Pro Bowl 2015 Roster: Unconferenced Teams, Captains and Expectations

On Day 1, we learned Michael Irvin loves his Dallas Cowboys and Cris Carter works to create synergy on his team by piling on the teammates. Both trends continued Wednesday night in a live fantasy draft televised on NFL Network.

Irvin and Carter started off festivities by pegging the top two quarterbacks on the board, with Indianapolis Colts star Andrew Luck going to Carter with the first pick and Irvin grabbing Tony Romo with the second. The Hall of Famers followed the same positional template in the second round, as wide receivers Odell Beckham Jr. (Irvin) and A.J. Green (Carter) were selected.     

"It's nice, I guess," Luck said of being the top pick, per Josh Weinfuss of ESPN.com. "The reality is that everybody is deserving of it. There's a bunch of No. 1 picks in there but it's nice, I guess."

After that, thankfully, the fun tuned up as Irvin and Carter stopped going tit-for-tat. Here's a look at how the entire draft played out along with players automatically assigned to teams due to positional requirements: 

Pick	Team Carter	Pick	Team Irvin
—	Assigned Players	—	Assigned Players
1	Andrew Luck, QB, Indianapolis Colts	2	Tony Romo, QB, Dallas Cowboys
3	A.J. Green, WR, Cincinnati Bengals	4	Odell Beckham Jr., WR, New York Giants
5	Jamaal Charles, RB, Kansas City Chiefs	6	Tyron Smith, OT, Dallas Cowboys
7	Patrick Peterson, CB, Arizona Cardinals	8	Luke Kuechly, LB, Carolina Panthers
9	Mario Williams, DE, Buffalo Bills	10	Cameron Wake, DE, Miami Dolphins
11	T.Y. Hilton, WR, Indianapolis Colts	12	Jimmy Graham, TE, New Orleans Saints
13	Joe Staley, OT, San Francisco 49ers	14	Von Miller, OLB, Denver Broncos
15	Justin Houston, OLB, Kansas City Chiefs	16	Jason Witten, TE, Dallas Cowboys
17	Drew Brees, QB, New Orleans Saints	18	Joe Thomas, OT, Cleveland Browns
19	C.J. Mosley, ILB, Baltimore Ravens	20	Robert Quinn, DE, St. Louis Rams
21	Aqib Talib, CB, Denver Broncos	22	Vontae Davis, CB, Indianapolis Colts
23	Calais Campbell, DE, Arizona Caridnals	24	T.J. Ward, S, Denver Broncos
25	Donte Whitner, S, Cleveland Browns	26	Clay Matthews, LB, Green Bay Packers
27	Duane Brown, OT, Houston Texans	28	Brent Grimes, CB, Miami Dolphins
29	Jordy Nelson, WR, Green Bay Packers	30	Trent Williams, OT, Washington Redskins
31	Connor Barwin, OLB, Philadelphia Eagles	32	Eric Weddle, S, San Diego Chargers
33	Antonio Cromartie, CB, Arizona Cardinals	34	Elvis Dumervil, OLB, Baltimore Ravens
35	Sam Shields, CB, Green Bay Packers	36	Matthew Stafford, QB, Detroit Lions
37	Justin Forsett, RB, Baltimore Ravens	38	Matt Ryan, QB, Atlanta Falcons
39	Lawrence Timmons, ILB, Pittsburgh Steelers	40	Mark Ingram, RB, New Orleans Saints
41	Glover Quin, S, Detroit Lions	42	C.J. Anderson, RB, Denver Broncos
43	Antoine Bethea, S, San Francisco 49ers	44	Jason Garrett, HC, Dallas Cowboys
	Greg Olsen, TE, Carolina Panthers (16)		DeMarcus Ware, DE, Denver Broncos (23)
	Martellus Bennett, TE, Chicago Bears (16)		Randall Cobb, WR, Green Bay Packers (29)
	Ryan Clady, OT, Denver Broncos (30)		Golden Tate, WR, Detroit Lions (29)
	Tamba Hali, OLB, Kansas City Chiefs (34)		Emmanuel Sanders, WR, Denver Broncos (29)
	Andy Dalton, QB, Cincinnati Bengals (38)		Chris Harris, CB, Denver Broncos (35)
	Alfred Morris, RB, Washington Redskins (42)		D'Qwell Jackson, ILB, Indianapolis Colts (39)
	John Harbaugh, HC, Baltimore Ravens (44)		Mike Adams, S, Indianapolis Colts (43)

Position	Team Carter	Team Irvin
DT	Marcell Dareus, Kyle Williams and Dontari Poe	Aaron Donald, Sheldon Richardson and Geno Atkins
G	Mike Pouncey, Josh Sitton and Evan Mathis	Zack Martin, Marshal Yanda and Kyle Long
C	Maurkice Pouncey and Jason Kelce	Travis Frederick and Nick Mangold
FB	John Kuhn	Marcel Reece
P	Pat McAfee	Kevin Huber
K	Cody Parkey	Adam Vinatieri
ST	Justin Bethel	Darrell Stuckey
Returner	Devin Hester	Darren Sproles

Perhaps the biggest takeaway was Irvin's loyalty to the team that cut him checks for more than a decade.

All but one Cowboys Pro Bowler—and, yes, that includes head coach Jason Garrett—will be suiting up for Team Irvin. Captain DeMarco Murray will be joined by Romo, all three of his offensive line cohorts—tackle Tyron Smith, guard Zack Martin and center Travis Frederick—and tight end Jason Witten.

(If only Dez Bryant weren't ruled out with a groin injury.)

The lone wolf on the other sideline will be long snapper L.P. Ladouceur, who might not make much of a difference Sunday but gives Carter a little coup, holding Irvin from his Cowboys sweep.

Tony Gutierrez/Associated Press

“It’s going to be great because it just brings that continuity,” Frederick told Todd Archer of ESPN.com. “Even if we’re not exactly running our playbook it’s at least the same terminology. It’s a lot of the stuff we will have heard before.” 

Irvin also went about reuniting longtime Cowboys star DeMarcus Ware with his old teammates via the assigned players process. The Dallas ties are running deep with this team. That would normally lead to jokes, but this was far from a typical Cowboys season. (Ware will also have the pleasure of playing alongside Denver teammates Von Miller, T.J. Ward and C.J. Anderson.)

Carter wasn't immune to pairing up teammates either.

A day after selecting Buffalo Bills defensive tackles Marcell Dareus and Kyle Williams, he added teammate Mario Williams to reunite the NFL's most dominant defensive line. Buffalo led the NFL with 54 sacks during the regular season.

Carter also didn't show any hard feelings for the team that once released him, adding a fourth Philadelphia Eagle in linebacker Connor Barwin. Guard Evan Mathis, center Jason Kelce and kicker Cody Parkey were selected by Carter on Day 1.

Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press

Carter and Irvin both mentioned wanting to select players who wanted to play together, which may have informed their affinity of teammate compilations.

"For me it’s to put together these guys," Carter said, per Weinfuss. "It’s their year. It’s their time. The kids they want to play with, the guys they want to play with. My team’s going to be made up predominately of what they feel about the players that are going to be selected."

Unlike Irvin, though, Carter did not have the chance to select players from the team he's best known for playing on. The Minnesota Vikings were one of three teams (Jacksonville Jaguars and Tennessee Titans being the others) without a Pro Bowl selection.

From an overall perspective, Carter appears to have an advantage on paper. Selecting J.J. Watt and Antonio Brown as his captains certainly helps, but he's built a solid all-around roster as well. Brown and Green will make a jaw-dropping AFC North pair to receive passes from Luck, and adding home run hitter Jamaal Charles at running back gives the Colts star a dimension he's never had as a pro.

Throwing Watt on the same line as the trio of Bills seems like a cheat code on paper. Irvin's offensive line full of potential Hall of Famers may give Romo (and Matt Ryan and Matt Stafford) time to throw, but his wide receiving corps leaves a bit to be desired. Irvin allowed Carter to arguably get four of the five best wideouts in the player pool, depending on where you'd rank T.Y. Hilton against Irvin's trio of assigned pass-catchers.

That said, with a mix of players who haven't played together before, it's impossible to know the outcome. I guess that's as good a reason as any to tune in Sunday.

Follow Tyler Conway (@tylerconway22) on Twitter.