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On Thursday last week we launched our first 2017 BTB Mock Draft Challenge of the year 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, or copying something from Fanspeak, 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.
60+ mocks were submitted, 51 met the criteria outlined above, and 118 different players were picked in those mocks.
Here's the consensus full mock draft that emerged from our exercise, which includes a trade down in the first for an extra second-round pick, but does not include any compensatory picks. The comments for each pick are provided by the BTB-members who picked the respective players in their mock drafts.
| Rd |
Player | Comment (BTB-Member) |
| 1 | Taco Charlton, DE, Michigan | 8th ranked player by NFL.com. "Rare combination of size, length and athletic traits as a rusher. Long-levered frame with athletic, knotted calves. Brings freaky athletic traits to table and is still growing into his body. Flashes instant reaction time off snap and up the field thanks to his twitch. Has enough upfield juice to push offensive tackles into hasty retreat. Generates pop through speed-to-power element. Very good flexibility throughout. Able to sink and swerve around corner if he gets early lead in race to the edge." (dsmith8605) |
| 2 | Quincy Wilson, CB, Florida | Wilson has the height and length that many NFL DC’s covet. When you couple his stature with his physical play, you have an outstanding player who plays press-man quite well. He sees and adjusts to the ball very well for a guy his size. As Daniel Jeremiah noted this past fall, "I think Wilson is the best corner in the country. Tabor gets all of the hype but Wilson is better in every area." Wilson would allow Dallas to forgo signing Mo Claiborne, while still improving the defensive backfield. (The Lawman) |
| 3 | Justin Evans, S, Texas A&M | Evans is a physical run stuffer who has the ability to play in the box and has good pass coverage skills for his size. He and Jones could develop into a great safety tandem. (jkinley1924) |
| 4 | Tanoh Kpassagnon, DE, Villanova | An absolute beast of a man. Is everything you look for on paper from a DE but unlike Taco, he is not quite as polished and will need some coaching to bring out the best from him. At this point your looking for attributes to success and high upside which gets no higher than Tanoh. (SBBound) |
| 6 | Storm Norton, OT, Toledo | He is a 2 year All-Mac 1st team selection at LT. He is gritty, physical, and has fast, solid footwork. He stays square and has a nice slide step combined with long arms. His problem is that he needs to build up more strength to not get bull rushed. Since he has the skills and just needs probably a year to be in the strength program, I would pull the trigger on him here. (Rena) |
| 6 | Treyvon Hester, DT, Toledo | From Draftwire. "In his two years as a starter, Hester has logged 7.5 and 9.5 tackles for loss, respectively. He carries his 305-pound frame well, with most of his bulk in his lower body. He puts that size to good use, generating a strong push on the line. He has a powerful rip move, but needs to work on his posture to make sure he’s getting the most out of that lower-body power consistently. Even though he’s subject to a lot of double-teams, he still has the strength to disrupt the pocket if he manages his leverage well. Toledo plays Hester more as a 3-technique, but he also slides over to play some nose tackle at times. If the consistency with technique can improve, Hester has a violent style that NFL teams will love." |
| 7 | Fred Ross, WR, Mississippi State | Absolutely no way, no how does he last until the 7th, but CBS says it, so I’m picking him! Has chemistry with Dak, can return KOs, and we’re losing two WRs. It’s an awesome day for us if we get him! (RoSHa) |
Note that if I had simply chosen the most popular pick in each round for this consensus mock, we'd have ended up with three defensive ends in the first four rounds, so I edited things a little. Which brings us back to our collection of mock drafts. Here's an overview of all the top players at each pick sorted by the number of rec's for the mocks in which the player appeared. 'Rank' indicates the position on the CBSSports big board from January 30, 2016.
| Rank | Player | No. of Mocks |
No. of Recs |
||
| First Round (28th Pick) | |||||
| 28 | Taco Charlton, DE, Michigan | 14 | 120 | ||
| 32 | Charles Harris, DE, Missouri | 11 | 100 | ||
| 34 | Desmond King, CB, Iowa | 7 | 86 | ||
| 36 | TreDavious White, CB, LS | 3 | 35 | ||
| 2nd Round (60th Pick) | |||||
| 63 | Quincy Wilson, CB, Florida | 15 | 119 | ||
| 69 | Adoree Jackson, CB, USC | 9 | 91 | ||
| 62 | Tarell Basham, DE, Ohio | 3 | 45 | ||
| 88 | Rasul Douglas, CB, West Vrginia | 7 | 33 | ||
|
3rd Round (92nd pick) |
|||||
| 106 | Jordan Willis, DE, Kansas State | 9 | 99 | ||
| 102 | Justin Evans, S, Texas A&M | 8 | 62 | ||
| 95 | Eddie Jackson, S, Alabama | 6 | 49 | ||
| 93 | Derek Rivers, DE, Youngstown State | 4 | 44 | ||
|
4th Round (124th pick) |
|||||
| 127 | Tanoh Kpassagnon, DE, Villanova | 23 | 186 | ||
| 124 | Lorenzo Jerome, S, St. Francis | 5 | 53 | ||
| 159 | Daeshon Hall, DE, Texas A&M | 5 | 50 | ||
| 128 | Julien Davenport, OT, Bucknell | 6 | 38 | ||
| 6th Round (185th & 199th picks) | |||||
| 191 | Storm Norton, OT, Toledo | 7 | 87 | ||
| 187 | Josh Harvey-Clemmons, S, Lousiville | 7 | 80 | ||
| 185 | Jon Toth, OC, Kentucky | 7 | 46 | ||
| 186 | Charles Walker, DT, Oklahoma | 6 | 39 | ||
| 7th Round (217th pick) | |||||
| 245 | Fred Ross, WR, Mississippi State | 22 | 226 | ||
| 224 | Treyvon Hester, DT, Toledo | 2 | 39 | ||
| 220 | Javarius Leamon, OT, South Carolina State | 5 | 36 | ||
| 222 | Travin Dural, WR, LSU | 3 | 35 | ||
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 four BTB member mocks from the weekend. To keep things simple, these are the top vote-getters without a trade.
BTB Mock Draft overview
| BTB Member (No. of Rec's) |
1st Round | 2nd Round | 3nd Round | 4rd Round | 6th round | 6th round | 7th round |
| Consensus Mock |
Taco Charlton, DE, Michigan | Quincy Wilson, CB, Florida | Justin Evans, S, Texas A&M | Tanoh Kpassagnon, DE, Villanova | Storm Norton, OT, Toledo | Treyvon Hester, DT, Toledo | Fred Ross, WR, Mississippi State |
| egriffey (29 recs) |
Taco Charlton, DE, Michigan | Adoree Jackson, CB, USC | Justin Evans, S, Texas A&M | Stacy Coley, WR, Miami | Jon Toth, OC, Kentucky | Treyvon Hester, DT, Toledo | Fred Ross, WR, Mississippi State |
| Shaymer (25) |
Desmond King, CB, Iowa | Zay Jones, WR, East Carolina | Jordan Willis, DE, Kansas State | Lorenzo Jerome, S, St. Francis | Storm Norton, OT, Toledo | Brandon Langley, CB, Lamar | Fred Ross, WR, Mississippi State |
|
RoSHa (20) |
Taco Charlton, DE, Michigan | Quincy Wilson, CB, Florida | Jordan Leggett, TE, Clemson | Tanoh Kpassagnon, DE, Villanova | Storm Norton, OT, Toledo | Xavier Woods, S, Louisiana Tech | Fred Ross, WR, Mississippi State |
| The Boys R Back (15) |
Charles Harris, DE, Missouri | Quincy Wilson, CB, Florida | Jordan Willis, DE, Kansas State | Zach Banner, OG, USC | Josh Harvey-Clemmons, S, Lousiville | Michael Roberts, TE, Toledo | Travin Dural, WR, LSU |
Which of these proposed mocks do you like the most? Tell us in the attached poll and in the comments section below.