With the NFL draft now less than 48 hours away, final exercises are being run in team war rooms around the country as clubs look to simulate every conceivable possibility of what might happen over the draft weekend. Which players are likely to be available when they are on the clock is juxtaposed with the off-the-wall scenarios of being either wiped out or having so many choices a trade down makes sense.
For the Dallas Cowboys sitting at No. 10, the choices are tremendous. The brass alluded to as much in Tuesday’s pre-draft press conference. In our annual group exercise among Cowboys Wire contributors, we tried to simulate the entire league’s needs and wants and embarked on a full, three-round mock draft exercise where we took control of all 32 clubs and went about 105 picks.
The rules?
Only trades involving this year’s first-round picks were allowed. Other picks could be included, but it would drag on forever if we jockeyed for prospects while going through Rounds 2 and 3, so we kept it a bit limited. Although teams use their own value charts, it was best if we stuck to the tried and true Jimmy Johnson model to keep things moving as well.
Other than that, GMs were only tasked with studying their assigned team’s needs. Here’s how it all shook out. One note, the first round of the mock was completed mere hours before the Kansas City Chiefs traded with Baltimore to acquire tackle Orlando Brown. We had the chiefs making a trade out of the first round and getting a tackle, so we were on the right path!