The Dallas Cowboys Draft Day trade was even better than you thought

Entering the 2024 NFL Draft it made all the sense in the world for the Dallas Cowboys to trade down in the first round. Absent a fourth-round pick, and with plenty of holes on their roster (that were exacerbated by the lack of moves in free agency), it was obvious that Dallas needed multiple bites at the apple of talent to restock their roster.

Thankfully the Cowboys found a proper suitor in the Detroit Lions and ultimately moved down from their original spot in the first round while still coming away with a player who they highly valued. The draft is a constant game of phone calls and offers and back and forth, so it was assumed that Detroit was not the only team who Dallas spoke to about moving around.

We now know at least one of the others.

The Arizona Cardinals offer proves how great the haul that Dallas got was

Nowadays there are all sorts of documentaries and productions chronicling and profiling NFL teams. Beyond the likes of Hard Knocks and similar ventures, we now live in a day and age where teams and their own media departments put projects like these together.

The Arizona Cardinals have a series called “Cardinals Flight Plan” that they are rolling out on their YouTube Channel, and on Wednesday they released an episode that covered a variety of things, including the first round of the draft. You can watch the episode in its entirety here.

In the episode Cardinals general manager Monti Ossenfort is obviously putting together and executing Arizona’s plan. Their draft began with the selection of Marvin Harrison Jr. at number four overall but they also held the 27th overall pick in the draft as well. Apparently they had a high level of interest in moving it and we can see that they made a call to the Cowboys about it.

Ossenfort speaks on the phone (presumably to Stephen Jones) and notes that Arizona is willing to offer picks 27 (first round) and 104 (early fourth round). He adds that the offer is contingent upon their guy (being Arizona’s guy) being there at 24 where Dallas is slated to pick at the moment of this conversation.

Earlier in the clip, Ossenfort mentions the Green Bay Packers as the threat for “the big guy.” The Packers wound up taking Arizona offensive lineman Jordan Morgan at number 25 overall, perhaps Ossenfort and his group were big fans of what Morgan did during his time in Tucson.

Operating under the assumption that Morgan was in fact Arizona’s guy, then he was obviously on the board when Dallas was on the clock at 24 overall. Had the Cowboys taken the Cardinals’ offer then Morgan would have stayed at home, Dallas would have moved back three spots and would have also picked up an early fourth-round pick in the process.

But the Cowboys did not take Arizona’s offer and instead took one from the Detroit Lions. Ultimately the Lions gave up picks 29 and 73. Here was the run of picks from 24 through 29.

• 24 (Detroit Lions): Terrion Arnold, Alabama
• 25 (Green Bay Packers): Jordan Morgan, Arizona
• 26 (Tampa Bay Buccaneers): Graham Barton, Duke
• 27 (Arizona Cardinals): Darius Robinson, Missouri
• 28 (Kansas City Chiefs): Xavier Worthy, Texas
• 29 (Dallas Cowboys): Tyler Guyton, Oklahoma

We discussed a lot in the immediate aftermath of the first round how Dallas likely made the trade that they did with Detroit knowing full well that the one of or both Jordan Morgan and Graham Barton would be off the board when they came around to picking at 29. We do not know for sure, but if Dallas knew that Arizona’s guy was Morgan (again, assuming he was) then it stands to reason that the Cowboys were at least comfortable passing on him and prepared to live in a world where Barton went elsewhere.

It goes without saying that the reason for comfortability making the decision was likely how the Lions sweetened the deal. Aside from the obvious swapping of firsts, the Cardinals wanted to offer Dallas pick 104 where the Lions surrendered pick 73. The difference here is massive. Selection 104 was the fourth one of the fourth round where 73 was the ninth of the third. You are talking about the difference of a full round.

As we all know that pick for Dallas from Detroit became Cooper Beebe, and it is extremely unlikely that he would have been available 31 selections later. That Dallas was able to solve their needs at left tackle and center with one fell swoop makes their decision to take Detroit’s offer a no-brainer, even if that meant sacrificing the opportunity to draft Jordan Morgan or Graham Barton at 24 or 27.

Kudos to the Cowboys. They played this really well and capitalized on how desperate the Lions were for their guy. That is the way you play the NFL draft.