Dallas Cowboys offered second and fourth-round picks to try and get QB Paxton Lynch
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Six snap reactions from the first round of the NFL Draft on Thursday night …
Near miss
The Denver Broncos weren’t the only team that tried to come up and get Memphis product Paxton Lynch.
Dallas Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said the team made “a big push” to get back into the first round – one that a person with knowledge of the talks said it included offering high second- and fourth-round picks (Nos. 34 and 101 overall) to Seattle for the 26th pick.
Instead, the Seahawks took Denver’s offer of low first- and third-round picks (Nos. 31 and 94), leaving the Cowboys to pursue Tony Romo’s potential successor another time, perhaps in Rounds 2 through 7. (They also need a backup, and a trade for someone like the Los Angeles Rams’ Nick Foles before draft’s end wouldn’t be a big surprise.)
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Somewhat of a strange day in Dallas, where the No. 4 pick, Ohio State running back, Ezekiel Elliott, joins Romo and receiver Dez Bryant in a formidable threesome on offense, but a defense that needs help – particularly pass rush – doesn’t have it yet.
No other running backs went in Round 1. With all the talent on that offensive line, couldn’t you find someone in the mid- or even late rounds to churn yards? Elliott better end up being a transformative type of player.
Ready to go?
The Broncos got their quarterback, but how soon will Memphis product Paxton Lynch be ready to play with the defending Super Bowl champions?
The theme among NFL coaches and scouts who studied Lynch in the pre-draft process was that it’d take time, because he hasn’t been under center, hasn’t called plays in a huddle, hasn’t really had to do a lot at the line of scrimmage, hasn’t needed to process at a high level, etc.
As one offensive coordinator put it recently, speaking on condition of anonymity for competitive reasons: “He is a guy you need to submerge for a year or two and just teach him.”
There’s no doubt the physical tools are there. Lynch is a big (6-foot-7, 244 pounds), powerful man with more than enough arm – go back and watch the 65-yard dart he chucked late against Bowling Green – and rare athletic ability for his size. He’s a natural fit for Broncos coach Gary Kubiak’s offense, which is always heavy on play-action and bootlegs.
The questions are about how quickly the mental side comes and how well it sticks. All the plays at Memphis came in via signals, with relatively simple protection checks and limited responsibilities for the quarterback before the snap.
Lynch is quick to point out he was in a huddle-up offense his true freshman year, so he has some experience calling plays. It just has been awhile.
“I played in the offense I played in, and I can’t do anything about that,” Lynch told me last week. “But the fact that we did so much stuff – we ran read-option, we ran triple-option, we ran some under-center power stuff, we got in the ‘gun and threw the ball around, we ran some naked stuff – we did basically everything you’d do in an offense at the next level except get in a huddle and call the plays.
“At the next level, it’s obviously different. There’s more on the quarterback’s shoulders – a lot more – than in college. But it’s just something I had never had the opportunity to do.”
Working in Lynch’s favor for getting on the field: the rest of the Broncos’ depth chart includes Mark Sanchez and Trevor Siemian. Football boss John Elway said they could still add another veteran but are “probably over” trade talks for San Francisco’s Colin Kaepernick.
Good call
Nobody should’ve been stunned the San Diego Chargers snared Ohio State’s Joey Bosa at No. 3, though they carried out as good a smokescreen as anyone.
The Chargers deploy a 3-4 defense by name, but it’s predicated on getting upfield and pressuring the passer. Bosa is active, explosive, great with his hands, physical and firm on the edge. He can play outside linebacker on run downs, with enough athletic ability to spin and drop in coverage as needed, and then basically become a 4-3 end in subpackages.
Bosa played some three-technique for the Buckeyes, too – a versatile difference-maker who can change game plans. Exactly what San Diego needed.
Tunsil’s fall
The strange sequence of events surrounding Laremy Tunsil’s fall to No. 13 overall is going to raise a lot of questions about what the Miami Dolphins are getting into off the field. But Tunsil’s football character has never been in much doubt.
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“He plays from snap to whistle and he does it every (bleeping) time,” one veteran scout said before the draft. “I haven’t seen anybody with that kind of competitiveness and effort from start to finish. Everybody takes a play off or two or takes a day off or two except Laremy Tunsil.”
In the end, that’s what teams care about most – particularly teams desperate for help at a core position.
Everyone knows Tunsil has some issues in his personal life. There was last year’s suspension for taking improper benefits, surrounding an altercation with his stepfather, who sued Tunsil this week. Now add a few more red flags to the list, including a video of Tunsil smoking a substance from a bong while wearing a gas mask and, later, an admission he took money from Ole Miss coaches after text messages surfaced on his hacked Instagram account.
Tunsil needs to get stronger, but he has the feet to play left tackle and that’s a rare trait. If the nonsense can be contained, the Dolphins – who have a strong and well-known relationship with Tunsil’s agent, Jimmy Sexton – can get a lot of value.
What if?
In some alternate universe, the Tennessee Titans never make the trade with the Rams for the No. 1 pick and zero in on Tunsil as many expected — only for the gas mask video to surface on his hacked Twitter account while they’re on the clock. (Teams saw it almost immediately.)
Cowboys 'made a big push' for Paxton Lynch but fell short
Instead, the Titans traded back to No. 15 weeks ago, giving them time to process everything before trading back up to No. 8 and taking Michigan State tackle Jack Conklin, who shouldn’t be viewed as a fallback option. He’s durable, reliable, has enough foot speed to play on the left side and will flat-out beat you up.
Even after sending the Browns a third-round pick this year and a second-round pick next year as part of the deal, the Titans have ammunition to keep building, including three of the first 14 picks in the second round Friday and, of course, extra first- and third-rounders from the Rams next year.
Cleveland dealt back for the second time — from No. 2 to No. 8 to No. 15 — and still got the top receiver on their board, Corey Coleman of Baylor. They’re well-positioned atop the draft to start Day 2 at No. 32. They have 11 picks remaining in this draft, including three each in Rounds 3 through 5, plus an extra first-round pick in 2017 and extra second-rounders in ’17 and ‘18.
New regimes turned the draft’s top two picks into a lot more draft resources sorely needed to rebuild their rosters. Now they have to hit on those picks — and, in Cleveland’s case, find the young quarterback they passed on by letting the Philadelphia Eagles trade up for North Dakota State’s Carson Wentz after the Rams made their big move to grab Cal’s Jared Goff No. 1 overall.
Best of the rest
The slide of UCLA linebacker Myles Jack has to be the biggest surprise among the players who weren’t drafted in Round 1.
Jack’s musings on Wednesday about the possibility of having microfracture surgery down the line didn’t help his cause, given existing concerns about how long his problematic knee will hold up. He’s still likely to come off the board early in Round 2, though.
Five other players who accepted invitations to the “green room” in Chicago remain: Clemson end Kevin Dodd, Mississippi State defensive tackle Chris Jones, and Alabama linebacker Reggie Ragland, defensive tackle Jarran Reed and defensive tackle A’Shawn Robinson.
Other notable names on the board include Arkansas tight end Hunter Henry, Eastern Kentucky pass rusher Noah Spence and Michigan State quarterback Connor Cook.
Follow Tom Pelissero on Twitter@TomPelissero