Cowboys draft notes: Dan Quinn’s influence, team’s philosophy, reinforcements at RB

At long last, it’s done.

The Dallas Cowboys drafted five more players on Saturday, bringing their tally up to eight. They’ll spend the rest of the weekend finalizing their undrafted free agent group and patting each other on the back for a job well done.

[2023 NFL Draft grades: Analyzing all 32 teams’ classes, with Eagles leading the way]

There will be a thousand opportunities to judge this crop of players over the next few years, or at the very least once they put pads on this summer. What we can do now is look for themes and insights into the decisions, and how we might see them affect the roster in the coming years.

Here are the main takeaways from the Cowboys’ 2023 NFL Draft.

Plugging the leaks 

I wrote about this Thursday night when the Cowboys opted for a nose tackle with their first-round pick. A decision that so blatantly bucks their draft trends was a clear signal of their desire to improve their run defense. What I didn’t know at the time was how much this draft would center around bolstering the run game — on both sides of the ball. Smith’s massive presence is obviously aimed at making it harder to run on this Dallas defense. Behind him, a rangy run-and-hit linebacker like DeMarvion Overshown can do his job behind a nose tackle who commands so much attention. Across the line of scrimmage, Luke Schoonmaker was an in-line tight end at a Michigan program that ran the ball a whopping 61% of the time.

The hits kept coming on Saturday, with the Cowboys using their first two picks of Day 3 on linemen. At 276 pounds, Viliami Fehoko was the third-heaviest edge player selected this year, with 47 tackles for loss across four seasons as a starter. He may end up sliding inside to tackle. Asim Richards figures to get a look at both guard and tackle.

This was an underrated issue in the stretch run of the team’s 2022 season. It’s not just that the Cowboys had a leaky run defense, finishing 22nd in the league in that regard. They also struggled to run the ball after losing Terence Steele to a torn ACL. And when Tony Pollard broke his leg in San Francisco, those issues compounded.

More than anything else, the Cowboys’ big picks seem to signal they’d like to be a lot less frustrated on both sides of the running game equation.

Family business

Speaking of Pollard and his injury, it seemed like a foregone conclusion that the Cowboys would draft a running back. It was a lot less predictable that the selection would be so heartwarming.

Late in the sixth round, they opted for a beloved Texan prospect in Deuce Vaughn. In this case, Vaughn is beloved quite literally, as his father Chris is the Cowboys’ director of college scouting. On the off chance you haven’t seen it, the video of the pick will give you all the feels.

It’s a feel-good moment, for sure. But that’s not all it is.

Deuce Vaughn has been one of the most electrifying players in college football for two years now, joining Darren Sproles and Tyler Lockett as just the third 5,000 all-purpose yard player in Kansas State history. If he was three inches taller, he’d have been selected much earlier. Unfortunately, his measured height of 5-foot-5 is the shortest in NFL Combine history, and his weight of 179 pounds is in the first percentile. That’s how he came to be a Cowboy all the way at pick No. 212.

Don’t look for Vaughn to pound between the tackles 20 times per game at the NFL level, but it’s probably fair to put more expectations on him than your average sixth-round pick. Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy mentioned Randall Cobb as an inspiration for ways he can get Vaughn the ball aside from carries. Vaughn caught 116 passes during his college career, which is the most among the running backs in this draft class.

None of this is to say Vaughn is a contender for NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year. But aside from the emotion of the moment, he’s a talented enough player to carve out a role quickly.

The Dan Quinn effect

It’s been a long road for the Cowboys defensive coordinator, in the strictest sense of the word.

It’s abundantly clear by now how much Dan Quinn enjoys the draft process. Where some coordinators might be content to sit back and let the scouts do the grunt work, Quinn once again crisscrossed the country to get his own eyes on this draft class. It’s something he did in each of his first two years with the Cowboys, and this spring he once again felt ubiquitous at Pro Days and workouts.

The result? He sure seems to have some influence in the team’s war room.

Mazi Smith is the second defensive player drafted in the first round during Quinn’s three years running the defense. But the numbers are even more impressive than that. The Cowboys have now drafted 28 players since hiring Quinn, and 17 of those have come on defense. On the surface, that’s not the craziest split. But then consider their major investments; top 100 picks. Of 11 selections inside the top 100 since 2021, the Cowboys have now invested eight on defense.

To this point, not all those picks have panned out, but the Cowboys do have youth in a striking number of spots, from Micah Parsons and Osa Odighizuwa to Sam Williams and DaRon Bland. Smith, at the very least, figures to start right away. With those kinds of resources, it’s not surprising Quinn has been able to build this defense in his image so quickly.

It just doesn’t feel like that’s a coincidence.

Leaving the door open

The Deuce Vaughn pick was fun, but it didn’t completely fill the Cowboys’ running back need. It’s been almost two months since Ezekiel Elliott was released, and team officials have expressed their desire to bring in a bigger, physical back to complement Tony Pollard. Talented though he may be, Vaughn doesn’t fit that description.

Having finished the draft without that bruising back, team owner and general manager Jerry Jones was asked about a possible reunion with Elliott. True to form, he didn’t discount it. “No, no, no, not at all,” he said. “That ship hasn’t sailed yet. We haven’t made a decision. We obviously drafted a running back, but a little different style than Zeke. I’m not trying to be cute, but nothing we did today changes that.”

It would be a strange sight if Elliott re-signed in Dallas for a fraction of his previous deal, but anything is possible when it comes to Jerry Jones and a beloved franchise icon.

Perhaps Elliott will see some added interest in the coming weeks. With the draft complete, clubs all over the NFL will be assessing their weak spots, as well as the veteran talent still available. But until he signs elsewhere, it sounds like the door isn’t completely closed in Dallas.

David Helman covers the Dallas Cowboys for FOX Sports. He previously spent nine seasons covering the Cowboys for the team’s official website. In 2018, he won a regional Emmy for his role in producing “Dak Prescott: A Family Reunion” about the quarterback’s time at Mississippi State. Follow him on Twitter at @davidhelman_.

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