Dallas Cowboys 2014 Draft Predictions: Who Do You Think The Cowboys Will Pick?

We have a special challenge for you today. Submit a list of up to 25 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 25 players.

One of the interesting aspects of working with a 25-name list is that it forces you to make some hard choices: do you take that fourth safety over the fourth guard; are you really going to go out on a limb for that small-school free agent; what's your position on TEs; just how many defensive linemen can the Cowboy really draft; will a running back 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 been championing here on BTB, rabble and I will submit our Top 25, and I'll go first:

Some thoughts: I only have two targets at No. 16, Aaron Donald and Anthony Barr. If both are gone, I think the Cowboys trade down, which is why I've bulked up my list in rounds 2-4.

I think the Cowboys will be looking for defensive line help in the first three rounds, which is why I'm stacking my list with rushmen in those rounds. I also think that after not restructuring Brandon Carr, the Cowboys at least want to have the option of moving on from Carr if he doesn't live up to his contract in 2014, so I also have a defensive back slotted in each of the first four rounds.

Additionally, I think that once the Cowboys have addressed their defensive line needs, the positions on offense will come into focus. They'll look for a tackle to possibly replace Free in 2014, they'll be in the market for a wide receiver who drops, and I don't think they'll want to enter the season with just three tight ends, only the oldest of which can block.

Many of my picks have been to Dallas for pre-draft visits or had workouts with the Cowboys. The one position that didn't make the cut on my list is linebacker. As much as I like Shazier as a potential first-round pick for the Cowboys, I wonder how high linebacker is on their priority list given that Shazier and late round prospect Howard Jones are the only two linebackers they brought in for a visit.

Of course, I could be - and probably am - completely wrong about all of this. But that's for you and me to find out next weekend.

Rabblerousr simply whittled down the list of the official pre-draft visitors and Dallas Day participants until he arrived at the players he felt most comfortable with.

Over to you: Put together your 25 picks. Keep the format simple. We'll award one point for each correct name you've predicted. There's no time limit for this, but the start of the draft next 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:

Your reward? Some fun in compiling your list of 25 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.

Last year, we asked bloggers here on BTB to do the exact same exercise, and 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 (Magee, Hamilton).

In total, 41 BTB members participated in this exercise last year, and a surprisingly high 21 of them correctly predicted Travis Frederick as a Cowboys pick, though I don't believe anybody predicted he'd be the pick in the first round. Here's an overview of the nine participants last year with the highest score.

Honorable mention goes to Grsamuel10 for including B.W. Webb in his predictions, as well as Dr-P for including a guy called 'Galvin Escovar' in his line-up last year.

The Cowboys have 11 picks this year versus the seven picks they had last year. With more picks available this time around, can somebody beat out Starmesh23's total from last year?