2014 NFL mock draft: Cowboys select Demarcus Lawrence

With the 47th pick in Pride Of Detroit's 2014 NFL mock draft, the Dallas Cowboys select Boise State defensive end Demarcus Lawrence. Sgdbw90 is serving as the Cowboys' general manager, and his reasoning for the pick is below.

67 tackles, 14 sacks, 4 forced fumbles. If that sounds like a career year for your average rush end/OLB, you'd be right. But that's also the average full season for all-world/former Cowboy DeMarcus Ware. The seven-time Pro Bowler and four-time first-team All-Pro is setting up shop in Denver next season, leaving a MASSIVE hole in the Cowboys' front seven. Dallas had a bad defense and lost its best defensive player, so it's possible that no team has a greater need at a single position than the Cowboys have at rush end.

Enter Demarcus Lawrence, a pass-rushing whiz kid out of Boise State (see: 20 sacks, 34 TFL from 2012-2013) who many pundits saw sneaking into the late first round. Lawrence has more than a first name in common with Ware (capitalization aside). His main criticisms are about his size -- at 6'3, 251 pounds, he's a bit of a tweener. But you know who else was a tweener? The 6'4, 247-pound DeMarcus Ware, that's who. Like Ware, Lawrence makes the tweener label work to his advantage, possessing the quickness and agility to beat OTs and the strength to get past TEs and backs. Lawrence also has a ton of versatility, having lined up at every DL spot in college. He's the perfect complement for Timmy Jernigan, the run stopper we grabbed in Round 1, and the pair (along with the recently signed Henry Melton) would go a very long way towards shoring up Dallas' biggest weakness.

When the best available player also fits your giant, gaping need, you don't think twice. Ware may have made the transition from Cowboy to Bronco, but it's not hard to imagine that Lawrence might be a Bronco who can make it big as a Cowboy.

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Check out the 2014 POD Community Mock Draft tracker for a look at all of the picks.