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Schoonmaker, Overshown: How They Make Cowboys Better

The Dallas Cowboys' NFL Draft isn't flashy, but it's work ... bit by bit.

You want household names? Nope.

You want conventional names? Forget it.

You want a college of choice that can take on the Philadelphia Eagles' college of choice? No way.

But, you want three players - specialists, if you will - with the potential to find roles and significantly help a Dallas Cowboys team that entered the NFL Draft with no glaring holes? You got it.

Mazi, Schoonmaker and DeMarvion. Not exactly Troy, Emmitt and Michael, but the Cowboys are confident they are a better football team because of these guys after two days of the NFL Draft.

After taking Mazi Smith in Thursday's first round, Dallas parlayed its positions of "need" with the "best" players available Friday and wound up with Michigan tight end Luke Schoonmaker in the second round and Texas linebacker DeMarvion Overshown in the third.

Where some thought the Cowboys would look to Notre Dame's Michael Mayer to fill the void left in free agency by Dalton Schultz, they instead waited patiently for Schoonmaker.

Used primarily as a blocker in coach Jim Harbaugh's three-yards-and-a-cloud-of-dust running game at Michigan, if nothing else Schoonmaker will make giddy those Cowboys fans who long to make that "oooooooh" sound in the wake of losing Amari Cooper.

(As much as they like their two Michigan picks in Smith and Schoonmaker, the Cowboys likely won't, however, put them up against the Eagles' University of Georgia star duo of Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith.)

Overshown is a raw talent who will fight for the right to wear the NFL's new No. 0, lead the league in armbands and ferociously rush the passer from any position and in any alignment.

Says ESPN analyst Louis Riddick, "He's probably the most unsung sleeper in this draft."

After two days of the draft the Cowboys don't have one player who can do everything. But in the run-stuffing Smith, the blocking of Schoonmaker and Overshown's relentless pass rush, they have three players who each do one thing each well.

Smith may not be a three-down lineman. Schoonmaker likely won't be on the field on third-and-long. Overshown will shine only in passing situations. Together? They can combine to make the Cowboys better. 


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