re: Why was Coach Payton on the phone with Foster before we picked?

quote:

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I really wish Taco or Watts would have fallen to us. Guess Pitt and Dallas also knew we were interested in drafting them!!!

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They were not in play at 32. Payton said there was four guys as the pick approached: Tak (which may be bullet dodged though I love his edge and his play), Foster (again perhaps bullet dodged because of the many flags despite the talent), Ramcyzk, and an unnamed player that went in the second round.

That means Taco (as much as it was rumored we loved him) and Watt had second round grades and we weren't reaching with top 15-20 players left on our board.

Jerry Jones straight up admitted Taco had a second round grade but felt they needed to reach because there weren't many with second round grades (like 3-4). And I believe it was said Watt was a reach also for the same reasons.

I'm very glad we were not going to reach on inferior talent just to fill a need. It shows real progress and patience to play this draft the way we did. The one trade we did make was because we had a grade on Kamara that was higher than the cost of the trade AND because the value worked out (a bit in our favor even).