Where did Cowboys’ draft board have Colts picks ranked?

Earlier this morning, the fine folks over at Blogging the Boys found a tweet that included the Dallas Cowboys’ entire 2016 draft board, and BTB spent the time to attempt to decipher as many of the names as possible.

The names on the board are hand-written, making it hard to make out a number of them, but BTB was able to figure out all but three of the players ranked with a first through fourth round grade on the Cowboys’ board. BTB notes that it’s possible the picture that was tweeted out could be false but that it does align with what they know of the Cowboys’ draft strategy, plus the tweeted picture was since deleted (which could be further confirmation).

Nonetheless, screenshots were taken of the picture, which is included below.

You can find a much more legible version of the draft board over at Blogging the Boys, but since the Cowboys’ draft board was allegedly leaked (which has happened to them in the past, too), we thought it would be interesting to take a look at what the Cowboys thought of the players the Colts drafted.

Unfortunately, only two of the players the Colts drafted were found legibly on the draft board, so we don’t know for sure where the others were. What we do know, however, is that center Ryan Kelly was graded as a second round pick by Dallas. Only 16 players received a first round grade, but Kelly came in as the 36th-overall player on the Cowboys’ board. The Colts took him 18th, so it’s clear that Indy had him much higher than the Cowboys did. This shouldn’t be surprising, though, as the Cowboys have Travis Frederick at center - he was their first round pick in 2013 and has made the Pro Bowl in each of the past two years, quickly establishing himself as one of the top centers in football. Since the Cowboys had zero need for a center, that could very well be an explanation for why Ryan Kelly was much lower on their board.

The only other player the Colts drafted that we can decipher from the board is safety T.J. Green, who the Colts took in the second round. The Cowboys weren’t nearly as high on Green as the Colts were, as they had a fifth-round grade on him. This fits right in line with the discussion we’ve had often about Green, as there is a wide discrepancy on his skillset and the value of the Colts drafting him 57th overall.

As for the other players drafted by Indianapolis, most of them are likely somewhere on the draft board but illegible. It should be noted, however, that among the players with a first through fourth round grade, there’s only one third round spot open and two fourth round spots, so no Colts would be ranked higher than that. It’s possible that Colts third round pick Le’Raven Clark is included somewhere there, but that’s far from certain.

While we can’t know for sure whether this draft board is legit, signs point to that being the case and it’s interesting to see a team’s board and where they had the Colts picks ranked. To view the whole breakdown, head to Blogging the Boys.