FanPost

Fanspeak Mock Draft 1.0

Fanspeak 7 Round Mock Draft Round 1 (16): Calvin Pryor, S I wasn’t hoping for Pryor in the first round, let alone a safety at all (unless Dallas trades to the back of the first round in which I would love to get Jimmie Ward). I was hoping for Donald or Barr to drop to Dallas. However, they were snatched up early, as well as Clinton Dix. My top options at the time were Pryor, Hageman, Jernigan, and Ward. I don’t want Hageman unless he’s there in the second because he is a bit of a risk, and Dallas absolutely has to hit on their early picks. Jernigan, in my opinion, does not fit the 1-tech well enough. I was down to Ward and Pryor and had to take Pryor. Not my favorite pick, but I’m not upset to get a hard hitting Free Safety like Pryor to start the draft. Round 2 (47): C.J. Mosely, LB Once again, Ra’Shede Hageman was available and I was licking my chops...but then I saw Mosely. Linebacker is not the Cowboys biggest need, but there was just too much value to pass up here. Mosely has superstar potential and can be either an outside linebacker or inside. He plays aggressive, may be the smartest defender in this draft class, and is an incredible steal here in the second round. I left Hageman despite the need for a DT in the interest of taking someone too good to pass up. Round 3 (78): Donte Moncreif, WR I was torn on this pick. Defensive impact players Dominique Easley and Jackson Jeffcoat were available. I wanted to avoid Easley because of his riddled injury history, as well as Jeffcoat. I absolutely love Jeffcoat, but in the third round, I would rather have an underrated stud receiver over a defensive end who also has his share of injury red flags. Moncrief has great size at 6 ft. 2, 221 pounds. He can be the best redzone threat in Dallas immediately. Of course, he won’t takeover Bryant, but together, Bryant and Moncrief can create a top 3 recieiving duo. Moncrief is incredibly underrated, and drops mostly because of his lack of speed. However, Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Bales (who is quite the statistician) teaches that most scouts overvalue speed for receivers, and traditionally for starting receivers, size is a better indicator. Moncrief has the potential to be the 3rd best receiver to come out of this draft class. He will be a sure starter next to Bryant, and joined by Williams and Witten, Dallas could step into the upper echelon and be a top 5 offense in 2014 and beyond. Round 4 (119): Jackson Jeffcoat, DE As I mentioned earlier, I love Jeffcoat but couldn’t take him over Moncrief due to his injury history. However, in the 4th, where teams typically aren’t looking for starters anymore, Jeffcoat offers tremendous value. Jeffcoat is too small to step in and immediately be a full time defensive end. But if he adds weight, he can be a swiss army knife for that defense. Jeffcoat can fill in at linebacker in case of injury (a great insurance policy if Dallas is starting 3 injury prone linebackers in Lee, Mosely, and Carter) and can be a situational pass rusher. He is an excellent pass rusher, as he displayed the specialty while at Texas. The drawback here is that Dallas would be investing a lot of their front 7 (Lee, Mosely, Carter, Jeffcoat) into players who have not had a good time dealing with injuries. But in the 4th round, in exchange for a player with Jeffcoat’s talent, I believe it is worth the risk. Round 5 (158) Antone Exum, CB Exume is not a top corner in this draft, and that’s a reason he dropped to the 5th round. But my thinking here was that Dallas absolutely had to have a bigger corner on their roster. Dallas has had success defending smaller receivers (ex. DeSean Jackson) but gets wrecked by larger receivers (Alshon Jeffery, Calvin Johnson), especially in the red zone. Exume is big enough to be that redzone defender to challenge big receivers. Round 7: DT Jay Bromley QB Connor Shaw G Brandon Linder WR Tevin Reese FB Trey Milliard S Hakeem Smith Review Dallas could have had better drafts but I would be pretty happy to bring in this haul for the 2014 rookie class. Dallas picked up two certain starters in Moncrief and Mosely. Pryor is a likely starter, unless Wilcox shows tremendous growth or Matt Johnson surprises everyone. Jeffcoat will be very valuable as a situational pass rusher, possibly even a full time starter if he bulks up. Exume is a role player, but Dallas shouldn’t expect anything special from a 5th rounder. In the 7th, Dallas picks up a developmental quarterback, some depth for the offensive line, a wild card receiver who will be given a shot, a do-it-all, Jason Witten-esque fullback, and a safety who was at a time regarding as one of the better safeties of this class. However, the one regret I have coming from this draft is that I was unable to get Dallas a new DT. Bromley is a coin toss. He may not make the roster, or he might be the 1-tech Dallas has been looking for. Every time there was a DT to take, I liked someone else better in terms of value. Of course, with so many needs this year, I don’t think it’s fair to expect Dallas to find a starter to fill every spot. Dallas still comes away with 2 sure fire starters (likely 3), 2 of them being on defense, a key rotational player, a good role player, and some guys Dallas can kick the tires on and find a diamond in the rough in at least one or two of them. What do you guys think?

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