Cowboys 2022 Draft Contest: Predict who you think the Cowboys will draft

It’s been a while since we’ve done one of these community draft contests, so today is a good time to get back into the groove. Here’s your challenge:

Submit a list of up to 30 players, irrespective of round, that you think the Cowboys could 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 official Top 30 visits or local “Dallas day” workouts; you can even add players the Cowboys interviewed at the Combine; anything goes - but you’ve got to stick to max 30 players.

One of the interesting aspects of working with a 30-name list is that it forces you to make some hard choices: do you really pick an offensive lineman in every round; are you going to go out on a limb for that athletic standout with mediocre college production; what’s your position on tight ends; just how many defensive linemen can the Cowboy really draft; will a wide receiver 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.

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.

• In 2013, BTB-member starmesh23 hit on six players that ended up with the Cowboys after the draft.
• In 2014, 86 BTB members participated in this exercise, and found out the hard way that even though the Cowboys had nine draft picks, predicting who they would pick proved very tough. BTB-members YumaCactus and dallasdan hit on five Cowboys draft picks or UDFA signings.
• In 2015, BTB-member Chad Loveland got seven players right, including the first four in sequence (Jones, Gregory, Green, Wilson, plus Gibson) and two free agents (George Farmer, Lucky Whitehead).
• In 2016, Joey Ickes got six payers right, even if only two of them were draft picks. Despite the Cowboys making nine draft picks, only two participants, BigDadJoe and Markythearky, got four draft picks right.
• In 2017, the last time we ran this challenge, BTB-member boys.camncrew got four players right, and 21 other participants placed second with three correct picks each.

Are you up to the challenge this year?

To get things started, David Howman, Danny Phantom, and I will submit our Top 30.

David decided to go heavy on offense with 18 of his 30 picks on that side of the ball, with a specific focus on offensive linemen (8) and wide receivers (8), offering prospects at both positions in almost very round.

Danny went heavy in the first round with eight prospects, increasing his chances of getting at least one pick right. He’s somewhat softer in rounds two and three, perhaps anticipating a trade up or trade down.

My strategy was two-fold:

1. Select as many players as possible that the Cowboys talked to this year, either in Dallas (Top 30 visit, Dallas Day), at a private workout, or during a Combine interview.

2. Carpet bomb the five positions I think the Cowboys are most likely to pick this year and thereby cheat my way to a better score.

OVER TO YOU!

Put together your 30 picks. Keep the format simple. We’ll award one point for each correct name you’ve predicted, be it a draft pick or a subsequent UDFA signing, regardless of round. There’s no specific time limit to submit your picks, but the start of the draft on 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 (it will help me to more efficiently tabulate everybody’s picks):

1st: Charles Cross, Drake London, Treylon Burks, Jordan Davis, Devin Lloyd

2nd: Myjai Sanders, DeMarvin Leal, Sam Williams, Jeremy Ruckert, Perrion Winfrey

3rd: Quay Walker, Akayleb Evans, Jelani Woods, Alec Pierce, Cade Otton

4th-5th: Michael Clemons, Cam Jurgens, Joshua Ezeudu, Kennedy Brooks, Isaiah Thomas

5th-6th: Jalen Wydermyer, Erik Ezukanma, Charleston Rambo, Marquese Bell, Danny Gray

6th-FA: Grant Calcaterra, Dawson Deaton, Damion Daniels, Reggie Roberson, Kyron Johnson

Your reward? Some fun in compiling your list of 30 names and bragging rights for whoever gets the most picks right.

We’ll publish the results a week or two after the draft.