Dallas City News

As things stand right now, after the first few days of the 2024 NFL new league year and free agency, the Dallas Cowboys are short two starters along their offensive line. While Tyron Smith is still an option to return as long as he remains available on the open market, Tyler Biadasz has decided to take his talents to Washington, joining the Commanders new head coach Dan Quinn.

The writing has been on the wall for a while now that the Dallas Cowboys were unlikely to re-sign Tyler Biadasz. Now that it’s official though, the need to find a new starting center to replace him moves to the top, or near the top, of the Cowboys to-do list this offseason. There are a few intriguing options available via free agency, however, they’ll likely choose to go cheaper/younger by means of the NFL draft.

Fortunately for the Dallas Cowboys, and other teams in need of a starting caliber center, the 2024 draft class at the OC position is pretty plush with options. Whether a team like the Cowboys want to invest a first-round pick in the position or any round after, there should be options available for them throughout.

According to Dane Brugler of The Athletic, there could be numerous starting centers to come out of the 2024 NFL Draft.

It makes sense that Brugler would pick the over as to how many starting centers will come out of the 2024 draft class considering he had four of them listed in as last Top 100 rankings back in February before the Scouting Combine. Now, it wouldn’t be surprising if a couple more center prospects joined the list after a strong showing at the “underwear Olympics”.

As far as the Cowboys are concerned, this is great news for their hopes of finding Tyler Biadasz’ replacement. The more options available, the more likely they’ll find a plug-and-play starter with a little to no drop-off from their previous one. But where and who will end up becoming said replacement?

In a recent conversation with Jon Machota of The Athletic, Dane Brugler helped to shed some light on how the Cowboys could approach not only their first-round pick in the 2024 NFL Draft, but when and where they could potentially replace Tyler Biadasz.

Starting in the first-round with the 24th overall pick, Brugler suggested that Jackson Powers-Johnson (Oregon) and Graham Barton (Duke) could definitely be in play for the Cowboys. And if they choose to trade down a few spots, Zach Frazier (West Virginia) is someone they could target in the latter part of the first-round.

If the Cowboys choose to forgo drafting a center in the first round though, Brugler says the third round could be where they target the position. The prospects he mentioned who could be available for them there are Sederick Van Pran (Georgia), Tanor Bortolini (Wisconsin), Beaux Limmer (Arkansas), and Hunter Nourzad (Penn State).

If what Dane Brugler says is true, it’s looking as if the Dallas Cowboys could be targeting the center position with their 24th overall pick in the first round or their 87th overall pick in the third round. Knowing that, again if it’s true, it’s going to be really interesting to see how they approach things come April when the NFL draft gets underway.

Which OC prospect in the 2024 draft class would you like the Dallas Cowboys to select to replace Tyler Biadasz?