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Archive for the ‘The Draft Report’ Category

Alan Ball stands at 6′1″, 175 pounds so he’s a wiry guy.  He has problems in defended the pass as his only strength on defense is the fast that he supports the run well.  He played against top level competition at Illinois but he still wasn’t projected to get drafted by draft experts.  Expect him to make the Cowboys on special teams but he doesn’t have much of an upside.

The Cowboys like to take workout warriors late in the draft and hope they can coach them up and Brown falls into this category.  Brown is 6′1″, 205 pounds and he runs a 4.32 40 and that’s the good news.  The bad news is that he played his college ball at Cal Poly so the competition will be quite a jump for him.  In 41 games (31 starts) at Cal Poly, Brown made 111 tackles, broke up 22 passes and intercepted 10 passes (63 return yards).  If nothing else Brown should help the Cowboys on special teams.

Deon Anderson is quite an impressive physical specimen.  He’s 5′10″, 236 pounds and he runs a 4.7 40.  Anderson is a strong runner and a good blocker.  He also is a special teams assassin so he should be a busy boy for the Cowboys this season.  In 47 games (23 starts) at U Conn, he carried the football 114 times for 420 yards (3.7 ypc) with 1 TD run.  He also caught 48 passes for 394 yards (8.2 avg) with 3 TD grabs.  Anderson was a good pick by the Cowboys.

This was an interesting pick by the Dallas Cowboys.  The Cowboys will let Folk take on Martin Gramatica in an open competition for the placekicking job.  In 44 games at Arizona, Folk was 30 for 47 (63.8%) on field goals with a long kick of 53 yards.  He also made 86 of 89 extra points.  It’s also possible that the Cowboys might want Gramatica to focus on field goals and let Folk be the kickoff man for a season.  Folk also can punt the ball as he averaged 44.0 yards per punt as a senior for Arizona.  This seems like an odd pick for the Cowboys.

Doug Free was a good pick for the Dallas Cowboys.  He could turn into a future starter for the Boys’ if he gets a little bit stronger and develops a mean streak as he has a reputation for being soft despite being 6′6″, 306 pounds.  Still, Free was a 4-year starter at Northern Illinois as he started all 49 games that the Huskies played while he was in college.  Look for him to be a reserve this season and a starter in the future.

Isaiah Stanback is an excellent athlete as he stands 6′2″, 215 pounds and he runs a 4.4 40.  Look for the Cowboys to use him as a WR and KR as a rookie.  Still, it’s possible that Stanback could wow the Cowboys into letting him play some quarterback in the Pros as Tony Romo is no sure thing to be the Cowboys QB of the future.  In 37 games (23 starts) at Washington, Stanback completed 269 of 523 (51.4%) passes for 3,868 yards with 22 TD passes and 12 interceptions.  It’s possible that Stanback could develop into a Seneca Wallace type of QB if the Cowboys allowed him to.  But it’s more likely that he will follow in Michael Robinson or Brad Smith’s footsteps and be an all-purpose WR/KR type that throws an occassional pass in the form of a trick play.

The Cowboys selected the versatile James Marten out of Boston College in the 3rd round.  He is a big guy at 6′7″, 303 pounds but he’s not a great athlete as he’s a little slow.  Still, he’s a good pass blocker that shows a mean streak from time to time.  The Cowboys hope he plays with that mean streak more often as they need help on their offensive line.  Marten started his last 38 games at Boston College (25 at left guard and 13 at left tackle) so he could be ready to start right away somewhere along the line for the Cowboys.  Marten was a good pick for the Cowboys as he will be a starter soon, maybe as early as this season.