Cowboys 2016 Draft : A "Little Board" And Three Pre-Draft Mocks

It's a time-honored tradition here on Blogging The Boys to build a draft board populated with players the Cowboys have invited for official pre-draft visits or have otherwise interacted with. By necessity, the result is a "Little Board," as rabbelrousr used to call it, because the board should only contain names the Cowboys had more than a fleeting interest in.

When we review the list of players the Cowboys brought to Valley Ranch for interviews in recent years, we see a strong correlation between the players the Cowboys have invited to the Ranch in recent years and who has ended up wearing the star; other than Mo Claiborne, every one of Dallas' top selections (even Jason Williams in 2009) since 2005 has been one of their Valley Ranch invitees.

We know that the Cowboys traditionally whittle down the 450 or so draft-eligible players to 130 or so names that adorn their final draft board, and which the cameras have learned to studiously avoid in more recent years. If we assume that they are legitimately interested in the players who have visited the Ranch, or who have had a workout with the Cowboys, we could know about 30-40% of the players on the Cowboys' board. That's some good information to work with. In addition, by looking at which positions receive the most invitations, we can get a better idea about which positions the Dallas braintrust is honing in on.

Over the last few years, rabblerousr has done yeoman's work in putting the "Little Board" together year after year; with his recent departure, that duty falls to me. And like the Cowboys, I have whittled down the names of potential prospects. Only instead of 130 or so names, I have 59 names on my board, which you will find below. The official pre-draft invitees are shown in in green; "Dallas Days" players are in blue, the rest are marked in yellow and are players the Cowboys have met or worked out at some point so far.

The trickiest part of this exercise is correctly slotting the players, and my guesses may well be quite a bit off from where the team has a given player on its board. Nevertheless, by gathering the invitees together on a pre-draft "little board," some very clear patterns begin to emerge.

Some thoughts:

Target positions on offense: For a team that has a lot of holes on defense, the Cowboys sure spent a lot of time looking at offensive players. The Cowboys appear to be targeting three positions heavily - QB, RB, and wide receiver. Overall, the Cowboys brought in 17 offensive players for an official pre-draft visit, but only 12 defensive prospects.

Top-heavy on defense. Look at the gaping hole in the chart above between rounds three and six on defense. The Cowboys have shown great interest in some of the top defensive talent in this draft, but hardly any interest in middle- to late-round defenders. This suggests the Cowboys are looking for defensive difference makers in the draft. These difference makers will be found in rounds one and two; after that, it's questionable whether other prospects would be an immediate upgrade over what the Cowboys already have on their roster. They have a few late-round or priority free agent names on their radar, which gives them some options with the third pick.

But if I were a betting man, I wager the Cowboys are looking to pick at least two, perhaps even three defensive players at the top of the draft, and then look for offensive depth (OB, RB, OL, WR) beyond that.

Horizontal vs. Vertical. This is a little repetitive from the two points above, but I couldn't help notice how QB, RB and WR are organized horizontally, as if the Cowboys are looking for options at those positions everywhere in the draft, while the entire defense is organized vertically: 14 prospects are in rounds 1-2, seven prospects are likely priority free agents. Only four players don't fit this vertical logic, and that may simply be because I didn't put them in the proper rounds

The high and mighty. Look at how similar the late-round wide receivers are in terms of their size

Notice what's not on the list? The small speedster that many Cowboys fans wish would come in to "stretch the field" with his speed. These are all tall, possession-type receivers, and perfectly fit the template of what the Cowboys are looking for in their wide receivers.

Taking all of these factors into consideration, here are three mock based entirely on players from the little board above..

Defense heavy: The first one starts with Jalen Ramsey and remains defense-heavy outside of the three offensive priority positions:

Round 1 (4): CB Jalen Ramsey
Round 2 (34): DT Robert Nkemdiche
Round 3 (67): QB Dak Prescott
Round 4 (101): S Justin Simmons
Round 4 (135): RB Jonathan Williams
Round 6 (189): WR Cody Core
Round 6 (212): LB Leon King
Round 6 (216): DT Rodney Coe
Round 6 (217): CB Taveze Calhoun

D-Line: If the Cowboys decide to go all in on their defensive line, we could see something like this unfold:

Round 1 (4): DE Joey Bosa
Round 2 (34): DT Kenny Clark
Round 3 (67): RB C.J. Prosise
Round 4 (101): QB Jacoby Brissett
Round 4 (135): OT Caleb Benenoch
Round 6 (189): WR Jay Lee
Round 6 (212): DE Ryan Brown
Round 6 (216): S Derrick Kindred
Round 6 (217): DT Rodney Coe

Outscore everybody! And if the Cowboys conclude that the best defense is a good offense, we could see a scenario like this:

Round 1 (4): RB Ezekiel Elliott
Round 2 (34): CB Eli Apple
Round 3 (67): S Sean Davis
Round 4 (101): OG/OC Isaac Seumalo
Round 4 (135): WR Kenny Lawler
Round 6 (189): QB Brandon Allen
Round 6 (212): WR Alonzo Russell
Round 6 (216): CB Taveze Calhoun
Round 6 (217): DE Ryan Brown

And there it is, folks, three possible scenarios (without trades!) for the way the Cowboys draft might unfold.

Happy NFL Christmas, everybody!

If you want to create your own draft board, create your mock draft, or simply want to argue where a prospect should be ranked, here are all the prospects listed above as well as where they rank on three different draft board: CBS (999 prospects), NFL.com (489), Drafttek (400). The table is sortable so you can sort the table to your heart's content (just click on the blue column headers):