The Dallas Cowboys are riding high on a stellar 2025 NFL draft, one that saw the team getting good grades from NFL analysts and experts after the action wrapped up. Chad Reuter of the NFL gave the team an A- for their 2025 draft class. Reuter was pleased with the team’s early pick of Tyler Booker, noting, “The Cowboys bypassed the available offensive skill-position players and defensive talent at No. 12 to replace the retired Zack Martin with Booker,” adding that the former Alabama guard is a proven starter out of the SEC” but, in a little warning, that “he did not impress in athletic testing this spring.”
Regardless of what critics think of the Dallas Cowboys’ draft choices, it’s time to look ahead. The team has stellar guys like Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb, but one analyst thinks the Cowboys have one remaining hole they need to fill before next season.
Dallas Cowboys Need Help in Defense
In a May 8 piece for PFF, Trevor Sikkema lays out the biggest remaining need for all 32 NFL teams following the draft. “The 2025 NFL Draft represented one of the final opportunities for NFL teams to plug their roster holes before the season begins,” he stated in the piece. “With that said, we’re taking a look at every team’s biggest remaining roster need as the summer nears.”
For the Cowboys, he urges the team to beef up their interior defensive line. He even says it’s a “big area of concern.”
“Mazi Smith and Osa Odighizuwa are once again the Cowboys‘ starting defensive tackles after struggling in run defense last year with 35.9 and 50.8 PFF run-defense grades, respectively,” he noted in the feature. “Dallas added Solomon Thomas, but he earned just a 41.5 PFF run-defense grade with the Jets last season. That position group in run defense is a big area of concern for 2025.”
More Cornerback Depth for the Dallas Cowboys
Jordan Raanan of ESPN also has a May 8 story out about the biggest post-draft roster gaps for all 32 NFL teams.
“At this point in the offseason, a roster hole does not necessarily mean the position group has no clear starters,” they note in the piece. “Most teams have filled the top of their depth charts. But plenty of units have limited depth, even after all the wheeling and dealing.”
For the Dallas Cowboys, Jordan Raanan wants the team to add cornerback depth for the new season. He does praise the Cowboys for some of their offseason choices, though.
“The biggest hole was wide receiver, but that was solved with the George Pickens trade,” Raanan stated in the piece. “So let’s pivot to cornerback. DaRon Bland and Trevon Diggs are strong starters, but there are questions about whether Diggs will be ready to start the season after surgery late last year to repair cartilage damage in his left knee.”
He added, “There are also health questions about the No. 3 corner, third-round rookie Shavon Revel Jr. He was thought to be a first-round talent but fell because of an ACL tear. Depth is poor if Diggs or Revel isn’t ready for Week 1.”
