http://www.bloggingtheboys.com/2012/...ourtney-upshaw
Early yesterday morning we put up our BTB Pre-Draft Visit Tracker. During the course of the day, a number of names were added to the list:•DT Fletcher Cox tweeted that he was en route to catch a flight to Dallas, but the flight was canceled due to the weather. Same story for Illinois OT Jeff Allen whose flight to Dallas was also canceled.
•Todd Archer of ESPNDallas reported that SS Mark Barron, OG Cordy Glenn and OLB Courtney Upshaw have also received inivitations to Valley Ranch.
•Boise State star running back RB Doug Martin is also among the list of visitors.
•Oklahoma WR Ryan Broyles, who is recovering from a torn ACL, also made the list of invitees.
After the break we have a brief rundown of the 20 national prospects tentatively identified as visiting the Cowboys this week and a few early thoughts on what the names could mean.
Here's the list of national prospects whom the Cowboys will likely have had in for a visit by the end of the week. National VisitsCBSSports Rank Player Pos. School Proj. Round Source 12 Fletcher Cox DT Mississippi State 1 Fletcher Cox, Caplan 13 Dontari Poe DT Memphis 1 Star-Telegram 14 David DeCastro OG Stanford 1 Star-Telegram 17 Dre Kirkpatrick CB Alabama 1 Scout.com 21 Courtney Upshaw OLB Alabama 1 ESPN 22 Cordy Glenn OG Georgia 1 ESPN 29 Mark Barron SS Alabama 1-2 ESPN 34 Doug Martin RB Boise State 1-2 Scout.com 39 Amini Silatolu OG Midwestern State 1-2 Detroit Free Press 49 Peter Konz C Wisconsin 2 Draftinsider 64 Ronnell Lewis OLB Oklahoma 2-3 Tulsaworld 78 Casey Hayward CB Vanderbilt 2-3 Twitter 78 Jeff Allen OT Illinois 4 Twitter 195 Chris Greenwood CB Albion 6 Detroit News 197 Ryan Broyles WR Oklahoma 6 Scout.com 250 Lionel Smith CB Texas A&M 7 Scout.com 303 D.J. Campbell FS California 7-FA NFLdraftscout 412 Korey Toomer ILB Idaho UDFA Tony Pauline 420 Ronald Leary OG Memphis UDFA Memphis Tigers n.a. Chase Baker NT Boise State UDFA Twitter Couple of quick thoughts:•If the CBSSports prospect rankings are anything to go by, it doesn't look like the Cowboys are going to trade up. Noticeable by their absence (so far) are potential top ten picks like CB Morris Claiborne, DE Quinton Coples, OLB Melvin Ingram and even ILB Luke Kuechly. In fact, it looks much more likely that the Cowboys are preparing for the possibility of trading down.
•Also, note that the Cowboys have invited OG David DeCastro, OG Cordy Glenn, OG Amini Silatolu and OC Peter Konz. In addition they've had Bill Callahan conduct private workouts with OG/OC Kevin Zeitler together with Peter Konz. The Cowboys have covered every single interior lineman in the top 50 of this year's draft prospects. I would guess that one of those five guys will find himself in a Cowboys jersey before the end of the month.
•And for as much as Cowboys fans have discussed ways to improve the pass rush, the list above is remarkable for its lack of pass rushers. Whitney Mercilus indicated earlier in the month that he was talking to the Cowboys about a possible visit, but I hope that by the time the list fills up, we'll be able to add the likes of Shea McClellin, Nick Perry, Bruce Ingram or Vinny Curry to the list.
•What's up with the number-two rated running back coming in for a visit?
•Going through the twitter timelines of CB Stephon Gilmore (@BumpNrunGilm0re) and CB Jeremy Lane (@STAYINGINMYLANE) seems to indicate they were in Dallas yesterday, but it's not clear whether they were visiting the Cowboys. Either way, the Cowboys already have five croners comng in (four national prospects and Chris Greenwood as a local prospect). That's a lot of corners, but outside of Dre Kirkpatrick (and perhaps Gilmore), the corners the Cowboys have brought in so far are third- to late round prospects.
All of this of course can and probably will change once the full list of names becomes available, but it could also be a first glimpse at how the Cowboys' draft strategy could be shaping up. Also, tip o' the ole hat to BTB member sgitr who has been doing most of the legwork on hunting down these prospect visits.
