What if we were to take the Cowboys by their word with regard to what free agency and the draft will look like?

I know, right? That's crazy talk right there. But bear with me for a couple of minutes on this lazy Saturday afternoon.

During the Senior Bowl, Jerry Jones for once was remarkably clear about the direction the Cowboys will take from a personnel point of view. Add some comments by Rob Ryan to the mix, and we get a pretty good idea of where the Cowboys could be headed this offseason.

After the break we look at how Jerry Jones sees the various position groups and how - taken together - they provide an interesting blueprint for what the Cowboys could have planned for the next few months.

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When Bill Parcells was the Cowboys head coach, he often told the media that his job, in terms of personnel, was to have a plan for all available contingencies. He spent a great deal of his time and energy developing a plan for any possible personnel scenario that might unfold, whether it be due to injury, declining production, or contract problems. Parcells was a notorious worry-wort. I can see why; with 53 guys on a roster, there are a seemingly infinite number of permutations, many of them bad, likely to dance in a coach's head.

The Cowboys personnel guys are now in meetings, coming up with their own set of contingencies. First they must evaluate the roster, determining who needs to be replaced, who deserves a promotion to a starting or key backup role, and how best to fill the roster holes created by expired contracts, retirements, contract casualties, or other cuts. Then, In addition, they must consider which positions are underperforming and need to be upgraded. Once this has been figured out, the real work begins: what avenues can be explored to get the maximum roster improvement for the minimum expenditure?

What real work might we see? Check out some speculative thinking after the jump...

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CBSSports' Pete Prisco played matchmaker yesterday and matched up one top free agent with each NFL team. He didn't include players like Drew Brees and Calais Campbell who will either sign an extension with their team or get franchise tagged, but all other free agents were fair game.

With the Cowboys in need of help at cornerback, Prisco proposes Chiefs corner Brandon Carr as the best match:

At cornerback, Carr might be the No. 1 guy available, at least according Prisco. In his rankings of the top 50 free agents, Carr comes in at No. 2.

Young. Premium position. Good locker room guy. What more could you want?

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Yesterday we ran an article with a partial transcript of Mike Mayock's pre-Combine conference call. The transcript was hastily thrown together based on an audio file which recorded the first 45 minutes of the call.

Today, the NFL Network released a full transcript of the call, and Mayock went on to touch on a number of topics and prospects that have received a lot of airtime among Cowboys fans.

Mayock talks about the Cowboys "Super Bowl front seven" and how the secondary has been holding the team back. He talks about how David DeCastro will be plug-and-play from day one, he examines the pass rushers in this year's draft in a lot of detail and talks about the impact arrests and injuries have on the draft stock of players like Dre Kirkpatrick and Mark Barron.

The transcript is provided by the NFL Network, we have simply grouped some of the Q&As that deal with prospects the Cowboys could be interested in.

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Ask most Cowboys fans about the greatest needs the Cowboys have going into the draft this year, and chances are you'll get some combination of interior offensive line, cornerback, defensive line and pass rusher. Some might even argue that a seven round draft isn't enough to fill all the Cowboys needs.

Even though the Cowboys are drafting fairly high this year, there's virtually no chance that they'll be able come away from the draft with four first-year starters/significant contributors at all four positions of need. At #14 and #45, the Cowboys should expect to draft first-year starters or significant contributors, but if they were to find an immediate starter in the third round, that would be a very big win on draft day.

This of course means that the Cowboys may need to fill at least two of their most gaping holes via free agency. But which ones? Especially considering that while the Cowboys are not exactly cash-strapped, they are on a budget. The reported $20 million or so in cap space the Cowboys could create for 2012 will only take you so far in free agency.

After the break, we look at which positions could be particularly attractive if you're trying to build a team on a budget.

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The NFL Network’s lead NFL Draft Analyst and Scouting Combine head honcho Mike Mayock took part in a conference call with national media members yesterday in the lead up to the 2012 NFL Scouting Combine.

Mayock does these calls every year prior to the Combine, but unlike last year, the NFL Network didn't provide a transcript of the call this time, so you'll have to make do with my hastily scribbled transcript below - or listen to a 45 minute part of the call here.

While members of the Dallas media may have been in attendance, no specific questions were asked about the Cowboys in the segment, so Mayock didn't address the Cowboys specifically, but he did talk about a couple of players and topics that are of interest to Cowboys fans.

The soundbite of the day (for me) may have come when he mentioned Sean Lee as a Pro Bowler when he talked about Boston College linebacker Luke Kuechly:

After the break, find out what Mayock has to say about depth along the defensive line, offensive linemen and a selection of players that have been (at times) hotly debated on these boards.

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Hot on the heels of yesterday's Mel Kiper mock draft comes Wes Bunting's latest offering, mock draft version 3.0.

Bunting, of course, knows how to deliver a mock draft that gets people talking, and in his third iteration of his mock draft, he offers the third prospect for the Cowboys after having the Cowboys select David DeCastro in v 1.0 and Peter Konz in v 2.0. But what makes this third version highly auspicious is what happened last year:

After mocking Robert Quinn to the Cowboys in his mock v 1.0 and Prince Amukamara in v 2.0, he hit the nail on the head in v 3.0, mocking Tyron Smith to the Cowboys. Will Bunting be able to repeat that feat this year?

With the 14th pick in the 2012 draft, the Bunting has the Cowboys taking Dre Kirkpatrick. Bunting writes:

So this year's mock 3.0 is doubly auspicious, not only because of last year's pick, but also because both Kirkpatrick and DeCastro are available for the Cowboys - and if those two drop that far, other prospects must have taken their place in the top 13. After the break, we look at who those players are.

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Yesterday, NFL Network draft analyst Mike Mayock released an updated version of his top five players per position heading into the Combine. You can find the full rankings here, but we'll focus only the positions of need for the Cowboys and any changes to the ranking since Mayock's initial version from January.

Defensive Ends/OLBs: An improved pass rush is an obvious position to focus on as a Cowboys fan. Anthony Spencer's future with the Cowboys is still up in the air, and with the amount of interest the Cowboys showed in J.J. Watt last year, an upgraded pass rush will certainly be one of the offseason objectives for the Cowboys. Whether this upgrade will happen at OLB or DE is the topic of much debate, but since Mayock conveniently lumps the two together, we'll talk about both in one go.

Rank Previous Ranking (1/24)
Updated Rank (2/14)
Change

1 Quinton Coples, North Carolina Melvin Ingram, South Carolina

2 Melvin Ingram, South Carolina Quinton Coples, North Carolina

3 Whitney Mercilus, Illinois Andre Branch, Clemson

4 Nick Perry, USC Whitney Mercilus, Illinois

5 (tie) Chandler Jones, Syracuse Vinny Curry, Marshall

Andre Branch, Clemson Nick Perry, USC

Most mocks and rankings have Coples as a top ten prospect and Ingram going somewhere in the second half of the first round, so it comes as a slight surprise to see Ingram move up ahead of Coples. Perhaps Mayock is already anticipating a better Combine performance by Ingram.

The same thing could probably be said of mock draft favorite Vince Curry, who is expected to put up some pretty impressive combine numbers, and rises accordingly. Overall, there's lots of movement in this positional ranking, and if you're wondering where Alabama's Courtney Upshaw is, Mayock put him at the top of the inside linebacker ranking. Upshaw did play OLB in Alabama's 3-4 defense, so from a Cowboys point of view he should be on this list, probably battling Ingram and Coples for the top spot.

After the break, we look at offensive linemen, corners and defensive tackles.

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