Twelve New Cowboys

The NFL draft is now over, and the second day gave us twelve new Cowboys. The twelve were all chosen in the third thru seventh rounds. Was it a good draft? We won't know that for a while. It is highly unlikely that all twelve will make it on to the Cowboys squad, but with that many choices, it could be considered a good draft if only five or six actually make the team and are able to contribute in the coming year.

Perhaps the most surprising draft choice was a kicker, especially since the Cowboys already have a proven field-goal kicker. However, the new kicker may have been drafted as a kick-off specialist. He's supposed to have a very strong leg, and in college over a third of his kick-offs were not returned. Over half were stopped inside the twenty.

The Cowboys also drafted a quarterback -- Stephen McGee from the Aggies. He is considered a project and should be the third-string quarterback if he makes the team. With the other drafts, the Cowboys filled some needs for good back-ups at several positions, including safety, cornerback, linebacker and wide receiver.

Here are the draft choices by round:

3rd ROUND

Jason Williams (Western Illinois), Inside Linebacker, 6' 1", 241 lbs
Robert Brewster (Ball State), Offensive Lineman, 6' 4", 325 lbs

4th ROUND

Stephen McGee (Texas A-M), Quarterback, 6' 3", 225 lbs
Victor Butler (Oregon State), Outside Linebacker, 6' 2", 248 lbs
Brandon Williams (Texas Tech), Outside Linebacker, 6' 5", 252 lbs

5th ROUND

Deangelo Smith (Cincinnati), Cornerback, 5' 11", 194 lbs
Michael Hamlin (Clemson), Safety, 6' 2", 214 lbs
David Beuhler (Southern Cal), Kicker, 6' 2", 227 lbs

6th ROUND

Stephen Hodge (TCU), Safety, 6' 0", 234 lbs
John Phillips (Virginia), Tight End, 6' 5", 251 lbs

7th ROUND

Mike Mickens (Cincinnati), Cornerback, 6' 0", 186 lbs
Manuel Johnson (Oklahoma), Wide Receiver, 5' 11", 189 lbs

Now we wait to see if these are real Cowboys, or just draft-day Cowboys.