2015 DRAFT NUGGETS – Player Tiers

Draft Nuggets 2015: Entry #12

By Jeff Bowers of youtube.com/TheSportsNarrative

Draft Tiers:

As the Pro Day schedule begins to wrap up and teams (and draft analysts) begin to finalize their Big Boards, the tiers in the draft talent levels emerge. Through an exhaustive formula (full details seen here), let’s discuss where the talent tiers lie in this draft and how that affects the Cowboys.

[Editor’s Note: This info was compiled prior to the report of the positive drug test by Randy Gregory which will obvious affect his draft status]

TIER 1 – Pick 7

Tier #1 seems to fall after pick 7 and includes the 2 QBs (Winston, Mariota), 2 WRs (Cooper, White), 2 DE/OLB (Fowler Jr, Gregory) and the DT Williams. Getting up into this tier will be a hefty price for any team.

TIER 2 – Pick 19-20

Tier #2 seems to fall right around pick 19 to 20 and includes both of the top RBs Gurley and Gordon. Keep in mind though, this is an evaluation of just talent and doesn’t take into account team needs, runs on positions and flat desperation so there is a chance players from this tier slip into tier #3 easily.

TIER 3 – Pick 26-27

Tier #3 falls right at the area of the Dallas pick and unfortunately contains mostly OL prospects including Flowers, Clemmings, Erving and La’el Collins. Of interest in this group is the DT Eddie Goldman of Florida State, though he could be off the board due to need by teams above the Cowboys.

TIER 4 – PICK 42-43

Tier #4 opens up into the 1^st/2^nd round talent range. In this section falls several CBs (Peters, Jalen Collins, Kevin Johnson) as well as some DL prospects such as Odigihzuwa of UCLA. This is an area the Cowboys could trade back into and still acquire solid starting talent. Interestingly, this range does not contain any of the next tier of RBs but I would fully expect for a few of the top runners to go in this range based on need.

TIER 5 – Pick 60-63

Tier #5 again falls right around the Cowboys selection. Players of interest in this area include LBs Stephone Anthony of Clemson and Paul White of TCU and DT Mario Edwards Jr. of Florida State. Of interest, many of the top RBs are also in this tier with only a few other legit starters (David Johnson of Northern Iowa and Mike Davis of South Carolina) falling into the next tier. This could mean the Cowboys must address RB in the first 2 rounds or risk having the board picked over by round 3.

TIER 6 – Pick 104

Tier #6 is classified as 2^nd/3^rd round talent and is the real meat of this draft and goes well past the Cowboys 3^rd round pick at 91. Some possibilities in this range for Dallas include QBs Garrett Grayson or possibly Bryce Petty (unless someone reaches earlier), RBs Johnson, Davis or MSU Jeremy Langford, DE Za’darius Smith of Kentucky or CBs Steven Nelson, Alex Carter or Josh Shaw among others. According to the chart, this is a real area of value and would also be a target for extra picks in a trade down scenario in round 1. After this tier, the likelihood of drafting a walk-in starter drops dramatically but there is still very solid, contributing talent in this draft through the 5^th round.

Here is the full list as discussed above with a few possible Cowboys targets highlighted:

COUNT	PLAYER	POS.	SCHOOL	TOTAL
1	*Jameis Winston	QB	Florida State	1.75
2	*Leonard Williams	DT	Southern California	1.875
3	*Amari Cooper	WR	Alabama	4.375
4	Kevin White	WR	West Virginia	4.5
5	*Marcus Mariota	QB	Oregon	5.375
6	*Dante Fowler Jr.	OLB	Florida	5.625
7	*Randy Gregory	DE	Nebraska	7.875
8	Danny Shelton	DT	Washington	10.75
9	*Shane Ray	DE	Missouri	11.125
10	Brandon Scherff	OT	Iowa	11.75
11	DeVante Parker	WR	Louisville	12
12	*Trae Waynes	CB	Michigan State	13.125
13	Vic Beasley	OLB	Clemson	13.625
14	*Malcom Brown	DT	Texas	15.625
15	*Andrus Peat	OT	Stanford	15.875
16	*Todd Gurley	RB	Georgia	16.2857143
17	*Melvin Gordon	RB	Wisconsin	17.4285714
18	*Landon Collins	SS	Alabama	18.25
19	*Arik Armstead	DT	Oregon	19.625
20	*Ereck Flowers	OT	Miami (Fla.)	23.125
21	Alvin Dupree	DE	Kentucky	24
22	*Jaelen Strong	WR	Arizona State	24.1428571
23	T.J. Clemmings	OT	Pittsburgh	24.6666667
24	*Eddie Goldman	DT	Florida State	25.125
25	La’el Collins	OT	LSU	25.875
26	Cameron Erving	C	Florida State	27
27	*Marcus Peters	CB	Washington	29.125
28	*Jalen Collins	CB	LSU	30.75
29	*Eli Harold	OLB	Virginia	31.2857143
30	*Dorial Green-Beckham	WR	Oklahoma	32
31	*D.J. Humphries	OT	Florida	32.7142857
32	*Maxx Williams	TE	Minnesota	32.8333333
33	Kevin Johnson	CB	Wake Forest	33.4285714
34	Owamagbe Odighizuwa	DE	UCLA	33.8
35	Eric Kendricks	ILB	UCLA	34.4
36	Devin Smith	WR	Ohio State	37.5714286
37	*Jordan Phillips	DT	Oklahoma	37.6
38	Carl Davis	DT	Iowa	38.1666667
39	*Benardrick McKinney	ILB	Mississippi State	40.3333333
40	*Shaq Thompson	OLB	Washington	42.5
41	*Nelson Agholor	WR	Southern California	42.5
42	*Tevin Coleman	RB	Indiana	45.2
43	*Sammie Coates	WR	Auburn	45.6
44	Ameer Abdullah	RB	Nebraska	46.4
45	Preston Smith	DE	Mississippi State	47.3333333
46	Jake Fisher	OT	Oregon	48.25
47	Denzel Perryman	ILB	Miami (Fla.)	48.6
48	Phillip Dorsett	WR	Miami (Fla.)	49.3333333
49	*Devin Funchess	WR	Michigan	49.4
50	*Breshad Perriman	WR	UCF	50
51	*Duke Johnson	RB	Miami (Fla.)	53
52	*Jay Ajayi	RB	Boise State	53.8
53	Michael Bennett	DT	Ohio State	54
54	Nate Orchard	DE	Utah	54.25
55	*P.J. Williams	CB	Florida State	54.8
56	*Danielle Hunter	DE	LSU	56.3333333
57	*Ronald Darby	CB	Florida State	57
58	Laken Tomlinson	OG	Duke	58
59	Paul Dawson	ILB	TCU	59.6666667
60	A.J. Cann	OG	South Carolina	60
61	*Mario Edwards Jr.	DE	Florida State	61.25
62	Byron Jones	CB	Connecticut	62.75
63	Clive Walford	TE	Miami (Fla.)	64.25
64	Stephone Anthony	ILB	Clemson	64.6666667
65	Cedric Ogbuehi	OT	Texas A&M	64.8333333
66	Quinten Rollins	CB	Miami (Ohio)	65
67	Rashad Greene	WR	Florida State	65
68	*Alex Carter	CB	Stanford	65
69	Tre’ Jackson	OG	Florida State	65
70	Hau’oli Kikaha	OLB	Washington	67
71	*T.J. Yeldon	RB	Alabama	70.25
72	*Brett Hundley	QB	UCLA	70.5
73	Tyler Lockett	WR	Kansas State	72.75
74	DJoun Smith	CB	Florida Atlantic	73.5
75	Grady Jarrett	DT	Clemson	73.75
76	Hroniss Grasu	C	Oregon	74
77	Anthony Harris	SS	Virginia	75.3333333
78	David Johnson	RB	Northern Iowa	77.5
79	Trey Flowers	DE	Arkansas	78.3333333
80	Ifo Ekpre-Olomu	CB	Oregon	78.5
81	*Kwon Alexander	OLB	LSU	83.6666667
82	Doran Grant	CB	Ohio State	86.5
83	Justin Hardy	WR	East Carolina	86.5
84	Cody Prewitt	FS	Ole Miss	89.25
85	*Mike Davis	RB	South Carolina	89.3333333
86	Jaquiski Tartt	SS	Samford	89.6666667
87	Marcus Hardison	DT	Arizona State	90
88	Lorenzo Mauldin	OLB	Louisville	91
89	Jeremy Langford	RB	Michigan State	92.5
90	Jeff Heuerman	TE	Ohio State	92.5
91	Ali Marpet	OG	Hobart	93.5
92	*Donovan Smith	OT	Penn State	94
93	Josh Shaw	CB	Southern California	94
94	Reese Dismukes	C	Auburn	95
95	Garrett Grayson	QB	Colorado State	95.25
96	Henry Anderson	DE	Stanford	96
97	Ty Sambrailo	OT	Colorado State	96.3333333
98	Markus Golden	OLB	Missouri	97
99	Steven Nelson	CB	Oregon State	97.3333333
100	Derron Smith	FS	Fresno State	98.3333333