2025 NFL Draft: Cowboys’ Jerry Jones says Tetairoa McMillan was ‘very high on board,’ almost traded down

FRISCO, Texas — The Dallas Cowboys are ecstatic about selecting Alabama offensive guard Tyler Booker with the 12th overall pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. 

New head coach Brian Schottenheimer called Booker “an immediate starter and a guy who is going to play for a very long time at a very high level.” Then, the even higher praise came from Cowboys vice president of player personnel Will McClay: he likened Booker to future Hall of Fame right guard Zack Martin, a player whose seven first-team All-Pro selections are tied for the most at the guard position in NFL history along with Hall of Famers Randall McDaniel and John Hannah. 

“I went back and looked and I was telling [Cowboys COO] Stephen [Jones] our grades are very similar with [Booker] and what we had with Zack,” McClay said Thursday night after the completion of Round 1. “And then, some of the character traits. There’s a lot of things that are very similar. He’s his own individual, but he’s a grown ass man like Zack is. So you put someone in there that makes us a stronger and more physical team.”

However, many Cowboys fans had hoped and many in the NFL media world projected Dallas would be able to select Arizona Wildcats All-American wide receiver Tetairoa McMillan 12th overall. Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones did confirm that McMillan indeed was “very high” on their draft board.

“I don’t want to speculate on that, it’s not fair to anybody around here,” Jones said when asked about potentially taking McMillan if he was available to pick No. 12. “But we thought he was a great, really outstanding football player, and that’s it. We had him very high on the board.” 

Jones revealed the Cowboys front office had 12 players in the 2025 class graded as true first-round picks, which was one lower than their usual number of 13. He also said none of those players are still available. When asked if Booker was one of his 12 first-round grades, Jones was incredibly clear about that.

“Yes, definitely,” Jones said. 

Dallas also nearly didn’t select a player with the 12th overall pick with the Cowboys having a negotiation to trade down up until there was a minute left on the clock. In the end, they weren’t able to get enough in return to justify pulling the trigger on a deal to trade down when there was only a minute left on the clock for the Cowboys to either agree on a trade or select a player at No. 12. 

“Oh yes, there’s no question we had a live, live real trade going with a minute left on the clock,” Jones said. “Had it fallen right, it might have been the thing to do. They just didn’t take the trade that we thought we had to have to not make the pick. It just wasn’t enough for what we were giving up. It was real, and we had anticipated it. We also had a good ole firm bottom on what to trade because we had a guy sitting there that we really wanted, the one we took [Booker]. So we didn’t have to sit there and take somebody’s bargain for them and not for us. But we were solid at where we were.”

While the Booker choice was made to help boost quarterback Dak Prescott and the rest of the offense, needs remain at both running back and wide receiver entering Day 2 of the 2025 NFL Draft on Friday. Veteran running backs Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders are both on one-year deals, and no one on the roster had 650 or more receiving yards last season outside of CeeDee Lamb. 

“I don’t think the word is bad, we certainly have the ability to do that,” Jones said when asked if both positions could be addressed in rounds two and three. “It may not be at the level at receiver that we maybe might have looked at had the thing [the draft] fallen a different way, but still there are receivers. There’s certainly, we’ve got some real, real possibilities at running back.”