Before Thursday, a lot of experts had the Dallas Cowboys taking a defensive lineman in the first round--this assuming that the top tier offensive linemen would be gone by the 18th pick--order to inject some youth into a skilled but aging group. They didn’t, opting instead to take Wisconsin center Travis Frederick at No. 31 after a trade with the NFC Champion San Francisco 49ers.
This could have been influenced by the fact that owner and general manager Jerry Jones isn’t worried about the age of his defensive front--and he seems to have adopted a win-now mindset.
“[Tyrone] Crawford is certainly going in that right direction,” Jones said, per the Dallas Morning News. “In no way do I think [Jay] Ratliff has injury issues. He did last year but that was pretty unique. I think [DeMarcus] Ware’s an exception. Spencer and these guys are young 30-year-olds. Don’t get me wrong, I’m interested in long term but I’m real interested in what’s happening in the next 24-36 months. That’s really what you ought to be looking at.”
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