News: ESPN: Cowboys small-school picks have hit lull lately

[NewsBot]

The current iteration of the Cowboys has one of the best small-school finds in Tony Romo. He won the Walter Payton Award at Eastern Illinois in 2002 but went undrafted. He signed with the Cowboys, did not throw a pass until his fourth season and is now one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL. Brandon Carr played at Grand Valley State, was a fifth-round pick in 2008 and is about to enter the final year of a $50 million contract.

But the small-school success that has worked so well for the Cowboys in their history has not been kind of late.

Since 2007, the best of the small-school lot has been defensive lineman Sean Lissemore, a seventh-rounder from William & Mary in 2010, and he has not been a Cowboy since a trade to the San Diego Chargers in 2012.

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[WoodysGirl]

I don't follow the draft like I once did, but I think the draft philosophy has changed some, which has impacted the success of the search for small school finds.

I tend to think the Cowboys want players from big programs who have played on big scale. It doesn't seem they're digging as deep for the raw, athletic guy from small school U.S.A.

We're guaranteed to get one headscratcher per draft, but that might be it.

 

[erod]

It's the Curse of Akwasi Owusa Ansah.

But seriously, I like the approach of grabbing small school guys late in the draft.

 

[DogFace]

I don't I'd rather stay with the large school guys. I feel they are a better gamble.

 

[Teague31]

Small school DB's in particular have not worked out. At all.

AOA
Webb
Wilcox
Johnson

 

[NoLuv4Jerry]

Lest we forget the uber fast athletic LBer from the "special teams draft" we took in the 2nd round

 

[Carson]

Lest we forget the uber fast athletic LBer from the "special teams draft" we took in the 2nd round

Jason Williams. Barf.

Followed by Robert Brewster from The ball state university

 

[Idgit]

I don't think it makes a difference. There are good players in the back of the draft from both small schools and large ones. We just need to take better players in those positions.

Now, if we're getting carried away with the idea of finding hidden gems and taking guys we otherwise haven't researched well enough, that's one thing. It would be interesting to know what our later round boards have looked like in recent years. Did we have a number of guys identified who ended up successful and we just didn't draft them? (I'm thinking of guys like Thomas Rawls here). Or are we not identifying the right players?

There's a difference between the quality of a draft and the quality of the work that went into putting together the draft board. It'd be cool to know what kind of a job they'd really done here recently in deciding who were the best candidates in each round.

 

[lostar2009]

Well the Cowboys got who they drafted with those small school kids.

AOA- monster games against smaller schools. Pad his stats against a couple of bad qbs.

Matt Johnson- Was injured in school and injured in the pros. Although I did see extreme potential during the preseason when he was healthy.

Jason Williams- Ultra athletic but the pros was too big for him. Couldn't see the field well and made poor decisions. This guy was a raw project and JJ knew that. Leave these small school projects alone!!!!

David Arkin- Good film but just didn't have enough strength for the pros. They knew this guy lack strength when they drafted him.

JJ Wilcox- He is what he is. A want to be head hunter. Instead of going after head shots all the time WRAP UP !!! I bet his and Church solo tackles would INCREASE by at least by 20 if they follow that logic.

 

[Carson]

I don't think it makes a difference. There are good players in the back of the draft from both small schools and large ones. We just need to take better players in those positions.

Now, if we're getting carried away with the idea of finding hidden gems and taking guys we otherwise haven't researched well enough, that's one thing. It would be interesting to know what our later round boards have looked like in recent years. Did we have a number of guys identified who ended up successful and we just didn't draft them? (I'm thinking of guys like Thomas Rawls here). Or are we not identifying the right players?

There's a difference between the quality of a draft and the quality of the work that went into putting together the draft board. It'd be cool to know what kind of a job they'd really done here recently in deciding who were the best candidates in each round.

Good post. We spend too much time as well taking often injured guys or trying to switch positions.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

Small school DB's in particular have not worked out. At all.

AOA
Webb
Wilcox
Johnson

you can add Jenkins, Claiborne, Carr, Church and every other DB regardless of school, except Scandrick.

 

[Idgit]

you can add Jenkins, Claiborne, Carr, Church and every other DB regardless of school, except Scandrick.

Jenkins, Carr, Claiborne, Church...those guys all ended up being mutli-year vets who signed at least two NFL contracts in their time in the league. Not exactly misses, even if some of them (Claiborne, especially) haven't met expectations.

 

[visionary]

I don't think it makes a difference. There are good players in the back of the draft from both small schools and large ones. We just need to take better players in those positions.

Now, if we're getting carried away with the idea of finding hidden gems and taking guys we otherwise haven't researched well enough, that's one thing. It would be interesting to know what our later round boards have looked like in recent years. Did we have a number of guys identified who ended up successful and we just didn't draft them? (I'm thinking of guys like Thomas Rawls here). Or are we not identifying the right players?

There's a difference between the quality of a draft and the quality of the work that went into putting together the draft board. It'd be cool to know what kind of a job they'd really done here recently in deciding who were the best candidates in each round.

The good news is that the people who made those terrible decisions for the last 2 decades are all gone..............

 

[HeavyBarrel]

Stop taking small school Safeties.