.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys worked their way through that and ending up loving McMillan.<\/p>\n
Cowboys Nation hopes they end up loving Booker just as much.<\/p>\n
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