Dane Brugler believes the Cowboys will upgrade their offense early in the 2025 NFL Draft.
Dane Brugler, The Athletic’s NFL draft guru, just recently dropped his latest 2025 mock draft predicting what all 32 teams could do with their first two picks based on team needs and information gathered from conversations with sources in the NFL and college football.
As far as the Dallas Cowboys are concerned, Brugler seems to think they will target the offensive side of the ball early and often with their first two selections in the 2025 NFL Draft. This could very well be the approach Dallas ends up taking in April, but only time will tell. Until then, let’s take a look at who he predicts the Cowboys will take.
12. Dallas Cowboys: Luther Burden III, WR, Missouri
The Cowboys have to find more answers in the passing game, outside of CeeDee Lamb. Burden is an explosive threat at all three levels but does his best work with the ball in his hands, becoming a running back after the catch.
With the 12th overall pick in the first-round of the 2025 NFL Draft, Brugler predicts the Cowboys will upgrade their passing game by drafting wide receiver Luther Burden III out of Missouri. He would immediately step in as the WR2 behind CeeDee Lamb and give Dak Prescott another dynamic playmaker to upgrade Dallas’ aerial attack.
While Brugler’s reasoning is sound and could be exactly the way things play out for the Cowboys, it is interesting to see he thinks in Dallas would pass up on Boise State RB Ashton Jeanty, who has been connected to Dallas for a while. By the way, Jeanty ended up sliding all the way to 20th overall to the Denver Broncos.
Deciding between WR Luther Burden and RB Ashton Jeanty would no doubt be an interesting and tough decision to make for the Cowboys if this is how things play out. One reason to pass on Jeanty is that the 2025 RB draft class is deep where as the WR draft class isn’t considered to be so.
Maybe that’s why Dane Brugler believes the Cowboys would target WR over RB in the first-round and why he decided to go with the latter with their second-round pick, 44th overall.
44. Dallas Cowboys: TreVeyon Henderson, RB, Ohio State
His vision and tempo as an inside runner aren’t always consistent, but Henderson has the acceleration to create big plays any time he touches the rock (he has really shined with Chip Kelly’s pin-pull blocking concepts). His versatility as a blocker and pass catcher gives him a clear path to NFL playing time.
TreVeyon Henderson is considered to be a Top 5 running back in the 2025 draft class and was the fourth RB the selected in Brugler’s mock draft. The 5’10”, 210-pound RB is half of the dynamic duo with Quinshon Judkins at Ohio State and rushed for 967 yards and 10 touchdowns for the Buckeyes this season, averaging an impressive 7.3 yards per carry.
With the need to upgrade their rushing attack, Henderson makes a lot of sense for the Cowboys with the 44th overall pick. He checks all of the boxes NFL teams look for in a starting RB and should be able to upgrade Dallas’ rushing attack.
Again though, it is interesting Dane Brugler decided to pass up on Ashton Jeanty, the best RB in the 2025 draft class, in the first-round for the Cowboys to only to select Henderson for them with their second-round pick. After all, Ole Miss WR Trey Harris and Stanford WR Elic Ayomanor were still available for Dallas at 44 according to Brugler’s mock draft.
It is an interesting topic of debate whether Brugler is correct that the Cowboys would go WR over RB in the first-round or vice versa. But, that’s one of the fun aspects of doing these mock drafts. It opens up lines of discussions as to what may or may not happen and what would like to see happen. Only time will tell how things actually play out.
