On Tuesday night, I was doing some preliminary work on 2017 NFL Draft prospects – finding it hard to fully get into college tape when a world of 11-1 Dallas Cowboys football surrounds me. While I’m certainly still focused on Dallas’ regular season and playoff run, this fascinating chart came across my desk this morning (Ok, I’m in college, I don’t work at a desk, work with me here).
The charts, which can be seen entirely and in much better detail right here, calculate the probability that any given team will have any given first round pick. Officially, the Cowboys will not be picking in the top 20 of the 2017 NFL Draft.
There is also less than a 1% chance that the Cowboys will have any pick before 26th overall. Most likely, according to this chart that has the Cowboys at 14 regular season wins, they will be picking in one of the “Super Bowl” slots.
With one of the last two picks in the first round, there is some good news for the Cowboys. First and foremost, they played in Super Bowl LI! Dallas’ track record of recent first round picks has also been impeccable.
The last time the Cowboys picked with the 31st or 32nd pick, they selected Wisconsin Center Travis Frederick in a trade-down with the 49ers. Frederick was the second piece to the Space Cowboys – the offensive line that has made the Cowboys the best team in the NFL.
While I’ll be getting a lot more into specific names that could be in play for any Cowboys’ draft picks this spring, the initial field of prospects appears to be very deep at positions of need for Dallas such as defensive end or wide receiver.
There is no more tanking for a top five pick. We have Ezekiel Elliott. We have a good football team. That team is going to get better in the 2017 NFL Draft, after already playing in Houston on Super Bowl Sunday.
Have any 2017 draft prospects you would love to see in the silver and blue? Let me know with a comment below the article, or an email to Sean.Martin@InsideTheStar.com, and I’ll be sure to check them out this draft season!
Each year I get more and more geeked up for the draft. After last year’s awesome draft and the growth of the team I am so excited that we can add pieces that will add strength and balance to the team. That being said I have only one position that I want to focus on with our first round pick and that is defensive end. So I was at the mall the other day and sat on Santa’s lap and I told him I want Myles Garrett for the Cowboys for Christmas and he laughed at me! Ok seriously we know he will be a top 5 pick if not the first guy off the board so he’s off the table. So I have compiled a list of players with a narrowed down list of more realistic options. Some of these guys are likely gone by the time we are picking at #32, and a Super Bowl victory in the bag. In no particular order my list is Takkarist McKinley, Charles Harris, Solomon Thomas, DeMarcus Walker, Tim Williams, Malik McDowell, Dawaune Smoot, and Derek Barnett. It is really going to be dependent on how teams draft in front of them as to who would be available but I also see this as one of those times if their guy is on the board after #20 they might make a move up to get him. But if they stay at #32 the more realistic options are Solomon Thomas, DeMarcus Walker, and DaWaune Smoot. Worth noting is that Thomas played at Coppel HS outside Dallas. He grew up in Texas where he moved in the 4th grade and he has a sterling character and a Stanford brain. Also Smoot is coming out of Illinois where he’s playing for Lovie Smith and a direct connection to Rod Marinelli. I can’t wait for this draft and much draft talk to come…but in the meantime, we got a game on Sunday!