A little draft " revision "

[Randy White]

It's been well documented how terrible the 2000 and 2001 draft were to the Dallas Cowboys, largely blamed on the trade for Joey Galloway, terrible picks by the franchise, and, to a lesser degree, trading for James McKnight.

Well, I went back to those drafts to see, out of curiousity, what could the Cowboys have done to make them successful drafts. I've given them back both #1 draft choices they spent on Galloway and the 3rd round pick they gave up for McKnight ( I think they gave up a 5th as well, but I think it was in '99 ). I've excluded the players that had a semi-short career in the league ( about 5 seasons or so ) and were mostly average, positions who weren't going to be likely drafted ( RB mostly ), and players in the first round that they didn't had a shot at because they were taken ahead of their pick.

The results really surprised me. While the Cowboys certainly failed in drafting quality talent, including a future HOF ( #199 -Tom Brady - '00 ) it would have taken nearly a miracle for them to find players that would have made a significant difference in those years.

I'm going to start with the '00 draft. The Cowboys had the 19th pick of the draft. With that pick, Seattle chose RB Shaun Alexander. That's a choice the Cowboys would NOT have made had they kept the pick, so I didn't count him, but I started from that point. Here are the names and #slots of the players the Cowboys could have drafted with 100% hinsight of how their careers would have turned out:

2000

30 - Keith Bulluck
39 - Mike Brown
57 - Deon Grant
149 - Kabeer Gbaja-Biamila
186 - Adalius Thomas
199 - Tom Brady

That's it right there. Every other player taken in that draft ( after the 19th pick ) didn't last long, never made a significant impact, or never made it at all.

Now, the 2001 draft is a little different. Not having a 1st round pick and not utilizing the 2nd round pick properly ( Quincy Carter - Tony Dixon ) was simply devastating. The 2001 draft was loaded with players in the first round and part of the 2nd round who made a difference and had the Cowboys kept the 9th pick ( coincidently, the player Mike Holmgren drafted with that pick was a 100% complete BUST: WR - Koren Robinson ) and made a better decision in the 2nd round, they probably would have hit on at least one of them. Still, AFTER the Quincy Carter - Tony Dixon debacle, this are the quality talented players they could of had, again, with 100% hinsight:

97 - Anthony Henry
110 - Carlos Polk
204 - T.J. Houshmandzadeh

Again, everybody else didn't last long, was a RB, didn't make a significant impact, or never made it at all.

 

[VThokie7]

Adrian Wilson over Tony Dixon?

That right there could've certainly made 2001 better.

 

[Randy White]

Adrian Wilson over Tony Dixon?

That right there could've certainly made 2001 better.

Certainly.. There were plenty of players who were better than Dixon, and Carter for that matter, but I was going more for guy who played at least at a good level and for a longer than average period of time. Adrian Wilson is one of them for sure, I missed out on him, and maybe a couple of more here and there, but what really took me by surprise was the weakness of both drafts, particularly the '00 draft. That '00 draft was basically horrible in terms of long term players.

Let me put it this way, knowing what I know today, if I had been offered Joey Galloway for the 19th pick of the '00 draft ( and only that pick ) I would have taken it in a nano-second and I was a Bullock fan since his days at Syracuse.

The '01 draft, once you get passed the 1st rnd and part of the 2nd rnd is just as bad.