Cowboys 3rd-round pick draws rave reviews from two rival NFL execs

Reviews of NFL Draft classes usually center on how teams used their first-round pick. But the draft is seven rounds long for a reason.

Every year, there are players drafted in the third, fifth, and even seventh rounds who turn out to be stars. The fun of the matter is that we rarely have any way of knowing who those players will be until several months in the future.

However, if anyone knows who those mid to late-round superstars are going to be, the executives of the 32 teams doing the drafting are solid bets. And the Cowboys' third-round pick is drawing rave reviews from some of their rivals.

With the 76th overall pick in the draft, the Cowboys selected Shavon Revel Jr., a cornerback from East Carolina. The 6-foot-3, 193-pounder tore his ACL this past season and only played in three games, but he's got a very high ceiling.

On Friday, Mike Sando of The Athletic compiled draft class reviews of all 16 NFC teams from anonymous executives around the league, and two separate execs raved about the Cowboys' Revel selection.

“They got the best guard in the draft, and they get a pass rusher opposite Micah Parsons who can actually win with speed,” an exec said. “Their pass rush is going to be a pain in the ass to deal with. The corner they got in the third might have gone in the back end of the first round if he’d never gotten hurt.”

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“Booker is huge, and he can knock people back, but he does run out of gas some,” the second exec said. “We liked the corner they took. He can change the angle of the ball arriving, like Seattle used to do with those taller corners.”

Revel, a fifth-year senior, started his career at a North Carolina junior college before transferring to East Carolina in 2022. His breakout season was 2023, when he was named all-American Athletic Conference after 12 pass breakups, an interception, and two blocked kicks.

If the rangy Revel can prove these execs correct, the Cowboys might have one of the league's best secondaries for the next half-decade.

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