History shows Cowboys don't need to reach for a first-round LB

The NFL Draft is less than three weeks away, and the Dallas Cowboys have two first-round selections to mull over. Drafting the best available player is spoken about often, but the Cowboys usually side with the best option at a position of need when deciding whom to pick. With that being the case, one of the positions where the draft world seems to be zeroing in on with one of the Cowboys’ two first-round picks is at linebacker.

However, the team has done much better finding help in the middle rounds when drafting a LB. In the last 15 drafts, Dallas has found some their most reliable LB options in the fourth round, including a great stretch from 2012-2015, when the team drafted three solid players for the second level of the defense. It began when the Cowboys selected Kyle Wilber in the fourth round of the 2012 draft.

Wilber was drafted out of Wake Forest to initially be a special teams standout, provide depth at LB and give the pass rush a boost. Although he didn’t see the field much as a rookie, Wilber started 16 games over the next four years with the Cowboys, contributing six tackles for a loss and 3. 5 sacks.

Those aren’t standout numbers for Wilber, but he was a good, rotational LB and was one of the better special teams players on the Cowboys during his six seasons with the team. Wilber went on to play four more years with the Oakland/ Las Vegas Raiders . In 2014, the Cowboys found LB Anthony Hitchens out of Iowa in the fourth round.