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Last week we asked BTB members for their mock Cowboys drafts in our Mock Draft Challenge. Today we look at the results of that challenge.
On Friday last week we launched our second 2014 BTB Mock Draft Challenge in which we asked BTB members for their mock Cowboys drafts and then asked the community to vote on the mocks. But instead of simply asking for a list of randomly put together names, we limited the flexibility by establishing some specific rules: The mock draft had to be conducted according to the player rankings provided by the CBSSports.com big board. Only one trade-down was allowed, and trading up was only permissible if the trade value points given up were equal to or greater than the trade value points received.
This significantly limited the options in the mock drafts and forced the mockers to make decisions that they might not have had to make with a less rigorous approach. Also, the mockers were stuck with where a given player was ranked by CBSSports.
A little over 100 mocks were submitted in total, 49 of which received four or more recommendations (rec's) and which we've summarized a little further down this post. In total, 167 players were picked in those 49 mocks, with 363 rec's handed out.
The CBSSports big board had Cowboys fan favorites Anthony Barr (No. 12 overall) and Aaron Donald (No. 13) ranked ahead of the Cowboys' 16th pick. You would think that such a short hop would entice many Cowboys fans to move up, but that didn't happen. This is what the 105 or so mock drafts ended up doing with their first pick:
Trade up: 11
Stay put at number sixteen: 22
Trade down in first round: 40
Trade down into second round: 32
So given a scenario where Barr and Donald are gone, but Zack Martin (No. 16) and Timmy Jernigan (No. 18) are within easy reach, two thirds of all mock drafters chose to trade down. Interesting.
Here's the consensus seven-round mock draft that emerged from our exercise, with the comments for each pick provided by BTB-members who picked the respective players in their mock drafts.
Rd Player Comment (BTB-Member)
2
2
Kony Ealy, DE, Missouri Yeah you wish he had better production but the SackSEER numbers are good. Definitely will contribute as a rotational player and fills arguably the biggest need at RDE (Becho).
2
Scott Crichton, DE, Oregon State Boys are still in need of pass rush so adding Crichton to the fold makes sense as well. Adding Crichton to [Ealy] and Melton suddenly makes the Dallas pass rush look a lot better (DesertCowboy817).
2
Dominique Easley, DT, Florida My favorite player in the entire draft. Thanks to two ACL injuries the top 10 talent drops all the way to the 2nd round. Easley has a 1st step on par with Clowney and has the best "quick twitch" of any d-lineman in the entire draft (Trueblue122).
3
Gabe Jackson, OG, Mississippi State This year’s Larry Wolford (the reigning rookie of the year), just ask Detroit how that worked out for them. In my opinion he is arguably the best guard in the draft (Robert Enox).
4
Aaron Murray, QB, Georgia Underrated because of injury, but he’s on track to make a full recovery. Cowboys have shown great interest in him as a developmental QB. Knows how to play in a pro system, smart enough to play the position in the NFL, has all the physical tools, worth a 4th round pick even if the only thing we do with him is flip him for a 2nd in 3 years (ketom1220).
5
Howard Jones, OLB, Shepherd A linebacker with all the physical tools to succeed. He just needs coaching and repetitions (Barry Popik)
7
Brandon Thomas, OG, Clemson - Kerry Hyder, DT, Texas Tech - Trey Millard, FB, Oklahoma - L'Damian Washington, WR, Missouri - Aaron Colvin, CB, Oklahoma - Michael Sam, DE Missouri
Note that if I had simply chosen the most popular picks in each round for this consensus mock, we'd have ended up with a truckload of defensive linemen, so I edited things a little. Also, you'll notice that the Cowboys have three second-round picks in this mock. This is a result of trading down for Kony Ealy (who was available at No. 35 in the second round) and massaging the resulting haul of draft picks into an extra second rounder.
And now for more details of last week's work: In order to establish how popular a given player was, I counted 'votes' for each player mentioned in a mock draft, with each rec' counting as one vote. So in an 11-player mock that received five rec's, each player got five 'votes'. Here are the favorite players per round as ranked by percentage of votes accumulated per round.
Rank Player POS School Votes
First Pick (16th Pick or trade-down)
35
Kony Ealy DE Missouri First Pick (16th Pick or trade-down)
35
46%
18
Timmy Jernigan DT Florida 18
14%
24
Ryan Shazier OLB OSU 24
12%
2nd Round (47th Pick)
60
Dominique Easley DT Florida 2nd Round (47th Pick)
60
30%
47
Scott Crichton DE Oregon St. 47
25%
68
Billy Turner OT North Dakota St. 68
17%
3rd Round (78th pick)
81
Marcus Smith DE Louisville 3rd Round (78th pick)
81
11%
89
Jackson Jeffcoat DE Texas 89
10%
73
Gabe Jackson OG Mississippi St. 73
9%
4th Round (119th pick)
119
David Yankey OG Stanford 4th Round (119th pick)
119
26%
139
Aaron Murray QB Georgia 139
18%
122
Josh Mauro DE Stanford 122
8%
5th Round (158th pick)
170
Howard Jones OLB Shepherd 5th Round (158th pick)
170
9%
173
Kirby Van Der Kamp P Iowa State 173
7%
178
Marqueston Huff FS Wyoming 178
6%
7th Round
237
Brandon Thomas OG Clemson 7th Round
237
10%
229
Kerry Hyder DT Texas Tech 229
8%
241
Trey Millard FB Oklahoma 241
8%
269
L'Damian Washington WR Missouri 269
6%
256
Aaron Colvin CB Oklahoma 256
6%
300
Michael Sam DE Missouri 300
6%
In some instances, where the player's rank is higher than the original Cowboys draft pick, like Scott Crichton or Gabe Jackson, these players were picked with the help of a trade-up.
And now it's time for you to vote on your favorite mock draft. Below is a summary of the consensus mock as well as the three leading vote-getters from last week. All four mocks have the Cowboys trading down.
BTB Mock Draft overview
Consensus Mock ketom1220 (18 recs) StitchA (16 recs) Birddog26 (13 recs)
Trade 16 for two seconds 16 for 24, 88, 123 16 for 56, 61, 77, 94 16 for 56, 61, 77, 94, 170, 242, 243, 245
1st Rd - - Ryan Shazier, WLB, Ohio State - -
2nd Rd Kony Ealy, DE, Missouri
Scott Crichton, DE, Oregon State
Dominique Easley, DT, Florida Dominique Easley, DT, Florida Scott Crichton, DE, Oregon State
Dominique Easley, DT, Florida
Jordan Matthews, WR, Vanderbilt Scott Crichton, DE, Oregon State
Dominique Easley, DT, Florida
Billy Turner, OT, North Dakota State
3rd Rd Gabe Jackson, OG, Mississippi State Marcus Smith, DE, Louisville
Chis Smith, DE Arkansas Billy Turner, OG, North Dakota St.
Jackson Jeffcoat, DE, Texas Jimmy Garoppolo, QB, Eastern Illinois
Jackson Jeffcoat, DE, Texas
Caraun Reid, DT, Princeton
4th Rd Aaron Murray, QB, Georgia David Yankey, OG, Stanford
Aaron Murray, QB, Georgia Aaron Murray, QB, Georgia David Yankey, OG, Stanford
5th Rd Howard Jones, OLB, Shepherd Brandon Coleman, WR, Rutgers Trai Turner, OG, LSU
Kevin Pierre-Louis, OLB, Boston College TJ Jones, WR, Notre Dame
Marqueston Huff, FS, Wyoming
7th Rd Brandon Thomas, OG, Clemson - Kerry Hyder, DT, Texas Tech - Trey Millard, FB, Oklahoma - L'Damian Washington, WR, Missouri - Aaron Colvin, CB, Oklahoma - Michael Sam, DE Missouri Trey Millard, FB, Oklahoma - Brandon Thomas, OG, Clemson - Michael Sam, DE, Missouri - L’Damian Washington, WR, Missouri - Brandon Dixon, CB, Northwest Missouri State - James Wilder Jr HB FSU Kerry Hyder, DT, Texas Tech - Chris Watt, OG, Notre Dame - Trey Millard, FB, Oklahoma - Aaron Colvin, CB, Oklahoma - L’Damian Washington, WR, Missouri - IK Enemkpali, DE, Louisiana Tech Trey Millard, FB, Oklahoma - John Spooney, RB, Brown - John Brown, WR, Pittsburg State - Travis Carrie, CB, Ohio - Terrance Bullitt, OLB, Texas Tech - L’Damian Washington, WR, Missouri - James Morris, ILB, Iowa - Lonnie Ballentine, FS, Memphis - Crockett Gillmore, TE, Colorado State
1st Rd - - Ryan Shazier, WLB, Ohio State - -
2nd Rd Kony Ealy, DE, Missouri
Scott Crichton, DE, Oregon State
Dominique Easley, DT, Florida Dominique Easley, DT, Florida Scott Crichton, DE, Oregon State
Dominique Easley, DT, Florida
Jordan Matthews, WR, Vanderbilt Scott Crichton, DE, Oregon State
Dominique Easley, DT, Florida
Billy Turner, OT, North Dakota State
3rd Rd Gabe Jackson, OG, Mississippi State Marcus Smith, DE, Louisville
Chis Smith, DE Arkansas Billy Turner, OG, North Dakota St.
Jackson Jeffcoat, DE, Texas Jimmy Garoppolo, QB, Eastern Illinois
Jackson Jeffcoat, DE, Texas
Caraun Reid, DT, Princeton
4th Rd Aaron Murray, QB, Georgia David Yankey, OG, Stanford
Aaron Murray, QB, Georgia Aaron Murray, QB, Georgia David Yankey, OG, Stanford
5th Rd Howard Jones, OLB, Shepherd Brandon Coleman, WR, Rutgers Trai Turner, OG, LSU
Kevin Pierre-Louis, OLB, Boston College TJ Jones, WR, Notre Dame
Marqueston Huff, FS, Wyoming
7th Rd Brandon Thomas, OG, Clemson - Kerry Hyder, DT, Texas Tech - Trey Millard, FB, Oklahoma - L'Damian Washington, WR, Missouri - Aaron Colvin, CB, Oklahoma - Michael Sam, DE Missouri Trey Millard, FB, Oklahoma - Brandon Thomas, OG, Clemson - Michael Sam, DE, Missouri - L’Damian Washington, WR, Missouri - Brandon Dixon, CB, Northwest Missouri State - James Wilder Jr HB FSU Kerry Hyder, DT, Texas Tech - Chris Watt, OG, Notre Dame - Trey Millard, FB, Oklahoma - Aaron Colvin, CB, Oklahoma - L’Damian Washington, WR, Missouri - IK Enemkpali, DE, Louisiana Tech Trey Millard, FB, Oklahoma - John Spooney, RB, Brown - John Brown, WR, Pittsburg State - Travis Carrie, CB, Ohio - Terrance Bullitt, OLB, Texas Tech - L’Damian Washington, WR, Missouri - James Morris, ILB, Iowa - Lonnie Ballentine, FS, Memphis - Crockett Gillmore, TE, Colorado State
Which of these proposed mocks do you like the most?
Poll
Which of the four mocks do you like the most?
- Consensus mock
- ketom1220
- StitchA
- Birddog26
31 votes | Results
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