Biggest Mistake in Dallas Cowboys History Sent Packing

[Jon88]

We should have gotten Moss....SB...who knows. Greg Ellis sure was a disaster.

We should have.

DE vs Explosve WR - - - What the hell

****ing Mother****ier!

 

[Sarge]

Snooze alert.

 

[OAM]

Geez, imagine if we did have Moss on the team then? Poor Everett McIver would never get to sit in the barber chair. He'd have a telephone cut on both sides of his face. Charles Haley would have that teammate he always wished to have sword fights with.

 

[jswalker1981]

Umm, am I the only one that remembers that Houston/Tennessee drafted Kevin Dyson, wide receiver, OVER RANDY MOSS???? I get sick of this, "How could they have passed over Randy Moss?" crap. He had multiple run-ins with the law, and we were a team that had one of those every week. We didn't need more. It's like if Pacman was in this year's draft, would you guys be ok with drafting him? At that time, Randy Moss was a huge threat to do something dumb and get arrested. Get more upset over passing on Tom Brady, at least then we needed a QB.

 

[Hostile]

Umm, am I the only one that remembers that Houston/Tennessee drafted Kevin Dyson, wide receiver, OVER RANDY MOSS???? I get sick of this, "How could they have passed over Randy Moss?" crap. He had multiple run-ins with the law, and we were a team that had one of those every week. We didn't need more. It's like if Pacman was in this year's draft, would you guys be ok with drafting him? At that time, Randy Moss was a huge threat to do something dumb and get arrested. Get more upset over passing on Tom Brady, at least then we needed a QB.

The main thing I remember about passing on Randy Moss was the egg on my face. I had 9 guys over for a Draft party and I boldly predicted Moss. At the time his cousin was living here in Tucson and he told me how badly Randy wanted to play in Dallas. Every report had us taking him. I was talking the stuff. I mean I was talking serious trash about how they were going to have to deal with our passing attack.

When Tags walked up to the podium I was on my feet demanding silence. I had my arms in the air doing a double fist pump. When he said, "with the 8th pick of the 1998 NFL Draft, the Cowboys select...Greg Elis, Defensive End, North Carolina," I was numb to everything but the laughing and screaming behind me.

One of my friends loves to call me every time Moss scores on us and say those words. They haunt me.

Good point about Dyson, but the main thing that reminds me of was Moss was ours. I was convinced of it at that point.

 

[TellerMorrow34]

As for Greg being the biggest mistake...ummmm no. Not even close to be correct. i can think of several draft selections that were WAY worse than Greg.


Carpenter, QC, Goodrich, LaFluer (sp?), to name just a few.

 

[Hostile]

As for Greg being the biggest mistake...ummmm no. Not even close to be correct. i can think of several draft selections that were WAY worse than Greg.


Carpenter, QC, Goodrich, LaFluer (sp?), to name just a few.

Rod Hill in 1982.

 

[jobberone]

I should have bought microsoft stock in the late 80's:bang2:

Yeah. Brokers' talked my out of Yahoo and Genentech stock. I'd be a retired multimillionaire now.

It is revisionist history. But I'd like to have seen what Moss could have done with Irvin, Smith and Aikman. Of course Irvin and Moss would have likely fought with each other. Don't know that. Just SWAGing.

 

[5mics]

By Ryan J Lawrence

http://www.associatedcontent.com/ar...mistake_in_dallas_cowboys_history.html?cat=14

Dallas Cuts a Player They Should Have Never Chosen

Cowboys owner/general manager Jerry Jones has made his share of colossal blunders in his efforts at talent acquisition over the years. From the head-scratching selection of Georgia quarterback Quincy Carter in the 2001 NFL Draft - a selection that confused many NFL scouts who had the player pegged as a fourth or fifth round pick - to more recently, his signing of problem-child cornerback Adam "Pacman" Jones, the Cowboys' head boss has looked the fool more than once. However, his biggest player personnel mistake tops those two examples by leaps and bounds, and it may very well be the worst error in Dallas Cowboys history. Thankfully, that particular blunder made its way out of Valley Ranch on Tuesday. However, for many, the bad feelings still linger.

In 1998, the Dallas Cowboys were coming off of a disappointing 6-10 season, but there was reason for optimism. After all, the team had won the Super Bowl only two years prior, when they amassed one of the most statistically impressive seasons in the history of the Dallas Cowboys organization. And, the team still had future hall of famers, quarterback, Troy Aikman, wide receiver, Michael Irvin and running back, Emmitt Smith. With the addition of a new head coach and a high first-round draft pick, the Cowboys were poised for a rebound and a run at another title. Adding to the equation was the potential that the team might be lucky enough to see the star receiver from Marshall University fall into their proverbial lap at pick eight of the NFL Draft.

That receiver was future Pro-Bowler Randy Moss who at the time held a less than stellar reputation for poor character. An assortment of off-field incidents did, in fact, lead to the receiver being passed over by the first seven teams in the 1998 draft. Many NFL analysts had foreseen this and had predicted the Cowboys to select Moss and add him to an offense that would have potentially featured four hall of fame skilled position players. However, when it came time for Jerry Jones to pull the trigger on Moss, he opted instead to go with a defensive end from North Carolina named Greg Ellis.

The rest is history. Randy Moss has gone on to catch 843 passes for 13,201 yards and 135 touchdowns, while eleven years later, Dallas has yet to win another playoff game. Greg Ellis, whom the Cowboys chose instead of Moss, was cut on Tuesday, June 3. Though, Ellis did have a somewhat solid - if unspectacular - career at Dallas, he did little to alleviate the bad feelings over Jones' decision to pass on Moss.

Cowboys fans are still haunted by a dream of opposing defenses trying to figure out ways to stop an offense featuring Aikman, Smith, Irvin and Moss. A dream that never came because of the biggest mistake in Dallas Cowboys History.

Contributing sources:

http://www.nfl.com/players/randymoss/profile?id=MOS699912

yawn...zzzzzzzzz:hammock:

 

[big dog cowboy]

:horse:

 

[Clove]

NO matter how we look at it, passing on Moss cost us (in my opinion) at least 2 Super Bowls.

We had guys in place to do things with Moss, and Jerry became religious all of a sudden, to then turn around and draft some of the same guys (thugs) later on in his great GM career.

Biggest mistake in Cowboys History IMO.

 

[YosemiteSam]

I should have bought microsoft stock in the late 80's:bang2:

I should have bought 500,000 shares of Cisco stock in March 1992 at .08 cents a share and sold it in March 2000 at $77.33 a share.

 

[Thomas82]

The main thing I remember about passing on Randy Moss was the egg on my face. I had 9 guys over for a Draft party and I boldly predicted Moss. At the time his cousin was living here in Tucson and he told me how badly Randy wanted to play in Dallas. Every report had us taking him. I was talking the stuff. I mean I was talking serious trash about how they were going to have to deal with our passing attack.

When Tags walked up to the podium I was on my feet demanding silence. I had my arms in the air doing a double fist pump. When he said, "with the 8th pick of the 1998 NFL Draft, the Cowboys select...Greg Elis, Defensive End, North Carolina," I was numb to everything but the laughing and screaming behind me.

One of my friends loves to call me every time Moss scores on us and say those words. They haunt me.

Good point about Dyson, but the main thing that reminds me of was Moss was ours. I was convinced of it at that point.

I had those same sick feelings myself after seeing that. Then we get our noses rubbed in it every time Randy Moss plays the Cowboys. He has never lost to us in his 11-year career.

 

[vta]

It's not really hindsight or revisionist if people were saying it at the time, which they were. It was a big surprise to many, regardless of what other teams did. Other teams failures are not measured against your choices, so trying legitimize a bad decision on their choice is disingenuous. It was bad move, done for the wrong reasons: Jones' fear of being maligned over another head case/criminal-type, which itself evolved into a phony community service/halfway house mentality which saw the likes of Alonso Spellman and other works in progress brought in, to no real benefit.

If this writer at the time lauded it as a good move, then he'd be guilty of revisionist history,if not, it's simply a rant. Like it or not, it's now part of Cowboy history and the blemishes will be remembered just as much as the beauty marks.

 

[Wayfaring Stranger]

I wonder if anyone ever stopped to think about how the situation in Dallas probably would have been the worst place for a guy like Moss, who already had some drug things on his resume (Pot smoking was all I believe). Going to Minny, and being mentored by Carter, I think was the best thing for him to be the reciever he's been because it no doubt helped to keep Moss out of more off the field trouble than he did get into.

You bring him to Dallas, to be around Irvin off the field, and Moss probably wouldn't have lasted 3 or 4 years in the league before stupid off the field things got him in serious trouble.

That's exactly right. Many people forget that it was because of Irvin's behavior off the field at the time that it made it untenable (from a public relations standpoint) at the time to take Moss. Instead the Cowboys over compensated in the opposite direction and took a "Character" pick in Greg Ellis. Who knows how it would have turned out, but this is the main reason they passed on Moss. If you wanted Moss than Michael Irvin is probably more to blame than Jerry Jones.

 

[Motley Blue]

I don't think taking Moss over Ellis was the "biggest" mistake in Cowboys history (I'd vote for the Jerry-Jimmy divorce as the biggest mistake), but I still think it WAS a mistake nonetheless.

I am not being a revisionist either. Like one of the earlier posters in this thread, I, too, was disappointed on draft day in 1998 when I heard Greg Ellis' name.

Don't get me wrong, I liked the player Ellis turned out to be. He wasn't great, but he was solid and consistent ... but he wasn't the big-time impact player the Cowboys needed.

I think the Cowboys (despite being on the decline) still had a window of opportunity to complete for a Super Bowl title in 1998 and 1999 had they drafted Moss. The Triplets were still decent enough players (Emmitt compiled 1,300-plus-yard seasons in '98 and '99, with 13 and 11 rushing touchdowns, respectively), and the defense was third and fifth in points allowed per game in those seasons.

Heck, as I wrote on another site, it would have been worth having Moss just not to have to play against him.

Here's what he did to the Cowboys:
* 1998: Moss catches 3 passes for 163 yards and 3 touchdowns in Vikings' 46-36 win
* 1999: Moss catches 6 passes for 91 yards and 2 touchdowns in Vikings' 27-17 win
* 1999 NFC Wild Card game: Moss catches 5 passes for 127 yards and a touchdown in a 27-10 Vikings win
* 2000: Moss catches 7 passes for 144 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 27-15 Vikings win
* 2004: Moss catches 4 passes for 27 yards and 2 touchdowns in a 35-17 Viking win
* 2005: Moss catches 4 passes for 123 yards (no touchdowns) in a 19-13 Raiders win
* 2007: Moss catches 6 passes for 59 yards and a touchdown in the Patriots' 48-27 win

Moss' teams are 7-0 against the Cowboys. In those games, Moss has 35 catches for 734 yards (nearly 21 yards per catch) and 11 touchdowns.

 

[Motley Blue]

That's exactly right. Many people forget that it was because of Irvin's behavior off the field at the time that it made it untenable (from a public relations standpoint) at the time to take Moss. Instead the Cowboys over compensated in the opposite direction and took a "Character" pick in Greg Ellis. Who knows how it would have turned out, but this is the main reason they passed on Moss. If you wanted Moss than Michael Irvin is probably more to blame than Jerry Jones.

You are correct. Irvin even said it himself:

Jones had a watershed moment in the 1998 draft: Either gamble on Randy Moss, a character risk, or stick with a solid player such as Greg Ellis. When Jones took Ellis, Irvin took the blame. “Us not drafting Randy Moss is my fault,” Irvin said then, “not Jerry's.”

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sports/columnists/Jones_cycles_off_trouble__for_now.html

 

[DLCassidy]

:horse:

Every year this Moss thing comes up like clockwork.

 

[silver]

I'm still POed we passed on Moss. Like Hostile I was dead sure we were going to take him. I don't think I've followed the draft with such a passion after that one. Jerry killed the drafnick in me.

 

[Hostile]

I'm still POed we passed on Moss. Like Hostile I was dead sure we were going to take him. I don't think I've followed the draft with such a passion after that one. Jerry killed the drafnick in me.

I honestly don't think I've been as excited and then let down as that one.