Our friends over at Blogging the Boys (BTB) found a tweet that revealed the Dallas Cowboys’ entire draft board, which is pretty great. It’s rare to see behind the curtain with the draft and this is some great material.
BTB puts a nice disclaimer that this might not be the exact draft board because the tweet was posted on July 14th, but they believe all of the information aligns with reports around the team. The Cowboys have leaked at least three draft boards over the years.
"I'm a little hard-pressed to see where the issue is at all after the draft is over," Cowboys owner Jerry Jones told reporters in 2013 after his draft board was leaked again. "We don't put anything up there that's particularly sensitive. Those are the opinions and the work of our scouts. The fact that there might have been a player up there a round earlier or a round later than it is on a lot of other people's boards or opinion doesn't impact us."
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Despite not having a first round pick, the Patriots made four selections in rounds two and three.
The Cowboys gave cornerback Cyrus Jones a 4th round grade, but considered him the 67th best prospect- in line with his 60th overall selection. It should also be noted that 11 players on the board were drafted two or more rounds before the Cowboys’ grade and seven of them were defensive backs, so it’s likely that Dallas values their secondary on a different scale.
Offensive guard Joe Thuney also received a 4th round grade and the 79th overall mark- and the Patriots selected him 78th overall. Thuney was the 4th highest rated center on the Cowboys’ board and the 6th highest interior lineman, so don’t discount the idea of Thuney playing some center during the preseason.
The Patriots selected quarterback Jacoby Brissett 91st overall in the 3rd round, which matches the Cowboys’ 3rd round grade and 64th overall mark. It’s possible that the Patriots wanted to take their quarterback ahead of Dallas, even though the Cowboys gave a higher grade to Connor Cook, who was selected in the 4th round.
3rd round defensive tackle Vincent Valentine isn’t on the list, or at least his name isn’t legible based on the screen shot. 4th round wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell can’t be seen, either.
But based on what we do know, the Patriots picked players roughly in line with how the Cowboys graded the players from an overall ranking. This was just a shallow draft from a top-talent perspective, but there was plenty of depth in the middle rounds.