The real cause of a lot of our problems - bad drafts

[CowboysFaninHouston]

is bad drafting. this past season and all the injuries and losses to room, dez and loss of murray showed how thin this team was as opposed to deep.

and a lot of that falls on the shoulder of scouting. and some will argue with coaches developing players. or both.

for what ever reason dallas has done well in the first round. hitting on most players. 2nd round is 50/50 so far. with Lawrence seemingly a hit, but book is out on Crawford. lee is good but often injured. carter was a bust. Gregory was top 10 talent but risky and it shows with him being suspended for 4 games in his second season in the league.

I would venture to say that scouting is good on first round type talent, including lee who dropped because of injury concerns and same with Gregory. dallas has shown they will take risks on top talent in the 2nd round if nothing else.

past 2nd round our draft record is awful. the only player of significance is Murray. we haven't drafted a player of significance in the past 5 years past 2nd round. and that's where you build depth and have to hit on one or two to ake it over the top, given that the 1st and 2nd round talent resource is pretty much the same for all NFL teams.



so is that the fault of scouting dept? or coaching? I think we just haven't done a good job of scouting in recent years under mcclay. prior to him we found an Orlando scandrick and James "Rat" ratlieff, doug free....

 

[Daillest88]

Crawford was a 3rd round pick and is an above average starter..

 

[Vinnie2u]

I think if you compare the NFL as a whole we're probably in the middle when it comes to drafting. Some are better. Pittsburg Seattle Carolina.. Bad coaching is the real problem.

 

[skinsscalper]

is bad drafting. this past season and all the injuries and losses to room, dez and loss of murray showed how thin this team was as opposed to deep.

and a lot of that falls on the shoulder of scouting. and some will argue with coaches developing players. or both.

for what ever reason dallas has done well in the first round. hitting on most players. 2nd round is 50/50 so far. with Lawrence seemingly a hit, but book is out on Crawford. lee is good but often injured. carter was a bust. Gregory was top 10 talent but risky and it shows with him being suspended for 4 games in his second season in the league.

I would venture to say that scouting is good on first round type talent, including lee who dropped because of injury concerns and same with Gregory. dallas has shown they will take risks on top talent in the 2nd round if nothing else.

past 2nd round our draft record is awful. the only player of significance is Murray. we haven't drafted a player of significance in the past 5 years past 2nd round. and that's where you build depth and have to hit on one or two to ake it over the top, given that the 1st and 2nd round talent resource is pretty much the same for all NFL teams.



so is that the fault of scouting dept? or coaching? I think we just haven't done a good job of scouting in recent years under mcclay. prior to him we found an Orlando scandrick and James "Rat" ratlieff, doug free....

So let me get this straight: A team that lost it's top QB, WR ,and RB from the previous season struggled to win games? You don't say. I hate to break it to you, but there hasn't been a team in the history of the league that has drafted well enough to thrive under those circumstances.

With that being said, the Cowboys do need to hit on players more often in later rounds but McClay has only been front running two drafts. We may want to give some of these kids a little time before we start calling the drafting of them complete failures, eh?

 

[Vinnie2u]

So let me get this straight: A team that lost it's top QB, WR ,and RB from the previous season struggled to win games? You don't say. I hate to break it to you, but there hasn't been a team in the history of the league that has drafted well enough to thrive under those circumstances.

With that being said, the Cowboys do need to hit on players more often in later rounds but McClay has only been front running two drafts. We may want to give some of these kids a little time before we start calling the drafting of them complete failures, eh?

Bad coaching is the problem. Pittsburg wins with their 3rd string QB and RB. NE overcomes injuries. GB overcomes injuries. We lose one guy in one unit and the wheels fall off.

 

[skinsscalper]

Bad coaching is the problem. Pittsburg wins with their 3rd string QB and RB. NE overcomes injuries. GB overcomes injuries. We lose one guy in one unit and the wheels fall off.

One guy? I didn't realize that Romo, Murray, and Bryant were one guy. This is quite possibly the dumbest post I have ever read. Congratulations.

 

[Idgit]

As it is with all of these threads, what's the basis for concluding we're bad at drafting again?

 

[CCBoy]

Shucks, it says right here in this Irish ballad, who's at fault: 'Blame it on the O'Mallys, blame it on the O'mallys...make love to a damsel...........and blame it on the O'mallys!'

 

[Eddie]

As it is with all of these threads, what's the basis for concluding we're bad at drafting again?

While our first rounders have been hits, the later draft picks have been less than average. You can't build a winning team on 1st rounders alone.

We pat ourselves on the hits in the 1st round, but man, after that, it's been abysmal.

 

[Idgit]

While our first rounders have been hits, the later draft picks have been less than average. You can't build a winning team on 1st rounders alone.

We pat ourselves on the hits in the 1st round, but man, after that, it's been abysmal.

Less than average in what way?

 

[DogFace]

Bad coaching is the problem. Pittsburg wins with their 3rd string QB and RB. NE overcomes injuries. GB overcomes injuries. We lose one guy in one unit and the wheels fall off.

But he just said we lost 3 guys from one unit. Not 1.

Two of them are top five players and we lost then essentially for an entire season.

 

[Idgit]

But he just said we lost 3 guys from one unit. Not 1.

Two of them are top five players and we lost then essentially for an entire season.

We should have just coached around it. That's what everybody else does.

 

[ElGatoGrande]

I feel there is a good staff in place and the drafting has improved in recent years. Now all the team needs is some continuity to allow the staff to rebuild with their philosophy in mind. Marinelli needs more players and the GM needs to get an heir to Romo on the roster,,, and the solutions for each are incompatible this year if they have to trade up to get the QB they want.

 

[reddyuta]

As it is with all of these threads, what's the basis for concluding we're bad at drafting again?

We are bad compared to playoffs teams.just look at at the Seahawks on how they draft in the Entire draft and not jut the first RD.We suck at drafting in the late RDs because we go after Stanbacks and Chz greens of the world,guys who have no shot because they are always injured or Caleb Mcsurdy or Bill nagy types who are never going to be NFL players physically.IMO our scouting is broken and we have not realized it yet.for comparison look at the seahawks 2011 and 2012 drafts which built their current championship quality team.you cant mail it after after drafting a good player in the first RD and we have done that consistently year after year.We wasted 2 picks on Geoff freaking swain who had like 5 catches in College,thats all you need to know about our scouts.Chaz Green was supposed to be our Swing tackle but they must have realized quickly that he wont be that because they brought in 2 guys ahead of him.Our whole scouting system needs a overhaul.

 

[Zordon]

they dont do anything with the mid rds.

 

[Idgit]

We are bad compared to playoffs teams.just look at at the Seahawks on how they draft in the Entire draft and not jut the first RD.We suck at drafting in the late RDs because we go after Stanbacks and Chz greens of the world,guys who have no shot because they are always injured or Caleb Mcsurdy or Bill nagy types who are never going to be NFL players physically.IMO our scouting is broken and we have not realized it yet.for comparison look at the seahawks 2011 and 2012 drafts which built their current championship quality team.you cant mail it after after drafting a good player in the first RD and we have done that consistently year after year.We wasted 2 picks on Geoff freaking swain who had like 5 catches in College,thats all you need to know about our scouts.Chaz Green was supposed to be our Swing tackle but they must have realized quickly that he wont be that because they brought in 2 guys ahead of him.Our whole scouting system needs a overhaul.

So, we're going to just do this anecdotally again, are we?

If we're going to have multiple threads about how bad the drafting is relative to the rest of the league, shouldn't we at least try to support that? We all know the SEA did a great job drafting in the 4th a while back. But anybody can run off a list of failed or underperforming picks from any team's recent draft. That means nothing.

 

[reddyuta]

So, we're going to just do this anecdotally again, are we?

If we're going to have multiple threads about how bad the drafting is relative to the rest of the league, shouldn't we at least try to support that? We all know the SEA did a great job drafting in the 4th a while back. But anybody can run off a list of failed or underperforming picks from any team's recent draft. That means nothing.

lets stick with our drafts then.how many starters have we drafted in RDs 4-7 in the last 5 years?

 

[Nexx]

Rocket science. Draft bad players have a bad team amazing insight

 

[JD_KaPow]

It's not bad drafting: I don't think we're worse at finding talent with our picks than other teams are. I'd need to see some data on that one.

It is, at least partially, bad draft management: we give picks away too easily. The best way to get good players in the draft is to get lots of players in the draft.

Since 2010 (6 drafts), Dallas has picked 28 guys in the first 5 rounds of the draft, and 45 guys overall. The Patriots have picked 35 in the first 5 rounds, and 55 overall. Yes, we did pick a dozen guys in the nightmare draft of 2009, all in the 3rd-7th rounds. Of course, that same year, the Patriots also picked 12 guys...including four 2nd-rounders.

We simply don't value draft picks highly enough.

 

[Idgit]

lets stick with our drafts then.how many starters have we drafted in RDs 4-7 in the last 5 years?

Is the basis we want to use then the number of starters from a draft's last three rounds the last four years? That seems sort of arbitrary. Is it the number of starters overall? For the Cowboys? Or do we include players who leave to start elsewhere? Do we care about probowls? All-pros? Contributors who play a lot of snaps? If so, how many is a lot? What about college free agents who come in and develop into starters? They come from the same scouting process.

It's easy to say something isn't good enough relative to the rest of the league and then just point at an example of something that turned out bad.

And I should say, I'm not really at all interested in doing the work for the OP to make this thread an actual argument. I'm just saying that, as it stands, it's not.