During the Senior Bowl, Cowboys defensive Coordinator Rob Ryan talked about the needs for the 2012 draft and was very clear about the Cowboys' priorities:
"I’m only looking at DBs. Nothing else. DBs."
So far, the Cowboys have brought in 16 defensive backs for a pre-draft visit this week. The latest big names added to the ever growing list are South Carolina CB Stephon Gilmore and Oklahoma CB Jamell Fleming.
One of the challenges of keeping up with the draft these days is that there are so many sources of information, it's hard to keep track of what's going on. And sometimes, the multitude of sources leads to some confusion: Contrary to initial reports, the Star-Telegram now writes that Dontari Poe and David DeCastro did not visit with the Cowboys this week. On the other hand, Twitter gives us an unprecedented level of information especially about who is attending Dallas Days with the Cowboys this week.
After the break, we look at who's been coming and going so far this week and take an early look at which positions are over- and underrepresented.
Here are all 20 national and 32 local prospects (that we know of so far) who've been invited for a pre-draft visit, conveniently sorted by position. 'Rank' indicates where a prospect is ranked on the CBSsports big board per today, (*) denotes local prospects invited for Dallas days.
Pre-draft visitors to Valley Ranch, 2012
2012 | |||||||||||||||
Rank | WR | Rank | OL | Rank | CB | Rank | S | Rank | DE | Rank | LB | Rank | RB | Rank | QB |
102 | Ryan Broyles | 20 | OG Cordy Glenn | 17 | Dre Kirkpatrick | 26 | Mark Barron | 7 | Fletcher Cox | 21 | Courtney Upshaw | 36 | Doug Martin** | 293 | G.J. Kinne * |
188 | Jeff Fuller * | 32 | OG Amini Silatolu | 19 | Stephon Gilmore | 47 | Harrison Smith | n.a. | Chase Baker | 65 | Ronnell Lewis | 92 | Cyrus Gray * | 496 | Nick Stephens * |
725 | Antoine Hicks* | 48 | OC Peter Konz | 69 | Jamell Fleming * | 274 | D.J. Campbell | 112 | Keenan Robinson * | 346 | Lance Dunbar | 574 | Nathan Dick * | ||
744 | David Douglas | 130 | OG Jeff Allen | 74 | Casey Hayward | 679 | Christian Scott * |
146 | Emmanuel Acho * | n.a. | Joe Banyard * | ||||
n.a. | McKay Jacobsen | 142 | Josh LeRibeus * |
91 | Ron Brooks * | n.a. | Kenji Jackson * | 152 | Tank Carder * | ||||||
n.a. | David Little * | 267 | OC Grant Garner * | 194 | Chris Greenwood | n.a. | Ter'Ran Benton * | 345 | Braylon Broughton * | ||||||
357 | OG Ronald Leary | 251 | Lionel Smith | n.a. | Tekkerein Cuba * | 412 | Korey Toomer | ||||||||
n.a. | OT Jeff Olson * | 315 | Greg McCoy* | 439 | Adrian Hamilton * | ||||||||||
xxx | 573 | Isaac Madison* | 475 | Curnelius Arnick * | |||||||||||
xxx | 573 | Isaac Madison* | 589 | Richetti Jones* |
** Note that RB Doug Martin out of Boise State was scheduled to attend but the inclement weather prevented him from making it to Dallas. We're keeping him on the list anyway. Also note that TCU players Anson Kelton (Punter) and Logan Brock (TE) did not fit the list above
Overall, there are sixteen defensive backs on this list, nine corners and seven safeties. Somewhat surprisingly, the next highest number of invitations went to linebackers, of whom ten have made the list so far. Also quite surprising is the low number of defensive linemen, while the number of interor linemen is about what was expected.
Some of these names are probably unfamiliar to most Cowboys fans, so the list below sorts the prospects by Rank and adds a little extra information.
National Visits | |||||
CBSSports Rank | Player | Pos. | School | Proj. Round | Source |
7 | Fletcher Cox | DT | Mississippi State | 1 | Fletcher Cox, ESPN |
17 | Dre Kirkpatrick | CB | Alabama | 1 | Scout.com |
19 | Stephon Gilmore | CB | South Carolina | 1 | Star-Telegram |
20 | Cordy Glenn | OG | Georgia | 1 | ESPN |
21 | Courtney Upshaw | OLB | Alabama | 1 | ESPN |
26 | Mark Barron | SS | Alabama | 1-2 | ESPN |
32 | Amini Silatolu | OG | Midwestern State | 1-2 | Detroit Free Press |
36 | Doug Martin | RB | Boise State | 1-2 | Scout.com |
47 | Harrison Smith | SS | Notre Dame | 2 | Scout.com |
48 | Peter Konz | C | Wisconsin | 2 | Draftinsider |
65 | Ronnell Lewis | OLB | Oklahoma | 2-3 | Tulsaworld |
74 | Casey Hayward | CB | Vanderbilt | 2-3 | |
102 | Ryan Broyles | WR | Oklahoma | 3-4 | Scout.com |
130 | Jeff Allen | OG | Illinois | 4 | |
194 | Chris Greenwood | CB | Albion | 6 | Detroit News |
251 | Lionel Smith | CB | Texas A&M | 7 | Scout.com |
274 | D.J. Campbell | FS | California | 7-FA | NFLdraftscout |
357 | Ronald Leary | OG | Memphis | UDFA | Memphis Tigers |
412 | Korey Toomer | ILB | Idaho | UDFA | Tony Pauline |
n.a. | Chase Baker | NT | Boise State | UDFA | |
Dallas Days |
|||||
69 | Jamell Fleming | CB | Oklahoma | 2 | DMN |
91 | Ron Brooks | CB | LSU | 3 | Scout.com |
92 | Cyrus Gray | RB | Texas A&M | 3 | ESPN |
112 | Keenan Robinson | OLB | Texas | 3-4 | Star-Telegram |
142 | Josh LeRibeus | OG | SMU | 4-5 | ESPN |
146 | Emmanuel Acho | ILB | Texas | 4-5 | Star-Telegram |
152 | Tank Carder | ILB | TCU | 4-5 | Star-Telegram |
188 | Jeff Fuller | WR | Texas A&M | 5-6 | Charean Williams |
267 | Grant Garner | OC | Oklahoma State | 7-Fa | |
293 | G.J. Kinne | QB | Tulsa | 7-FA | |
315 | Greg McCoy | CB | TCU | 7-FA | |
345 | Braylon Broughton | OLB | TCU | UDFA | ESPN |
346 | Lance Dunbar | RB | North Texas | UDFA | |
439 | Adrian Hamilton | OLB | Prairie View A&M | UDFA | |
459 | Anson Kelton | P | TCU | UDFA | |
475 | Curnelius Arnick | ILB | Tulsa | UDFA | |
496 | Nick Stephens | QB | Tarkenton State | UDFA | Cross Timbers Gazette |
573 | Isaac Madison | CB | Arkansas | UDFA | kffl.com |
574 | Nathan Dick | QB | Central Arkansas | UDFA | |
589 | Richetti Jones | DE/LB | Oklahoma | UDFA | |
679 | Christian Scott | SS | Texas | UDFA | |
718 | Logan Brock | TE | TCU | UDFA | |
725 | Antoine Hicks | WR | TCU | UDFA | |
744 | David Douglas | WR | Arizona | UDFA | |
n.a. | McKay Jacobsen | WR | BYU | UDFA | kffl.com |
n.a. | Kenji Jackson | SS | Missouri | UDFA | |
n.a. | Ter'Ran Benton | SS | Iowa State | UDFA | |
n.a. | Cole Beasley | WR | SMU | UDFA | |
n.a. | David Little | WR | Midwestern State | UDFA | |
n.a. | Tekkerein Cuba | FS | TCU | UDFA | |
n.a. | Jeff Olson | OT | TCU | UDFA | |
n.a. | Joe Banyard | RB | UTEP | UDFA |
I trust that you will not find a more comprehensive list of visitors to Valley Ranch anywhere on the internet - or anywhere else for that matter.
[Update: David Moore from the DMN reports that the Cowboys are still hosting draft picks, and are still looking to bring in seven more players to fill up their quota of 30 national prospects. They also invited 'close to 50' local prospects. We currently have 20 nationals and 31 locals in the tables above, and will update new names below as they become available.]
Michael Brockers has met with the Cowboys.
Josh Robinson per Charley Casserly on NFL Network
T.Y. Hilton, per NFL.com