Cowboys had a chance at Keenan Allen (chose T. Williams instead)

CATCH17 said:

The worst is TJ Watt.

Id give up 3 Keenan Allen’s for 1 pass rusher like that.

That decision was a monumental disaster. We passed on a likely HOF player for a better scheme fit in Taco Charlton.

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Jerrah Jones has proven that he is horrible at drafting talent

rnr_honeybadger said:

Jerrah Jones has proven that he is horrible at drafting talent

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I’ve heard the scouts had it right and Marinelli wanted Taco. Jerry went with the coaches and not the scouts.

Aerolithe_Lion said:

Morris Claiborne is definitely worse. With TJ Watt you were drafting toward the end of the first and missed out on a guy due to scheme.

With Morris Claiborne you spent an extra 2md round pick to move up and miss drafting Luke Kuechly, Bruce Irvin, Fletcher Cox, Michael Brockers, Stephen Gilmore, Melvin Ingram…

Traded a premium pick to dodge those players.

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Jj Artega Whiteside over Metcalf is one of the worst in history.

conner01 said:

There is a long list with every team
If only teams had a crystal ball
Tom Brady would have been a first round pick

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The thing is if he is drafted by the Jets.....is he a JAG? Crazy thing about this sport is so many things have to match up....If Peyton Manning and BB are hitched for 15 years in NE...is it still only 7 SB's?

Walker said:

We had a chance at Tom Brady in the 5th/6th round.

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That is what I was thinking. 31 teams passed on Tom at least 4/5 times. Some even more.

EVERY team has their "we passed on a great player for someone who ended up being pretty bad" moments in the draft.

The draft is hardly a science, so expecting 100% hit rate is just going to piss you off due to unrealistic expectations.

I guarantee for every fan's "pet prospect" that lives up to their expectations, they have 1 or more other "pet prospects" that have not become what they believed they could be. But why don't we remember our own failures? It is likely due to them going to another team, never making an impact, and thus falling out of the spotlight and is forgotten about.

I remember really liking Andrew Whitworth and he is arguably one of the most underrated players in the NFL in the past two decades. Yet I doubt anyone would argue against him being better than Bobby Carpenter and Anthony Fasano combined (the two players the Cowboys picked instead of Whitworth) .

I also remember liking Amobi Okoye and was upset that the Texans took him at 10, and we were "stuck with" Anthony Spencer (a player I really, really, really did not like) at 26. And even though Anthony Spencer was pretty much what I thought he was (he really earned that "Almost" nickname), he ended up CLEARLY being a better NFL player than Amobi.

So ya, I know I have missed, but at the same time some of the players I really liked became All-Pros. Shocking, right?

Yet I have no doubt, based off my own track record, I would be one of those "Terrible GMs" fans complain about all the time.

CATCH17 said:

The worst is TJ Watt.

Id give up 3 Keenan Allen’s for 1 pass rusher like that.

That decision was a monumental disaster. We passed on a likely HOF player for a better scheme fit in Taco Charlton.

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No doubt. And no legit excuse either.

Plus, the deeper you get into the draft, the higher chance of misses (as fewer players make it big).

I mean, almost the whole league can look at Brady and say they missed....5-6 times in one draft on that HOFer.

But when you miss in the first round so badly, it's far less forgivable.

Aerolithe_Lion said:

Morris Claiborne is definitely worse. With TJ Watt you were drafting toward the end of the first and missed out on a guy due to scheme.

With Morris Claiborne you spent an extra 2md round pick to move up and miss drafting Luke Kuechly, Bruce Irvin, Fletcher Cox, Michael Brockers, Stephen Gilmore, Melvin Ingram…

Traded a premium pick to dodge those players.

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Jerry was asked who they would have taken if they didn't trade the second round pick.

Answer: Bobby Wagner. Ouch.

Brockers would have been the first rounder.

Having those two clog up that soft middle would have been a difference maker.

But....Rob Ryan wanted corners. They trade for Claiborne and sign Carr for huge money.....then after one season they get rid of Ryan for a Tampa 2 scheme that doesn't rely on CB play as much.

No plan, no direction. All reaction to whatever the obvious was the previous season.

That's exactly how you waste decades.

Jerry's idea of organizational direction is listening to whichever assistant is impressing him with football lingo at the moment.

CowboyFrog said:

The thing is if he is drafted by the Jets.....is he a JAG? Crazy thing about this sport is so many things have to match up....If Peyton Manning and BB are hitched for 15 years in NE...is it still only 7 SB's?

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Or is it 2 SBs (or zero, or 5) instead of 7?

We'll never know

DFWJC said:

No doubt. And no legit excuse either.

Plus, the deeper you get into the draft, the higher chance of misses (as fewer players make it big).

I mean, almost the whole league can look at Brady and say they missed....5-6 times in one draft on that HOFer.

But when you miss in the first round so badly, it's far less forgivable.

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I took the wait and see approach with Charlton and Watt.

I totally get why they took Charlton but a lot on this board knew immediately it was moronic.

Unfortunately the decision makers in Dallas didn’t see it that way and now we get to watch Watt dominate for Pitt at a position we need.

CATCH17 said:

The worst is TJ Watt.

Id give up 3 Keenan Allen’s for 1 pass rusher like that.

That decision was a monumental disaster. We passed on a likely HOF player for a better scheme fit in Taco Charlton.

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Ya that just infuriates me then I stop and think to myself the coaching staff we have had would probably figure out a way to screw up Watt:

DFWJC said:

Or is it 2 SBs (or zero, or 5) instead of 7?

We'll never know

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Right....some of the busts may have been TB12 in diferent situations for sure...Some greats would have been just good on others.

Every team can do this years after every draft.

That Tom Brady guy made us all look foolish. It is far from an exact science.

darthseinfeld said:

Looks bad in hindsight, but Williams was a good prospect and a better fit with Bryant.

However Allen went a round late based on most projections, so he would have been the value pick

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My guess is the only reason they took Williams over Allen was Williams went to Baylor.

CATCH17 said:

I took the wait and see approach with Charlton and Watt.

I totally get why they took Charlton but a lot on this board knew immediately it was moronic.

Unfortunately the decision makers in Dallas didn’t see it that way and now we get to watch Watt dominate for Pitt at a position we need.

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There are plenty of misses on the CowboysZone on draft day, but there are a couple that stand out to me recently where the majority here were on it.

1) We mostly wanted Watt over Taco
2) We mostly wanted Juan Thornhill (or others) over Tristen Hill in 2019. Some even wanted DK Metcalf--which would've been insane--but Thornhill (or some liked Rapp) seemed obvious at the time.

CowboyFrog said:

The thing is if he is drafted by the Jets.....is he a JAG? Crazy thing about this sport is so many things have to match up....If Peyton Manning and BB are hitched for 15 years in NE...is it still only 7 SB's?

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That’s a great point
I grew up in Houston
I thought David Carr would have been a really good QB. Had Carr went to a team that protected him and built around him he may have reached his potential
Where you go, what system you are in and so many other things effect how a player works out

CATCH17 said:

My guess is the only reason they took Williams over Allen was Williams went to Baylor.

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For a 3rd rounder, T Will ended up having a respectable career.
But Allen was just a massive 3rd round steal for the Chargers, worthy of an upper 1st round pick

CATCH17 said:

My guess is the only reason they took Williams over Allen was Williams went to Baylor.

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Could be. He didn't count towarda our visits right

Aerolithe_Lion said:

Morris Claiborne is definitely worse. With TJ Watt you were drafting toward the end of the first and missed out on a guy due to scheme.

With Morris Claiborne you spent an extra 2md round pick to move up and miss drafting Luke Kuechly, Bruce Irvin, Fletcher Cox, Michael Brockers, Stephen Gilmore, Melvin Ingram…

Traded a premium pick to dodge those players.

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in fairness tho...
at the time EVERYBODY was high on mo'.
Lsu cb factory...lotta "could be the next pat pete" talk.
really don't blame them.
i loved that pick at the time.
helluva player at Lsu.
but EVERYONE missed on claiborne.

i was wrong on taco.
liked him at michigan.
loved that pick at the time...he was one of my favorite players in that draft.
ideal size.
always stood out to me in the michigan games i saw.
what we got was a different player than who i watched at michigan.
somebody or something cut in on taco.
i blew that one.

in that taco draft...2 picks i didn't like or understand at the time were those 2 dt's i had never heard of...carrell from colorado and ivie from the gators.
never heard of them.
didn't remember them at all from college.
both flamed out.

i did like the fsu cb marquez white..
if memory serves.
not very tall but had a physical style at fsu in run defense i liked.
he did nothing here.

what a weird draft class.
cb jourdan lewis and wr noah brown are all thats left...i think.