OXNARD, Calif. -- It all seems funny now that Travis Frederick has proven most of the draftniks wrong.
When the Dallas Cowboys used the 31st pick in the first round of the 2013 draft on the Wisconsin center, they were mostly panned. ESPN Insider Todd McShay had Frederick as a third-round pick on his draft board. A day after the Cowboys picked Frederick, ESPN’s Ed Werder polled five teams and the best grade was the fourth round. One team had him as a borderline sixth or seventh round pick.
On Sunday Frederick officially signed the six-year extension he agreed to on Saturday night moments before the Cowboys opened the preseason against the Los Angeles Rams.
Now that he has signed a contract extension averaging $9.4 million per year, the highest in the NFL, the Cowboys can have the last laugh four years after selecting Frederick if they choose.
“Yeah, we don’t spend a lot of time worrying what other people think,” coach Jason Garrett said. “We focus on how we want to build our team, the kind of players we want to bring in, and in his case, really someone we believe is a cornerstone player and we felt that about him at the time. He was a very good college football player, and sometimes people get caught up in the wrong things when you evaluate him. We felt good about him, we were excited to draft him, we are excited to have him on our team and extend him for a long time.”
Frederick, who ran the 40-yard dash in 5.56 seconds at the scouting combine, has not missed a game or a start in his career. He has been named to the Pro Bowl the last two years. He is largely considered one of the best centers in the game.
The Cowboys targeted the offensive line for the 2013 draft but by the time they picked after trading down with the San Francisco 49ers, they were nearly wiped out of offensive linemen. Frederick carried a second-round grade on the Cowboys’ board as the highest rated center.
“I think there’s always been a little bit of pressure,” Frederick said. “Coming in everybody doubted me being drafted in the first round. The commitment that the Cowboys have made in the offensive line in general, for us we thrive on that. We just kind of do our own thing. It doesn’t matter to us what anybody else thinks. It’s what happens in the room and how we live up to our standards.”