News: BTB: Cowboys draft rewind: Whatever happened to Bo Scarbrough?

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Scarbrough was the Cowboys’ “Mr. Irrelevant” in 2018.

April is one rambunctious time of the year for the NFL. Free agency – though it’s usually dwindled down in terms of hot topic temperature as most of the market’s bigger names have already found homes – remains a central focus as NFL teams strive to round out their rosters.

Front-office management and team officials are furiously sharpening their coaching staffs as they construct a mental dream team of behind-the-scenes beings to lead the on-field regime. And draft talk continues to dominate most headlines, while budding NFL talent makes preparations for the ultimate life-changing moment: hearing their name called at the commissioner’s podium on draft night.

As the long-awaited occasion looms and hypothetical speculation boils over, the football world can’t help but to fill some of the future’s uncertainty with memories of drafts from years past.

Dallas is chock-full of unforgettable happenings through recent selection periods.

Who could forget CeeDee Lamb’s impromptu display of immaculate reaction time after his girlfriend picked up his phone last year? Or what about a significant portion of Cowboys Nation’s furious coveting of Johnny Manziel as the franchise soaked in infamy desperately searched for ways to ascend over the hump?

And the Ezekiel Elliott draft suit is forever (unfortunately for some) emblazoned into the minds of those who saw it on his christening day.

But while these occurrences gave us ample material to reminisce about through dozens of lifetimes, other Cowboys draft memories have faded into irrelevant nothingness as time has wore on. The amount of entries in this category is far greater than the aforementioned one. One such that falls into it: Bo Scarbrough.

Does the name ring a bell?

If you’ve watched college football throughout the past few years, or know a thing or two about Alabama’s dynastic storm-raid through its contesting opponent’s field, then you’ve heard it.

At one point, #9 of the Crimson Tide was drawing comparisons to fellow Alabamian Derrick Henry – and for good reason.

The 6’1, 235 lb behemoth of a man absolutely bulldozed through would-be tacklers en route to 1,512 career yards and 20 total TDs through three seasons, as he split time in a loaded backfield.

His statistical output wasn’t eye-popping by any means. But his film tape? By golly.


And despite finishing third on the squad behind Damien Harris and Josh Jacobs in yards, Scarbrough made a sizable enough impression on scouts to enter his name into the 2018 draft. Which landed him smack dab in perhaps the largest of all football cities market-wise: the Big D – Dallas – after the ‘Boys selected him 236th overall in that year’s seventh round.

But the union was short-lived to say the least.

Scarbrough made it through a good portion of the team’s training camp gauntlet grind, but was cut on Sep. 1 after Dallas decided it was going to stick with a two-running back entrée. Dallas re-signed him on Sep. 3, but parted ways with him again just a month later on Oct. 9.

Thus started a long and winding trail of brief stints with a litany of franchises, including Jacksonville, Detroit, and Seattle (twice) before he was eventually relegated to free agent dormancy. He finally saw game action in 2019, amassing 377 yards and a lone score on 89 attempts, but has since seen his NFL production slowly chug to a halt.

He’s dealt with various lower body injuries, and a halfback’s shelf life is about as long as milk’s is in the fridge when we’re talking prolonged positional careers. But you can’t coach strength. You can’t coach size and toughness. You can’t coach youth.

And at 24-years-old, Scarbrough has all three of those assets on his side. Let’s see if a team thinks highly enough of him to bet on those qualities moving forward.

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