The Cowboys don’t have a first-round draft choice, having sent it to the Raiders in exchange for Amari Cooper. As Stephen Jones previously has said, the Cowboys will be watching game film of the receiver when the Raiders use the 27th overall selection.
During the team’s pre-draft press conference Wednesday, the Cowboys reiterated that they have no regret.
Nor should they.
Cooper played like a first-rounder, catching 53 passes for 725 yards and six touchdowns in nine games with the Cowboys. Dak Prescott’s yards per attempt went from 6.88 without Cooper last season to 7.71 with him.
“I don’t think there is any buyer’s remorse there,” Stephen Jones said, via Clarence Hill of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. “I think we are really pleased we made that move, but as Jerry [Jones] said it’s painful to go through a draft without a No. 1 pick. We have looked at each other before and said we would never do that again. But certainly, after we have gone through the receivers and looked at that, I think we are very happy with where we have ended up in terms of what we could get at our pick in terms of a receiver or any other player in terms of what we ended up with with Amari.”
The last time the Cowboys didn’t have a first-round pick was 2009 when they traded it to Detroit for receiver Roy Williams. Since then, the Cowboys have drafted Dez Bryant, Tyron Smith, Morris Claiborne, Travis Frederick, Zack Martin, Byron Jones, Ezekiel Elliott, Taco Charlton and Leighton Vander Esch in the first round.
The Cowboys’ initial choice next week is the 58th overall pick.
“I want both,” Jerry Jones said. “I want Amari, and I want our first-rounder. I tried to do that with a lot of my decisions, and I do a lot of dreaming. But seriously, I would [trade for Cooper] tonight again. To make that clear. We were that rewarded with our future with Amari and consequently want to be real clear there. But again, its simply a foolish thought of ‘I would have liked to do that another way, instead of having that No. 1 pick.’ But candidly it makes anything we’re doing here very acceptable of reach over there and thinking about Amari Cooper and the Cowboys.”