NFL Draft Is Different for Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones This Year

Fans were beginning to worry. It looked like the lockout would mean no NFL season at all this year. This would render a draft, if it happened at all, silly and inconsequential.

Can't you just picture it?  "We want you bound by an ironclad contract to offer your exclusive services to us, but there won't be any play so, well, there'll be no pay. Sign here."

League officials couldn't take the chance that a generation raised on cellphone commitments has produced several people who actually would sign such a deal. They broke out the lockdown to apply a little leverage. That'll show those greedy athletes not to mess with those even greedier owners.

This week, federal judge Susan Richard Nelson put the smackdown on the lockdown with her supposedly appeal-proof 89-page decision in favor of the NFL Players Association. However, "appeal-proof"  didn't stop the players from appealing. Before the ink was even dry (well, more like before the decision was copied to the SENT folder), player representatives were appealing to the judge to enforce her lockout ban IMMEDIATELY.

Turns out Michael Vick left a little something in his locker that he reeeally needs to get. You understand, right? (I would've used Packers DL Johnny Jolly, but Michael Vick is practically a brand name among active NFL felons.)

But this is the Bleacher Report, not the Harvard Law Review (When I get a blog there, I'll let you know.).

So, since there's going to be a season after all, there's going to be a draft after all. As in, within hours.

The problem is, while Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and every other guy with an NFL owner's box (though none with one quite as nice as his) can and did do all the planning they wanted, because of the lockout they themselves imposed, they couldn't ACT on those plans (This strategy just gets better and better, doesn't it?).

So what's a poor oilman with a billion-dollar stadium on only its second year of amortization to do? Dallas has a relatively high spot this year; thank you. Mr. Three-year's Rust John Kitna. The 'Boys sit pretty, at No. 9 overall.

In the past, Jerry Jones' draft strategy was to deal his high slots to teams with more seasoned players. No patient growing seasons for Mr. Jones. You groom the colts, he'll buy the thoroughbreds.

The second part of this strategy occurs a few years later, when the players Mr. Jones would have drafted anyway had he kept his high slot are signed away from the teams that drafted them. Players like Deion "Thanks for the signing bonus" Sanders. What'd that guy play for, EIGHT NFL teams?  10?  And what did Jerry Jones pay him for a signing bonus?  If memory serves, it was $35 million.

And what did that buy the Cowboys in playable seasons?  Two, and then he stubbed his toe and retired.

This year, Jones can't let other teams groom the thoroughbreds he'll buy a few years down the line. There wasn't time, just a few days, to cut a decent enough deal for that No. 9 pick slot. For once, and perhaps for only once, he'll actually have to help build his own team instead of someone else's.

So who? Who gets picked ninth?  Ironically, it should be No. 9's replacement. Let's face it, Tony Romo puts up some of the best numbers in the game, when he's allowed to.

But, let's also face it, it's been awhile since he's been allowed to. His serviceable years are coming to a close. Perhaps it's time for Jerry Jones to fob off a player on someone else to close out their careers.

Unfortunately, ninth isn't all that high a pick. If Carolina doesn't snag the better quarterback candidates away from Dallas, seven other teams will have the chance to do so. So let's look at it another way. The reason John Kitner was tossed to the wolves is because the Cowboy line was already letting those wolves get to Romo.

Mr. Jones needs to use his No. 9 wisely. Sir? Get the biggest marquee draft pick you can. IMMEDIATELY deal that player AND Tony Romo to whichever team will cut you a package deal on a center and two guards that big drill in Oceans 13 couldn't bore through. Given a decent line and now that he's got some actual games-played stats, John Kitner might actually fill Romo's shoes instead of just being a placemarker quarterback.