Cowboys 2011 Draft: One Last Mock (With Trades)

As the draft hovers merely hours away, I'll make good on my promise to offer up one final mock draft. In a recent post, if you'll recall, I collected all the players the Cowboys invited to Valley Ranch and assembled a "little board" based on where scouting types think they are likely to fall. I followed that up with a mock draft, for which I declared that I wouldn't allow trades. Of course, teams are likely to be moving all over the board this weekend, especially in a draft like this with large swaths of players boasting similar grades, and an unnerving lack of consensus about the top players, the best quarterback, etc. Consequently, a mock without trades isn't likely to be particularly accurate.

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To rectify that, I'll now offer a "with-trade" mock. In a post at the onset of draft season, I looked at the litany of trade-down possibilities which might confront the Cowboys should they want to trade down. For efficiency's sake, I'll reproduce that list here:

First and a fourth:

Washington 10 + 141+ 172 (1359.1 points) for Dallas 9 (1350 points)
Houston 11 + 104 + 173 (1359.2) for Dallas 9 (1350)

First and a third:

Detroit 13 + 75 (1365) for Dallas 9 + 210 (1358.4)
St. Louis 14 + 78 + 111 (1372) for Dallas 9 + 171 (1374)
Miami 15 + 79 + 110 + 143 (1353.5) for Dallas 9 (1350)

Note: Minnesota, who owns the 12th pick, has no third rounder, which makes a swap significantly more difficult to engineer.

First and a second:

Jacksonville 16 + 49 + 177 (1431.6) for Dallas 9 + 109 (1426)
New England 17 + 60 + 92 (1382) for Dallas 9 + 171 (1374)
San Diego 18 + 62 + 82 (1364) for Dallas 9 + 202 (1361.6)
NY Giants 19 + 52 + 83 (1430) for Dallas 9 + 109 (1426)

What might we do with these scenarios?

What I'm going to do is to run with one of these trade scenarios, and then use players from the "little board" reproduced below to engineer my "with trade" mock. Initially, I thought the most likely trade-down partner was St. Louis, as a likely scenario was one where they needed to trade up past Washington to secure the services of Julio Jones. Now that it appears Jones is unlikely to make it past Cleveland, I'm looking for another trade partner. Because New England's history has been to trade down, I have a hard time accepting the likelihood of a Jones-Bellichick swap. Chargers GM A.J. Smith does like to trade up, however, and his team is in need of starpower should it come available. For no other better reason than this, I'm going to accept the San Diego trade. That would give the Cowboys the following selections:

18; 40; 60; 71; 92; 110; 143; 176; 252.

Next, I'll look at my "little board" to see which players might fit at those picks:

From these players, I came up with the following:

18: Gabe Carimi
40: Rahim Moore
60: Will Rackley
71: Brandon Burton
92: Edmund Gates
110: Kelvin Sheppard
143: Bilal Powell
176: Ian WIlliams
252: Da'Norris Searcy

What do you say, BTB Nation? Choose one of the above trade-down scenarios and use it to create a mock draft from the players on our "little board." It'll help pass the nervous hours between now and the time the Cowboys are on the clock.

Have a great draft, y'all. Here's hoping we get ourselves some players!