Draft History: 1999

IRVING - There are teams that try to address needs in the draft and there are teams that say they pick the best players on the board. Then there are the Cowboys.

They take the best available defensive end.

For the fourth time in six years, Dallas' first selection Saturday was a defensive end. The hope at Valley Ranch is that North Carolina's Ebenezer Ekuban has some Greg Ellis in him, and maybe even a dash of Kavika Pittman in him, but no Shante Carver in him.

"This isn't a case of us trying to finally get it right," defensive coordinator Dave Campo said. "Two of the three Ellis and Pittman start for us, so we're just hoping we'll be right three out of four times after this."

The Cowboys went for defense first when most of the rest of the league was thinking offense. Going against the grain was the right approach for two reasons.

One is the potential loss of Leon Lett and the hole it leaves in the defensive front. If Lett finds himself suspended for failing another drug test, then there is the possibility of moving Ellis to tackle if Ekuban shows he can play as a rookie.

But even if Lett stays in the lineup, the Cowboys were right to think defense, because defense just got a lot tougher to play in their division.

The days of coasting to a title in the NFC Least with a 10-6 record, the days of sweeping eight games from inferior division competition as Dallas did just a few months ago are gone.

The Cowboys' neighborhood became much more dangerous Saturday, starting about 11:30 a.m., when Philadelphia selected quarterback Donovan McNabb. It continued an hour later when Washington pulled off two trades that left them with Champ Bailey (the next Deion without the derbies), plus the Saints' No. 1 pick next year.

Then Arizona, which caused enough problems for Dallas with its passing game last year, added Ohio State wide receiver David Boston. That provided one more target for Jake Plummer, who also got left-tackle protection, when the Cardinals selected Lonnie Shelton later in the first round.

"Some teams got better right away," Campo said. "I think this division was a lot better than people gave it credit for, anyway. But when teams are adding skill players, it makes it that much more important that you have to be able to pressure the passer."

Campo's right about the division. At the end of 1998, there were signs of a division on the rise. The Giants went 4-0 in December, the Redskins went 3-1. The Cardinals won a playoff game for the first time in half a century.

For the record, the NFC East had a slightly better record than the AFC Central, so it wasn't the worst division in the league. Now you can expect the Eagles to show signs of life under new head coach Andy Reid, the former Green Bay quarterbacks coach, and McNabb.

The Redskins upgraded their offense before the draft with quarterback Brad Johnson and may get legitimate help on that side of the ball from Bailey. The cornerback from Georgia, who has drawn the Sanders comparisons, played more than 300 plays on offense last year.

Arizona got the receiver and the offensive tackle it needed in the first round. The Giants remain a mystery on offense but have the potential to improve with Kerry Collins at quarterback.

All of this looks bad for Dallas. All of this, according to Campo, is good.

"I know that whenever we've been really good here, the division has been good," he said. "I'm not saying I want to play against guys like Donovan McNabb and David Boston, but the fact is that we have to be able to win a strong division to be a good team."

The Cowboys would like to think they still belong at the top of the NFC East, a division they have won six of the past seven years. But their puzzling finish suggests the Cowboys ended 1998 on a par with Arizona, not far ahead of Washington and New York.

In one wild, wild week, the Cowboys added Mark Stepnoski, Quentin Coryatt, Raghib Ismail and a speed rusher named Ekuban.

If all they lost in the process was Patrick Jeffers, who signed with Carolina, then the Cowboys made considerable progress.

But if it turns out they also lost Lett while players as talented as McNabb and Boston were joining their rivals, then the NFC East has the look of a division in which the only dominant team will be the one with the football.