On Monday, Cowboys Wire released our Top 143 Composite Big Board, which took various boards from some of the most noteworthy draft analysts surveying the prospects in the 2020 NFL Draft. That was a look from an NFL overview, but as everyone knows, each team sees the draft through their own specific lens.
The Dallas Cowboys have their own specific sets of rules and guidelines that steer their organization through the draft process. Since outsiders don’t know how much Mike McCarthy has changed the process, building a Cowboys’ big board necessitates relying on previously proven patterns and plans.
Now, this isn’t a big board where I’ve evaluated each of these prospects. I’ve done that before and it’s excrutiating. Plus, I’m no scout. I don’t know half of what I need to and don’t have the time. But I do know who to trust that do this on a regular basis.
Using our Cowboys Draft Commandments, we attacked the Composite Big Board armed with a unique approach. We factored in the average rank from the experts who grind the tape, and then applied the Cowboys’ conference bias, athleticism super-focus, Best-Player-Available-At-Position-Of-Need filter and whether or not the player has been linked to the club in pre-draft reports.
The best players who are likely out of Dallas’ reach were given an exception in this area, as players such as Chase Young and Joe Burrow have no business being knocked for Dallas knowing it’s a pipe dream they’d be in position to draft those players without a trade up.
12 players earned that exception.
CB Jeff Okudah
DE Chase Young
DT Derrick Brown
OT Tristan Wirfs
OT Jedrick WIlls
OT Mekhi Becton
OT Andrew Thomas
QB Joe Burrow
QB Tua Tagovailoa
Weapon-X Isaiah Simmons
WR Jerry Jeudy
WR CeeDee Lamb
Each factor was weighted to a certain degree and the results offer an interesting perspective into how we believe the Dallas Cowboys see this draft. The players are separated into tiers by round, indicating where Dallas would be comfortable taking a player. In some spots, it will vastly differ than the projected rounds of certain guys.
A few caveats, if a player didn’t make one of the six big boards we used for our composite big board, than they weren’t eligible for this list. It should be understood that places a blind spot for prospects who sat just outside several Top 100 boards.
Also, athletic testing wasn’t available for more than a few prospects. Without RAS scores (courtesy of the fine work of Kent Lee Platte) we had to estimate some prospects based on scouting writeups.
OK, with all that out of the way, the complete Cowboys Big Board.
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