Am I The Only One Always Frustrated With Our Drafts?

[philo beddoe]

It seems to happen every single year, we make a mess out of the draft. With JJ running the show again, I'm really scared of what we'll do. We always seem to try & get "cute" in some way, which usually backfires. We also seem to lose focus in the later rounds. Will this year be different? Can we actually have a great draft from start to finish? Please, no Quincy Carter type reaches! We often seem to do better with UFAs than we do with our draft picks.

 

[Hoofbite]

Am I The Only One Always Frustrated With Our Drafts?

Are you the only Ricky Ray fan in the US?

 

[philo beddoe]

Are you the only Ricky Ray fan in the US?

Heavens no. Look for Ricky Ray on CSN-Comcast Sports TV (or other networks-check your local listings for CFL games) here in the states this summer & fall, so you can see his talent for yourself.

 

[KingintheNorth]

The last few drafts have not been as bad as past ones. I do think that Jerry Jones excuses everyone from the War Room just before the 2nd round. Then I'm pretty sure he snorts a bunch of coke, downs a bottle of Jack, and calls in the draft picks. You think I am joking?

1999 - Solomon Page T West Virginia
2000 - Dwayne Goodrich CB Tennessee
2001 - Quincy Carter QB Georgia
Tony Dixon S Alabama
2002 - Antonio Bryant WR Pitt
2003 - Al Johnson C Wisconsin
2004 - Jacob Rogers T USC
2005 - Kevin Burnett LB Tennessee (yet to establish himself)
2006 - Anthony Fasano TE Notre Dame ( I like him just thought we could
have addressed other needs here)

Flozell Adams, Andre Gurode and Julius Jones were also 2nd round picks. They are the only starters we have selected in the 2nd round.

1st round picks make or break your teams but if you look at the teams that have consistant success, they always nail their 2nd round picks as well.

 

[philo beddoe]

The last few drafts have not been as bad as past ones. I do think that Jerry Jones excuses everyone from the War Room just before the 2nd round. Then I'm pretty sure he snorts a bunch of coke, downs a bottle of Jack, and calls in the draft picks. You think I am joking?

1999 - Solomon Page T West Virginia
2000 - Dwayne Goodrich CB Tennessee
2001 - Quincy Carter QB Georgia
Tony Dixon S Alabama
2002 - Antonio Bryant WR Pitt
2003 - Al Johnson C Wisconsin
2004 - Jacob Rogers T USC
2005 - Kevin Burnett LB Tennessee (yet to establish himself)
2006 - Anthony Fasano TE Notre Dame ( I like him just thought we could
have addressed other needs here)

Flozell Adams, Andre Gurode and Julius Jones were also 2nd round picks. They are the only starters we have selected in the 2nd round.

1st round picks make or break your teams but if you look at the teams that have consistant success, they always nail their 2nd round picks as well.

There have been MANY highly questionable picks since 1994 or so. Every single year. Wasted picks, reaches, bad trades where we lose quality players. Sickening. I wish we'd play it smart & straight for a change.

 

[philo beddoe]

I'm trying to be positive about this year's draft. Trying.

 

[BLT]

wasnt antonio bryant a 3rd round pick? im almost positive gurode was our early 2nd that year.

 

[Hostile]

wasnt antonio bryant a 3rd round pick? im almost positive gurode was our early 2nd that year.

We had two 2nds.

 

[Chuck 54]

every single year, we make a mess out of the draft. With JJ running the show again, I'm really scared of what we'll do. .

If it is your contention that we mess up every year, including the 4 that BP ran the show, then what difference does it make that JJ runs the show this year?

 

[bbgun]

In March of 1994, personnel guru Jimmy Johnson was fired. The End.

 

[big dog cowboy]

In March of 1994, personnel guru Jimmy Johnson was fired. The End.

Actually he quit.

 

[TheProphet]

JJ proves just how incompetent he is in trying to be a GM on draft day. Nuff said.

 

[DallasEast]

We often seem to do better with UFAs than we do with our draft picks.

At first, I thought that you were extending a vote of confidence in Romo, but then I realized that you left the 'D' out of 'UFA'.

 

[AsthmaField]

I swear I thought Antonio Bryant was a third round pick.

Anyway, the drafts for the last few years haven't been bad at all. If you think all teams don't have misses, then you're mistaken. Just look at the draft history of any team and you'll see misses from the first to the seventh round.

Just pick a draft and look at it. Pick the 1990 draft for instance. We got Emmitt Smith, undoubtably a good pick at #17. Look at all the misses in the first round:

* = Bust
$ = Star player
@ = average/solid player

1. Jeff George*
2. Blair Thomas*
3. Cortez Kennedy $
4. Keith McCants*
5. Junior Seau $
6. Mark Carrier @
7. Andre Ware*
8. Chris Singleton *
9. Richmond Webb $
10. Ray Agnew*
11. Anthony Smith*
12. James Francis @
13. Percy Snow*
14. Renaldo Turnbull @
15. Lamar Lathon @
16. J. D. Williams @
17. Emmitt Smith $
18. Tony Bennett @
19. Darrell Thompson*
20. Steve Broussard *
21. Eric Green @
22. Ben Smith *
23. Bern Brostek @
24. Rodney Hampton @
25. Dexter Carter *

You get the idea. That's 12 busts out of 25 picks. Very nearly 50% of the players picked in round 1 of the 1990 draft were busts. Nine of them were merely average players, and didn't do much to distinguish themselves in their careers. That means that out of the first 25 picks in 1990... 21 of them were nothing special with over half of that 21 being downright bad.

That's what we're talking about when discussing the NFL draft. It's a crapshoot. It isn't very often that you really hit, even in round 1... much less when you're talking about later rounds.

I swear, I think some people think a draft is bad if you don't hit on every pick you make. Nobody does that. Heck, a team is damn lucky if half of their picks end up making the final roster.

You want to see a good draft? Look at Dallas' draft in 2005:

1a Ware
1b Spears
2Burnett
4Barber III
4Canty
6Beriault
6Petitti
7Ratliff

Ware is already a pro bowler.
Spears was a Rookie starter.
Burnett is a nickle backer who should get more playing time this year.
Barber led the NFC in touchdown as a second year player.
Canty was a Rookie starter.
Beriault had his knee betray him. Had promise.
Petitti is on another NFL team.
Ratliff is a valuable rotation DL and is only getting better.

That is a good draft anyway you slice it, IMO.

And as for your "draft guru" hero, Jimmy Johnson... back to that 1990 draft. Jimmy tried like heck to trade up to draft both Ray Agnew (*) and James Francis (@). He wanted a bust (Agnew) and an average player (Francis) instead of Emmitt Smith. Only after his trade proposals were turned down by two different teams did he settle for Emmitt Smith. In all his draft guru wisdom, Johnson had traded for Terrence Flagler at RB that year and he wanted defensive help instead of a RB. Once Emmitt slid on down and he couldn't trade for the defenders he wanted, Jimmy went ahead a picked Smith. Something Green Bay would've done with the next pick had we not traded up with Pittsburgh from 21 to 17. Had Jimmy been successful in trading for Ray Agnew, you'd probably think the Green Bay GM was a draft guru and not Jimmy.

Johnson walked into Dallas and already had Michael Irvin sitting there and had the first pick in the draft in that year. Anyone would've picked Troy Aikman with that pick... you didn't have to be a guru to do that. Then, he lucked into Emmitt like I mentioned above. There are the triplets that drove our 3 super bowl appearences. Jimmy can't really take credit for any of them except Emmitt, and he's damn lucky that nobody traded with him.

Then because of the H. Walker trade that Jerry Jones made, he had a buttload of picks for three years and frankly he missed on a lot of those picks.

IMO, Jimmy Johnson wasn't nearly the "draft guru" that many thought he was.

In the 1991 draft Jimmy traded up to the first overall pick and took Russell Maryland. While he wasn't a bad player... he was only solid and wasn't nearly worth trading up to the top spot for. Then with the other first rounder that we had, Jimmy took Alvin Harper who wasn't nearly as good a player as many thought. Anyone opposite Irvin playing in that offense would've been pretty damn good. Once Alvin left, his average ability was shown. That year (1991) Jimmy also drafted these guys:

3 James Richards OG
4 Curvin Richards RB
4 Bill Musgrave QB
4Tony Hill DE
4 Kevin Harris DE
5 Darrick Brownlow LB
6 Mike Sullivan OG
9 Damon Mays WR
10 Sean Love OG
11 Tony Boles RB

That's 10 pretty crappy to only average guys that Jimmy wanted. Everyone misses. Everyone.

He did get some good guys in 1991, but with that many picks, including the #1 overall and two additional #1 picks, who wouldn't? (He had a third first rounder that he took Kelvin Prichett with and traded him to Detroit.)

The following year in 1992 Johnson took Kevin Smith in round 1... a good pick. Then, with his second first rounder he took Robert Jones who was nothing great... just a solid LB.

In 1993 Jimmy took Kevin Williams as his first pick. It was the second round and Jimmy took a kick returner. Last year, people gave Bill Parcells and Jerry hell because they took a KR in the fourth round. Had Jerry drafted one in the second, all heck would break loose.

Everyone misses in the draft. Even your "draft guru" Jimmy Johnson. Heck, his drafts in Miami proved that.

 

[Thick 'N Hearty]

It seems to happen every single year, we make a mess out of the draft. With JJ running the show again, I'm really scared of what we'll do. We always seem to try & get "cute" in some way, which usually backfires. We also seem to lose focus in the later rounds. Will this year be different? Can we actually have a great draft from start to finish? Please, no Quincy Carter type reaches! We often seem to do better with UFAs than we do with our draft picks.

Yes. Yes you are.

 

[Zen]

Takes more then 3 guys to win, the team had depth and the best oline ever.....long live the big uglies.

 

[AsthmaField]

Takes more then 3 guys to win, the team had depth and the best oline ever.....long live the big uglies.

Yes, they did have a very good O line. And only two of them did Jimmy draft (Stepnoski and E. Williams). Tuinei, Nate Newton, and Gogan were already there when Jimmy went to Dallas. I'm not arguing that he isn't a good coach or that those guys weren't a great team... just saying that he got too much credit for putting the talent together through the draft. He got lucky in a lot of cases with the talent.

I think Jimmy was a good coach... and really a pretty good evaluator of talent, too... just not the great evaluator that many thought. Frankly, I think that he knew which defensive guys fit his scheme very well. Plus, he had spent the last 5 years coaching the U of Miami guys and had a very good idea of the talent coming into the draft because of his college days. He had info on a lot of those Miami players like Jimmy Jones, Darren Smith, Maryland, etc. They fit his Miami defense perfectly and so fit his identical Dallas scheme.

The depth was nice too, but a lot of that came from the H. Walker trade and having so many picks. Really, the main depth was on the defensive line where we had such a great rotation. The linebacker and secondary wasn't as deep and we didn't really rotate those guys.

On the offensive side, we didn't really rotate either. The O Line was always the same 5 guys. Same QB, RB and WR. Same TE.

The only place we really had GREAT depth was along the DL where we had Hennings, Casillas, Maryland, Lett, Jimmy Jones, Tolbert and Haley. Of those, Jimmy only drafted Maryland (first overall), Jones, Tolbert and Lett. Casillas was a trade (or was he plan B?). Hennings was drafted by Landry and Tex. Haley was brought to Dallas by trade. The only truly outstanding player along that line was Haley, IMO. It was the rotation of them all that made the D-Line so great. That and the offense that kept putting pressure on the other team and put the opposing offense in sure passing situations. Plus with Emmitt and that ground game... our defense was always fresh.

The linebackers were easy to find for that scheme. That's why we hardly ever spent high picks on LB's. Godfrey Miles, Dixon Edwards, Darren Smith, Robert Jones, Vinson Smith... those linebackers were good but not great.

Besides Dieon, the only truly great secondary player we had was Darren Woodson. I think Woodson was one of Jimmy's best draft picks ever. To get him in the second and move him to safety was brilliant.

Anyway, it was a very good team... but Troy, Michael and Emmitt made it special along with the O Line (three fifths of which Jimmy didn't draft).

 

[Royal Laegotti]

Actually he quit.

Yeah, I'm sure he woke up that morning and decided he didn't want to coach a dynasty anymore......He quit with a kick in the butt by Jethro.

 

[MONT17]

It seems to happen every single year, we make a mess out of the draft. With JJ running the show again, I'm really scared of what we'll do. We always seem to try & get "cute" in some way, which usually backfires. We also seem to lose focus in the later rounds. Will this year be different? Can we actually have a great draft from start to finish? Please, no Quincy Carter type reaches! We often seem to do better with UFAs than we do with our draft picks.

yeah no Quicy Carters and more Jacob Rogers and Skyler Green type players!

 

[Royal Laegotti]

yeah no Quicy Carters and more Jacob Rogers and Skyler Green type players!

If Dallas doesn't end up with those kind of players then that means someone else is running the draft besides Jethro, although I think Rogers and Skyler were BP picks, but you can pick any number of slugs to plug in from '94 to '02.