2010 Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft: Pick No. 27

Rd. # Player Pos. College 1 27 Anthony Davis OT Rutgers General Manager: sgdbw90

With the 27th pick of the 2010 Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft, the Dallas Cowboys select Rutgers offensive tackle Anthony Davis.

Here is sgdbw90's reasoning for the pick:

As I write this, I'm holding the awesome Stafford autographed ball I won. I get to thank my amazing Blue Devils for that, and as long as we're talking about teams that everyone hates, may as well talk about the Cowboys. America's Team! We Lions fans should have a soft spot in our hearts for the 'boys ever since we Mayhewed the crap out of them in the Roy Williams trade, so I'll try to do them justice.

The Cowboys are in a fairly unique situation where the coach has zero job security but the GM has complete and total job security (it helps that the GM moonlights as the team owner). For Wade Phillips to hold on to his job another year, Dallas needs to win now, which means they have to lean towards the low risk, low upside type players who can have an impact on this team immediately. The Cowboys are close to being Super Bowl ready, but they opened up big holes at OT (by cutting Flozell Adams) and S (by cutting Ken Hamlin) that need addressing. The best use of this spot would be the best available player at OT or S, even if there's a markedly better prospect at another position. This is not the kind of team that cares about Mel Kiper's "Best 5 Available".

But, as luck would have it (not that the Cowboys need luck), even though there were only four slam dunk, first round-caliber OTs in this draft, one of them slipped to number 27. NFL.com has Davis ranked as the top overall OL prospect (ahead of Okung and Williams), and the only thing that's keeping him down on draft boards is supposed character issues (not a problem in Dallas). Davis is a BIG dude, and there are some concerns about his weight, but his talent level this late in the draft is absolutely worth the "gamble." The Cowboys currently have Doug Free slated to watch the blind side of their golden boy Tony Romo, and you can be sure that that idea makes Jones and Phillips nervous. Taking Davis (who has gone in the top 10 in some mocks) this late in the draft is the rare low-risk, high-upside deal. It makes so much sense that it's almost guaranteed not to actually happen.

Check out the 2010 Pride of Detroit Community Mock Draft tracker for a look at all of the picks.