DALLAS — The 2023 NFL draft kicks off at 7:00 p.m. Central Time from Kansas City, and the NFL Network's lead draft analyst has released his final mock draft to make a last best guess at how the first round will shake out.
Daniel Jeremiah forecasts the Dallas Cowboys picking Oregon State tight end Luke Musgrave No. 26 overall in Round 1 Thursday night.
"Dallas still has talent at tight end even after losing Dalton Schultz in free agency, but Musgrave gives them some major playmaking ability," Jeremiah wrote.
The selection would be intriguing given who else remained on the board when Musgrave was Jeremiah’s call for Dallas. TCU wideout Quentin Johnston, who Jeremiah's colleague, Cynthia Frelund, compared to A.J. Green, goes the very next pick to the Buffalo Bills in the mock. If Dallas is still in the market for a running back, Alabama's Jahmyr Gibbs goes No. 30 overall to the Philadelphia Eagles.
Premier talent that would elevate the Cowboys, but probably won't make it as far as 26, is snatched up earlier in Round 1. The Atlanta Falcons pick Texas running back Bijan Robinson No. 8 overall. The Green Bay Packers nab Utah tight end Dalton Kincaid No. 13 overall. Even top rumored tight end Michael Myer doesn’t make it to the Cowboys as the Los Angeles Chargers scoop up the Notre Dame product with the No. 21 pick.
Taking Musgrave at No. 26, and not making an effort to move up or down, would be consistent with the Cowboys' philosophy approaching the draft.
"As long as you feel confident about your board, what other people do and it affects you, it takes options away, as long as you feel very comfortable as those guys fall off, you’re best guys are the guys that you have remaining on your board, then you feel very much as peace that you’ll be just fine," Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said April 24. "But we’ll obviously role play those scenarios and do the mock drafts. There’s value to that. But at the end of the day, if you’ve got your board and an order you feel really comfortable about, in the proper order, at the end of the day I think you feel pretty good about what the outcome is going to be on draft day."
The Cowboys have not picked a tight end in the first round since 1997 when they took David LaFleur from LSU. Tight ends taken in the first and second round since LaFleur have not had much staying power either as Dallas took Anthony Fasano in 2006, Martellus Bennett in 2008, and the late Gavin Escobar in 2013 — none of whom earned second contracts with the Cowboys.
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