Each week on "Mock Draft Live", NFL Media analysts Bucky Brooks and Daniel Jeremiah -- two former NFL scouts -- debate hot-button topics for the 2016 NFL Draft. This week, "general manager" Matt "Money" Smith gets into character and plays the role of Jerry Jones, who needs some help making a decision on the No. 4 overall pick. What do the Dallas Cowboys need more, a quarterback or a pass rusher? The two scouts pick a side and state their cases.
Brooks' choice: Pass rusher
Defense wins championships. You just saw that in Super Bowl 50 when the Denver Broncos won because of their strong defense. If you're the Dallas Cowboys, go out and get Joey Bosa of Ohio State. Getting after the passer, knocking the quarterback around and putting opponents in bad situations on offense creates easy and shorter fields for your offense. That is the way that you win championships. That is the way the game is played.
We're in a win-now business. I think long-term, it's nice to take a quarterback. However, that guy's not going to play. How many rookie quarterbacks can really lead a team to the winners' circle?
I say take Bosa, who is a proven product and will allow the defense to play better, and then consider waiting until the top of the second round to take that quarterback.
Jeremiah's choice: Quarterback
If you like watching your Razorbacks playing in a mid-tier bowl game in January, then go with Bucky's answer because you'll be free to do so at that point, Mr. Jones. You need to take a quarterback.
Let's go down memory lane a bit. Remember when you chose quarterback Troy Aikman with the No. 1 overall pick in 1989 and he went on to a Hall-of-Fame career? Now, you have Tony Romo. That bridge between Aikman and Romo was not built very well. You had quarterbacks such as Chad Hutchinson and Quincy Carter starting. That was a bit of a mess. Now, Mr. Jones, you don't want to do that again.
You're picking No. 4 because your quarterback can't stay healthy. We're not going to be picking No. 4 overall ever again, because you'll take either Jared Goff or Carson Wentz. Either one of those two will be able to get the team through whatever games Romo might miss due to an injury.
The defensive player we could get at No. 4 would be nice, but we won't find ourselves in this situation -- picking early enough to get a franchise quarterback -- again for a very long time. As an investment man, Mr. Jones, you have to think long-term.
Watch "Mock Draft Live" each Wednesday on NFL Now (5 p.m. ET) and NFL Network (8 p.m. ET).
