With the 14th pick of Pride of Detroit's 2012 NFL mock draft, the Dallas Cowboys select Memphis defensive tackle Dontari Poe. Jerry Mallory is serving as the Cowboys' general manager, and his reasoning for the pick is below.
As we were getting closer to this pick, we narrowed it down to four prospects: Poe, Riley Reiff, Mark Barron and Dre Kirkpatrick. Barron would fill a big need, but we didn't have him rated as high as the other three. Kirkpatrick's size would've been a nice tandem with the newly acquired Brandon Carr down the line, but we had questions about his character from our interviews and his reported marijuana issues.
That took us to Reiff and Poe. We would have relished having the "problem" of having three talented tackles with Doug Free, Tyron Smith and Reiff. We could've gotten creative with line packages or more likely moved up in the draft or acquired a pick or two for Free. Reiff being gone made Poe the clear-cut choice.
What our NFC East rival New York Giants have shown the past five years is how successful a dominant pass rush can be. Poe has the strength and athleticism to command two linemen, allowing our rush ends and LBs to get to the quarterback and on occasion get a sack himself. He's the best NT in this draft.
Poe reminds us of last year's first-round pick, Tyron Smith, in that he is more of a talent than a football player at this point. Once he combines his skill with football savvy, he can be unstoppable. His ceiling is as high as any in this year's draft. Defensive coordinator Rob Ryan feels he can easily fix one of Poe's biggest perceived issues, that of lacking effort at times. Ryan guaranteed us he could get full effort from Poe on every play. We are excited to bring him to the 'Boys!
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