FWST: RICK HERRIN: LaFleur is proof draft is a gamble

[Aikbach]

LaFleur was a bust on accord of injury and not talent and ability when healthy.

He looked real good in some games, especially in 1999.

In retro-spect it was disappointing to see him hobbled and done before a complete team was in place to compete but drafting him should not be a regret, trading up for him may have been a little much but taking him at 25 would've been justified.

The pick the Eagles used in 1997, Jon Harris, was more of a train wreck than Shante Carver ever was.

Carver was an average end with great expectations, like Ekuban the standard was high and the results didnt match what was expected for a Dallas Cowboy especially when they had Charles Haley and Tony Tolbert and his rookie year Jim Jeffcoat on the roster.

 

[THUMPER]

If this is the case then everyone involved needs to be locked out of the draft room from now on.

You have to remember that the Cowboys had Emmitt back then and ran the ball a lot. They weren't looking for a TE who could only catch but one who could be an extra OL as well. Gonzalez is a great receiver but he isn't a blocker.

They had tried the oversized WR route just before that with Eric Bjornson and it hindered our running game. That's what they were trying to rectify with LaFleur.

Also, no one knew at the time that Gonzalez would turn out to be such a great receiving threat. As it turned out we never had a shot at drafting Gonzalez anyway as he was taken well ahead of us at #13. We would have had to move up 13 slots to get ahead of KC to take him and that would have cost us way too much.

Now had anyone known what kind of player he would turn out to be... But that could be said of a lot of guys.


My favorite LaFleur memory was of him absolutely blowing up Steelers passrush specialist Greg Lloyd at the goalline. Literally had Lloyd up in the air and slammed him down. The guy was a truly devastating blocker when healthy.