Dallas Cowboys: Although the Cowboys have been able to find talent, they must learn to play the draft game

Give the Cowboys so much: they are so confident of what they are doing in the project these days, they are making fun of what strangers think. Take an early security in one of the deepest drafts ever seen? Security? Who needs security? The next thing you know, the Cowboys will simply line up the traffic cones in the high school.

The first guy they recruited came into office last fall and had problems with not one but two staff members at UCF? No perspiration. Rod Marinelli is immediately linked to Trysten Hill. Father and son, practically.

And in Rod we trust, right?

Listen, we do not know yet how Jerry Jones has progressed this weekend. Anyway, do not put too much stock in the B-minus of yours. Hill could prove to be the next Aaron Donald. He has good skills. Big, explosive and playing hard, and no matter what Hill's problems with the staff of Scott Frost and then Josh Heupel, maybe the old tunnel rat scares him.

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And if Hill turns out to be as good as Travis Frederick, the Cowboys may warrant taking it earlier than planned. As they did with Frederic.

What's fun with the repechage is that it's not always about finding good players. You must also know how to play it.

Perhaps you remember the 2013 project. The Cowboys were traded at the 31st pick of the first round, then pulled Frederick out of Wisconsin. Mike Mayock, who was then working for the NFL network, said he had a third-round note on Frederick. Panic in the streets. Then, the Cowboys doubled taking the immortal Gavin Escobar with the 47th overall choice.

Frederick's play since has certainly justified a first-round selection, but there are more ways to judge the choice than Frederick's performance.

And if the projection of Mayock was the real consensus? What if the Cowboys had waited until the 47th pick to take Frederick? They also wanted a close end. They could have had Zach Ertz, who went to the Eagles at age 35.

If the Cowboys had played well, maybe they would have had Frederick and Ertz and Jason Witten would still work on Monday night.

Perhaps the Cowboys had the feeling that Frederick would not fall so far and they wanted to make sure they had their center. Even if they had played and lost, Ertz would have been a nice consolation prize, right?

Here's another fun thing about projects: It does not just take years to see how teams behave, we do not go back and do not re-grade. But I remember giving the Cowboys a D after they took Quincy Carter in the second round of the 2001 project. It was not just because he was in play in Georgia or he only completed 49.7% of his passes during his last season in Athens or there were all kinds of questions about his character.

They got a D because they passed Quincy two laps before the spot where he had been screened.

Of course, it is possible that someone else wanted Quincy. It's like that with the quarterbacks. They are usually picked before they are ripe. Consider Daniel Jones' choice of Duke by the Giants with the sixth pick. Now, I love Daniel Jones. I love the fact that he played for David Cutcliffe, who also shaped the Manning boys. This relationship may have weighed a little too heavily on Dave Gettleman of the Giants, in fact, because Jones was not considered a choice among the top 10. Several fake projects did not play it at all in the first round. If the Giants had waited for Jones with their 17th choice, they could have used the sixth against Houston's Ed Oliver, a safer bet on the defensive line than Clemson's Dexter Lawrence, at 17.

Gettleman says you can not be "cute" with choices. If you really love a guy, he says, take it when you get the chance.

Sometimes this approach has merit. But as a policy, it does not make much sense. You have a rough draft for a reason. If one of the players you like disappears before you can hit him, go to the next player on your list.

And if you are smart enough to imagine the qualities of a player that others could not, well, good for you. It's like returning homes. It's fine to have a vision of what this might be, but if you pay too much, your margin goes.

Suppose the Cowboys took Juan Thornhill, security out of Virginia, with the choice of 58th place and waited on Hill. They would have considered such a scenario. If they had, they might not have been able to take Connor McGovern, the Penn State Guard, into the third. Again, they would have had McGovern Hill's senior rank on their board. Maybe Hill would have been available in the fourth. His locker with the coaching staff could have justified it, especially if you think there might be a postponement.

As they say in the process of preliminary assessment, we will see. At least the Cowboys had a win in the repechage. Amari Cooper was worth more than the first round pick of the Raiders. Dave Gettleman could have used something as safe to calm a noisy crowd in New York, which was not as sold as Daniel Jones.

"In three years," Gettleman told reporters, "we'll find out how crazy I am."

Chances are we can not find it at all. As for Jerry, he will still be in the fighting room. Dave should also have obtained one of these contracts for life.

Twitter: @KSherringtonDMN