News: BTB: Dallas Cowboys 2016 Draft Predictions: Who Do You Think The Cowboys Will Pick?

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Put together a list of 30 players you think the Cowboys will draft and submit them for the record. After the draft we'll look at how accurate our predictions were.

On the surface, yesterday's Cowboys pre-draft press conference clarified a lot of things. Or did it?

Zekeists are more convinced than ever that Zeke Elliott will be the Cowboys' first-round pick; Bosans are happy that Joey Bosa's alleged character flags will not play a role in the Cowboys decision; Jalenites are already pre-ordering their Jalen Ramsey jerseys; everybody heard what they wanted to hear from the presser, and most of the headlines you'll read today are about how the Cowboys presser confirmed this or that author's previously held opinion.

But we want none of that here, because we have a special challenge for you today. Submit a list of up to 30 players, irrespective of round, that you think the Cowboys will draft or sign as undrafted free agents. How you arrive at your selection is entirely up to you. You can carpet-bomb the first three rounds; you can focus on specific positions; you can look at the list of players the Cowboys invited for pre-draft visits or local "Dallas day" workouts; anything goes, but you've got to stick to 30 players.

One of the interesting aspects of working with a 30-name list is that it forces you to make some hard choices: do you really pick a running back for every round; are you going to go out on a limb for that small-school free agent; what's your position on quarterbacks; just how many defensive linemen can the Cowboy really draft; will a safety increase or decrease your chances of getting more picks right; are you going to plan for a trade-down or not? Lots of questions that you'll need to address as you whittle down the names on your board.

Using the 'Little Board' format that rabblerousr has championed here on BTB, Joey Ickes, rabblerousr, and I will submit our Top 30, and I'll go first:

OCC's 30 prospects for the Cowboys
First Round Second Round Third Round Fourth Round Fifth/Sixth 7th/Priority FA
DEFENSE​

DE Shaq Lawson Kevin Dodd
Noah Spence Ronald Blair Ryan Brown
DT Robert Nkemdiche
Kenny Clark Sheldon Day
Hassan Ridgeway Rodney Coe
LB Luke Rhodes Cory James
CB Jalen Ramsey William Jackson III Xavien Howard Jalen Mills Taveze Calhoun
S Sean Davis Justin Simmons

OFFENSE​

QB Dak Prescott Brandon Allen
RB Ezekiel Elliott C.J. Prosise Paul Perkins
WR Michael Thomas Kenny Lawler Cody Core Marquez North
OL Connor McGovern Isaac Seumalo​

Many of my picks have been to Dallas for pre-draft visits or had workouts with the Cowboys, and my list is heavily skewed towards the defense.

Rabble's 30 prospects for the Cowboys
First Round Second Round Third Round Fourth Round Fifth/Sixth 7th/Priority FA
DEFENSE​

DE Joey Bosa Kevin Dodd David Perkins Ryan Brown
DT Robert Nkemdiche,
Kenny Clark Hassan Ridgeway,
Sheldon Day Rodney Coe
LB Cory James,
Joe Walker
CB Jalen Ramsey Xavien Howard Jeremiah McKinnon
S Karl Joseph Sean Davis Rolan Milligan

OFFENSE​

QB Paxton Lynch Dak Prescott Christian Hackenberg,
Jacoby Brissett
RB Ezekiel Elliott Jonathan Williams,
Paul Perkins C.J. Prosise
WR Will Fuller Tyler Boyd,
Rashard Higgins Marquez North
OL Connor McGovern Isaac Seumalo ​

Rabblerousr also populated his list with a lot of official pre-draft visitors and Dallas Day participants, but has a more even distribution between offense and defense.

Joey's 30 prospects for the Cowboys
First Round Second Round Third Round Fourth Round Fifth/Sixth 7th/Priority FA
DEFENSE​

DE Shaq Lawson Kevin Dodd
Noah Spence Roland Blair Tyrone Holmes
DT Kenny Clark Sheldon Day Rodney Coe
LB Cory James,
Deon King
CB Jalen Ramsey Xavien Howard Jeremiah McKinnon
S Karl Joseph Sean Davis Rolan Milligan

OFFENSE​

QB Paxton Lynch Christian Hackenberg Dak Prescott Cardale Jones,
Vernon Adams
RB Ezekiel Elliott Derrick Henry Paul Perkins C.J. Prosise
WR Josh Doctson,
Sterling Shephard Tyler Boyd
OL Connor McGovern Isaac Seumalo ​

Joey has made no secret of the fact that he thinks the Cowboy need to upgrade their run game, and also covers a lot of options at QB.

Over to you: Put together your 30 picks. Keep the format simple. We'll award one point for each correct name you've predicted, be it a draft pick or a subsequent UDFA signing, regardless of round. There's no specific time limit to submit your picks, but the start of the draft on Thursday will be an obvious cut-off point

For easy legibility, use this or a similar format to post your selections in the comments below:

1st Round: Jalen Ramsey, Joey Bosa, Ezekiel Elliott, Deforest Buckner, Paxton Lynch

2nd Round: Derrick Henry, Kevin Dodd, Robert Nkemdiche, Kenny Clarke, Will Fuller

3rd Round: Dak Prescott, Tyler Boyd, Michael Thomas, Hassan Ridgeway, Sean Davis

4th Round: Paul Perkins, Connor McGovern, Isaac Seumalo, David Perkins, Roland Blair

5th/6th Round: Cody Core, Justin Simmons, Eric Murray, Joe Walker, Jeremiah McKinnon

7th Round/Priority Free Agents: Ryan Brown, Rodney Coe, Cory James, Taveze Calhoun, Marquez North

Your reward? Some fun in compiling your list of 30 names and bragging rights for whoever gets the most picks right.

You may think this is an exercise in futility, as there's no way to pick a few names out of a pool of 400 or so draft eligible players from which the Cowboys are likely to chose. But that's not necessarily the case.

In 2013, BTB-member starmesh23 hit on six players that ended up with the Cowboys after the draft, four draft picks (Frederick, Williams, Wilcox, Randle) and two free agents (Brandon Magee, Jakar Hamilton).

In 2014, 86 BTB members participated in this exercise, and found out the hard way that in spite of nine draft picks by the Cowboys, predicting who the Cowboys would pick proved very tough. Of the 86 submitted lists of names, 55 hit on Zack Martin and 51 hit on DeMarcus Lawrence, but it got pretty bleak after that. In fact, the next best picks were Davon Coleman and Chris Whaley, two guys who ended up signing with the Cowboys as undrafted free agents. Five Cowboys draft picks (Anthony Hitchens, Ben Gardner, Will Smith, Ahmad Dixon and Terrance Mitchell) did not get a single mention in the 86 lists. BTB-members YumaCactus and dallasdan hit on five Cowboys draft picks or UDFA signings.

In 2015, 72 of 94 participants got Byron Jones right, and 63 got Chaz Green right, so that was an improvement over the previous year. 25 participants correctly picked Laurence Gibson, 19 got Mark Nzeocha right, 17 picked UDFA George Farmer, and nine even picked Randy Gregory. BTB-member Chad Loveland got seven players right, five draft picks, including the first four in sequence (Joney, Gregory, Green, Wilson, plus Gibson) and two free agents (George Farmer, Lucky Whitehead).

Here's an overview of the 12 participants last year who got at least four picks right.

Results 2014 Prediction Challenge​

Blogger/Pick Total Jones Gregory Green Wilson Russell Nzeocha Gibson Swaim Farmer
(UDFA) Goodley
(UDFA) Whitehead
(UDFA)
Chad Loveland

7 1 1 1 1 1 1 1​

DEL1SLE

5 1 1 1 1 1​

OCC

5 1 1 1 1 1​

4evercowboy

4 1 1 1 1​

greatwhitenorth

4 1 1 1 1​

lbm

4 1 1 1 1​

Stellaphobic

4 1 1 1 1​

TheLeftHand

4 1 1 1 1​

wahoowa86

4 1 1 1 1​

WhereIsMyHutch-YouthUniform

4 1 1 1 1​

wwilbur3

4 1 1 1 1​

YumaCactus

4 1 1 1 1​

All 94 predictions

- - 72 9 63 6 2 19 25 0 17 3 2​

​

Honorable mention goes these 32 participants who finished with three correct picks each: angie'sdad, bdk76, Becho, BetterDayByDay, Canadian Texan, CarloRue, Chris Arnold, cjbrit, Crunchberry, DeMarcoFan29, dentltek, icebowl68, IrishP1, Jeff Landrith, jimmy.marshall2, Just Askin, ketom1220, Markythearky, NCHeelsBoysFan, nikeorlipstick, ProBowlFactory, rabblerousr, rome254, Splyle, The Trenches, therightkindaguy, timani, TRAVLR, Trent Schoneweis, Vancity Cowboy, viciousphilpy, WA_Cowboy.

As it currently stands, the Cowboys have nine picks this year. How many Cowboys picks can you accurately predict?

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