According To The Cowboys, The Vikings Had An Amazing Draft

Most draftniks think that the Vikings had a pretty great first round of the 2013 draft. It was rumored that many teams had Sharrif Floyd, Xavier Rhodes, and Cordarrelle Patterson ranked much higher than their respective draft positions of 23, 25, and 29.

Thanks to some excellent sleuthing by one of our fellow SB Nation NFL sites, we now know that at least one team really liked Minnesota's draft picks.

Blogging The Boys unveiled the leaked 2013 draft board of the Dallas Cowboys. Did they have some sort of mole in the Dallas front office to get this detailed level of confidential information? Nope--they did it by poring over and piecing together readily available pictures. From looking at the background of certain pictures taken during the draft, they were able to construct a ranking of 117 players broken into five different draft round grades. (The sixth and seventh round boards couldn't be seen thanks to a sliding whiteboard.)

So where did the three Vikings first rounders fall on the Cowboys' Big Board? Just start at the top--you won't have to go very far.

The Vikings snagged 3 of the top 13 players available according to the Cowboys brass. Jerry Jones & company had Floyd ranked 5th, Rhodes 11th, and Patterson 13th. Of course, given Dallas' up-and-down track record in the draft since Jones took over, this information can be taken as good news or bad news depending on who you ask.

The Cowboys must have appreciated at least two of the non-first rounders that Minnesota selected as well. Fourth round pick Gerald Hodges and seventh round pick Everett Dawkins both received a third round grade from Dallas. Other Vikings draft picks Jeff Locke, Jeff Baca, Michael Mauti, and Travis Bond didn't appear on any portions of the board that BTB caught.

What does it all mean for the Vikings? Absolutely nothing until these players prove it on the field, of course. Year after year we're reminded that the NFL Draft is still the world's most publicized crapshoot. But it is sort of promising that at least one other NFL team thought very highly of the top half of their draft.

Even if that team is run is controlled by an eccentric, over-controlling billionaire.

Make sure to read the entire post over at Blogging The Boys.