If the Cowboys went into next week's NFL draft concerned only with filling needs, they should simply choose the best pass rusher available as soon as they go on the clock.
It's far from a secret. All of the other 31 teams know Rod Marinelli's group needs help getting to the quarterback. It's the biggest reason the Cowboys have come up short in the divisional round two of the last three years.
The best way to improve a pass rush is by addressing it early in the draft.
"Just as much as we need a pass rusher I think it'd be a huge mistake to say we can't get out of the first round without a pass rusher," Cowboys executive vice president Stephen Jones said at the scouting combine. "I think that's how you make a big mistake."
The problem with elite pass rushers is that they are usually off the board within the top 15 picks. Sixteen players finished with 10 or more sacks last season. Five of them were drafted in the top 15. Eight of them were taken in the top 25.
The Cowboys don't have that luxury this year. They have pick No. 28 overall. There is the option of trading up a few spots if a player they like starts slipping, but it's unlikely they'd be willing to part with enough to get in the top 15.
So Jones and Co. are probably not going to get the next DeMarcus Ware, Julius Peppers, Von Miller, J.J. Watt or Khalil Mack in this draft. But they could find the next Cameron Wake, Everson Griffen, Michael Bennett, Nick Perry or Danielle Hunter.
All five of those pass rushers have had at least one 10-plus sack season over the last three years. Wake and Griffen have done it twice. None of them were drafted higher than 28. Wake and Bennett weren't drafted at all.
Jason Hatcher, a third-round pick, was Dallas' last player to finish with double-digit sacks, recording 11 in 2013.
Of the players who have been part of the Cowboys' 30 pre-draft visits, four of them could fit into this "next-best" category.
Taco Charlton of Michigan, Charles Harris of Missouri, Takkarist McKinley of UCLA and T.J. Watt of Wisconsin are all projected to be late-first round possibilities. It's unlikely that all four will still be available at 28, but at least one of them should.
The Cowboys haven't spent a first-round selection on a pass rusher since Anthony Spencer in 2007. While they shouldn't reach for a player, it's about time that nine-year streak came to end.
"It's real difficult to find the guys who on a consistent basis game-in, game-out, down-in, down-out put pressure on," Jones said. "But obviously we're looking. They come in all shapes and sizes and speeds and guys have knacks, whether it's a [Dwight] Freeney, whether it's a Peppers, whether it's a J.J. Watt, you just never know, a DeMarcus Ware, how that's going to come about in terms of their success in this league.
"Everybody would sure like to know it because it's so important that you get pressure on the passer. Ever since DeMarcus left we really haven't had that guy."
