IRVING – Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones considers receiver to be his team's position of strength.
He has a good point. Terrell Owens and Terry Glenn are coming off 1,000-yard seasons. Owens led the NFL in touchdown catches. Patrick Crayton is one of the better third receivers in the league and has a high level of trust with quarterback Tony Romo. Sam Hurd and Miles Austin were two undrafted finds last year, and former coach Bill Parcells believes Austin has the chance to be a real player.
But if one of the top receivers is sitting there at No. 22 in the first round of the draft (Tennessee's Robert Meachem? Southern Cal's Dwayne Jarrett or Steve Smith? LSU's Dwayne Bowe?), the Cowboys should look hard and long at taking one.
Why?
Owens and Glenn are in their 30s and have injury histories. Crayton is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent after the 2007 season, although the Cowboys might look to lock him up before then. And as much as Hurd and Austin impressed last season, they are still relative unknowns.
Let's say one of the starters gets hurt during the season and you have to bump every player up a level. Having a Meachem, Jarrett or Smith, or whomever you like at No. 22, would offer a sense of relief.
Let's say Owens and Glenn make it through the season without injury, then what? They still would have the position filled for the future. Taking a receiver with the No. 1 pick would also continue the development of Romo. Surround him with better talent, the better he will be.
History is not on the Cowboys' side. They have not taken a wideout with their first pick since Kevin Williams was selected in the second round of the 1993 draft. They haven't drafted a receiver in the first round since Alvin Harper in 1991. Heck, they have not drafted an offensive player in the first round since 1997.
First-round receivers also do not have a history of faring well in their rookie seasons, but Jones believes he has a team built to win now anyway. There would not be the same kind of pressure on a Cowboys' No. 1 pick than another team. If the Cowboys sign free safety Ken Hamlin, then there might not be a spot among the starting units available.
There is also a theory that receivers can be had every year at every round. Look at what Marques Colston did last year as a seventh-round pick in New Orleans. Well, if the Saints really knew what Colston was, they would have picked him earlier.
Parcells used to call this kind of thinking contingency planning because you simply can't dial them up during the season.
