A Peek at Jerry's Draft Board
 

A blogger and his readers have reconstructed the Cowboys' draft board (or at least a big chunk of it) using photos from the Dallas war room. Jerry likely wasn't impressed with the Texans' draft, since he apparently rated Jackson as a mid-2nd rounder, Tate a 4th, and Graham a 5th.

Or it could be that this is where those players fit into the Cowboys' needs. I'll bet we had some of their choices downgraded too.

And they rated another Graham, Brandon, a second-rounder who their intra-divisional rivals took 13 th overall. There's gobs of differences between any
2 teams Draft Boards, and much of it probably has to do with each teams specific needs.

I think I've mentioned that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. It's apparent that 2 people can watch the same player and come up with a different grade. If you could compare the Raiders and the Jaguars draft board, I'm sure you would have plenty of room for debate.

Comparing apples to oranges and wondering why there's a difference. Different schemes and needs is only part of the difference. There is a reason why there are so many people in those draft War Rooms, varying opinions. Then there is the idea of gaming the game. Can I get a guy I like later so I can get another player that I like too.

Even here we are all considering the needs and scheme of the Texans. We often have different opinions on who is worth what. PK and I often share similar views on players and how they should be valued for the Texans. However, we still have some differences. He liked Amari Spievey more than I did and I probably valued Daniel Te'o-Nesheim more than he did.

So, there shouldn't be too much surprise to see that one team likes a guy in the 1st (Tyson Alualu) when another team sees him as a 3rd rounder.

It's not so much the needs as the systems each team uses. Even though the Cowboys run a 3-4, they run that 3-4 differently then the Pats or the Steelers do. On offense, one of the TVs talking heads was saying the West Coast Offense that Bill Walsh designed is now dead.

It's off shoots are alive, Shanahan and Kubiak use the WCO terminology one way, and Andy Reid uses a different way. The OL for the Eagles is a large group of guys who mainly play assignment football. The Texans, now the Redskins and the Seahawks use a version of the zone blocking scheme that calls for quicker OL guys over the big maulers.

Every coach has his vision of the type of player he wants at different positions. Sadly IMO the vision that Kubiak and Rick Smith are holding onto has not produced a playoff winner in 5 years. The NFL is a league of change and adaption, I'm not sure our HC is an adaptable type. I hope I am wrong.

On the subject of the Jags taking Alulu at 10, I dunno if any of you ever listen to a guy named Tim Brando during the weekday morning hours on 1560 ? He starts at 10 AM and runs for a couple hours.
Anyway, he thinks there's a link between this pick and the other most dramatic pick in the Draft, the Tebow pick by Denver in the 20s. Brando thinks the Jags are soon to be history in Jacksonville (very possible under any circunstances), and one of the only ways they could have saved themselves is by taking the enormously popular local guy Tebow to sell tickets and rejuvinate the hometown fans. This theory is well know of course.
But his theory goes on and he thinks the owner really wants the franchise to move to LA, and by taking somebody else so early it would avoid speculation about why he didn't do the obvious and trade back to get the Cal DT while getting additional picks, but if he did that it would put him dangerously close to the area where several teams think Tebows a value, as borne out by Denver.
Honestly I'm not making this up, but some of these radio guys make stuff up all the time so that's probably what's going on here. FWIW.

Honestly, I don't have a problem with the Alualu pick. I think that kid will be productive. However, the 2nd round pick from Louisianna Tech was a bit of a head scratcher for me. Lamar Thomas didn't really show me much. I think they would have been better off taking Mike Neal from Purdue. Again, everyone has an opinion. We'll know in a few years who was correct.

1. Who gives a flip who or what Dallas' warroom said, or what their selections are (were).

2.We don't need cherry picks for our Draft. We just need to get behind, and root for those the Texans did pick.

I think it's interesting to see how teams stacked their boards. I don't think this is especially telling either way about the Texans' picks, though, given the differences in the systems each team is drafting for (as has been mentioned) and because I don't consider Jerry & Co. to be among the top talent evaluators in the league.