Dallas Cowboys Seven-Round Mock Draft: Who The Fans Would Pick

On Saturday last week we launched our second 2015 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.

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.

1st Round: Nate Orchard, Utah DE

Best D-lineman available in my opinion. Offers immediate help as a pass rusher. I think Marnelli could work wonders with him Lawrence and Crawford along the D-line (by Bermystar)

2nd Round: Xavier Cooper, DT, Washington State

At 6-4 298 lb, that’s a pretty big dude for Marinelli to work with, but not so big that he can’t play 3 Tech on passing downs the way Marinelli likes to run his Nickel and Dime packages. Great physical potential here along with another high motor that should flourish in our D (by ketom 1220).

3rd Round: Cedric Ogbuehi, OT, Texas A&M

Dallas has been known to take chances on injury guys. With this one, they would be getting a top 20 pick if he declared a year ago. They will need to find a cheap FA guy or sign Free or Parnell to play the 2015 season. But starting in 2016, Cedric would be the anchor for the right side for 10 years (by Zmen).

4th Round: Eric Rowe, CB, Utah

CB/FS prospect that has great measurables and upside to groom in either direction. Willing tackler (by rev.Trublue)

5th Round: Quandre Diggs, CB, Texas

A four-year starter at Texas, Diggs has experience playing both inside and outside. With Scandrick possiblky moving outside permanently, the Cowboys need a slot corner, and Diggs often played as the nickel corner in college.

7th Round: Malcolm Brown, RB, Texas

Not a flashy runner, but goes North-South, follows his blocks, and runs low to the ground. Could be a solid addition to the RB stable (by TheIronCowboy09).

7th Round: Chucky Hunter, DT, TCU

If there has ever been a guy that meets Garretts RKG criteria, this is him. He is also one the the strongest DT’s in the nation. His size is the only thing that limits him. And with the recent emergence of smaller DT’s becoming popular, this pick a no brainer this far in the draft (by Zmen).

And now for more details of last week's work: People got busy over the weekend, and by early Monday morning, 44 different mocks were submitted, with a staggering 153 different players.

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. Here are the favorite players per round as ranked by the share of votes accumulated per round ('rank' indicates the position on the CBSSports big board from January 27, 2015):

And now it's time for you to vote on your favorite mock draft. Below is a mock draft summary of the consensus mock as well as the four leading vote-getters from last week. (Note that I had erroneously left out the Cowboys 215th pick in my initial mock draft instructions, which is why the leading mocks don't have a third 7th-round pick)

BTB Mock Draft overview

Which of these proposed mocks do you like the most? tell us in the attached poll and in the comments section below.