The top 14 Cowboys draft blunders since 2000

[Nova]

A draft blunder isn't when you missed on a guy or could have taken a better player in retrospect... That's just called drafting.

 

[Nova]

How could they kill them for not taking Polamalu when it looked like Roy Williams was going to set the league on fire and Darren Woodson was still healthy?

That and Newman had a damn good career.

Right?

That tandem was really something special for a little bit.

 

[Shinaoi]

I never liked the idea of one player over another. I mean some of those picks were bad, but they weren't bad because they missed out on a single player that every team but one in the nfl missed out on.

 

[AbeBeta]

Come on, we only passed on Luke Kuechly (9), Dontari Poe (11), and Fletcher Cox (12) to take Mo at 6.

And at the time just about every scout would have been on board.

Hindsight don't make a good post

 

[AbeBeta]

How does the fact that they drafted at the same exact position of cornerback make them look?

It's one thing to pass on a player where you don't feel that you have a dire need, it's quite another to get the pick totally, utterly, and completely wrong.

Like 5th round is a total crap shoot?

 

[NickZepp]

How many CBs have we had that were really better than Newman since 04?

 

[plasticman]

It wasn't simply that the Cowboys drafted poorly.....well, actually it was from 1999 to 2002....aside from that....the switch in Head Coaches from Parcells to Philips drastically changed the role of many players whose attributes were more suited to the previous system.

Carpenter was a Parcells style LB who depended on the line to create traffic jams which allowed the LB's to swoop in and make the tackles. Under Phillips, the D-line behaved more like a 4-3 defense. They attempted to create pressure with the D-line instead of depending on a diverse set of pass rushes featuring a 4th guy that was always disguised. Under Parcells, the LB's were always protected, they rarely had to take on O-linemen.

 

[Stash]

Like 5th round is a total crap shoot?

Anything to take the Cowboys off the hook, right?

Some teams are actually capable of finding players outside of rounds 1 and 2.

I guess some folks can only handle the part when we praise them for unearthing undrafted gems like Romo, but not when they're criticized for their obvious misses.

 

[Alexander]

I never liked the idea of one player over another. I mean some of those picks were bad, but they weren't bad because they missed out on a single player that every team but one in the nfl missed out on.

I can agree here. But if you look at this list, there are just some bad players. Or better yet, bad fits for the squads at the time.

That is part of successful drafting, it is not like teams that draft well are better at evaluating the talent. Most of the time, it is not some team drafting some hidden gem, but rather drafting the right player, for them, at the right time. That is why proper and very critical self-evaluation of your current talent and a vision for what you want to do is so important.

 

[AbeBeta]

Anything to take the Cowboys off the hook, right?

Some teams are actually capable of finding players outside of rounds 1 and 2.

I guess some folks can only handle the part when we praise them for unearthing undrafted gems like Romo, but not when they're criticized for their obvious misses.

Late rounds are pretty random. We haven't hit big late recently but calling late round misses draft blunders is just stupid and agenda fueling.

Jax also took a CB before Sherman. Rod Issac. He's a decent player. For an Arena league team.

Over 20 CBs went before Sherman. Team like Seattle who people point to as great in the draft took James Carpenter, John Moffitt, and Chris Durham before him. So let's not pretend this was about us making a blunder

 

[big dog cowboy]

The entire league passed on him several times over. Come on now

Just like we missed on drafting Tom Brady right?

 

[AbeBeta]

It wasn't simply that the Cowboys drafted poorly.....well, actually it was from 1999 to 2002....aside from that....the switch in Head Coaches from Parcells to Philips drastically changed the role of many players whose attributes were more suited to the previous system.

Carpenter was a Parcells style LB who depended on the line to create traffic jams which allowed the LB's to swoop in and make the tackles. Under Phillips, the D-line behaved more like a 4-3 defense. They attempted to create pressure with the D-line instead of depending on a diverse set of pass rushes featuring a 4th guy that was always disguised. Under Parcells, the LB's were always protected, they rarely had to take on O-linemen.

Carp wasn't a failure because of scheme. He sucked. Parcels saw it right off the bat and didn't use him much. I believe he didn't even dress him in the opener.

People say we only took him because BP knew his dad. If you read scouting reports from that time, you'll see he was clearly ranked a a first rounder. I read several that proclaimed he'd be a better pro than teammate AJ Hawk.

 

[Stash]

Late rounds are pretty random. We haven't hit big late recently but calling late round misses draft blunders is just stupid and agenda fueling.

If you think so. I prefer to praise them when they hit and criticize them when they miss. I see that as balanced.

Jax also took a CB before Sherman. Rod Issac. He's a decent player. For an Arena league team.

So now we take consolation because we're 'not as bad' as Jacksonville? Looks like lowering of standards to me.

Over 20 CBs went before Sherman. Team like Seattle who people point to as great in the draft took James Carpenter, John Moffitt, and Chris Durham before him. So let's not pretend this was about us making a blunder

Let's not "pretend" it wasn't. There was a future multi-time Pro Bowl cornerback available and this team mistakenly drafted somebody at that exact position who ultimately never played for them. The fact is that their scouting, drafting and signing of cornerbacks has been flat-out awful for years now.

 

[AbeBeta]

Just like we missed on drafting Tom Brady right?

We didn't have a need at QB!

 

[Stash]

Just like we missed on drafting Tom Brady right?

COWBOYS 2000 DRAFT

RDSEL #PLAYERPOSITIONSCHOOL
249Dwayne GoodrichDBTennessee
4109Kareem LarrimoreCBWest Texas A&M
5144Michael WileyRBOhio State
6180Mario EdwardsCBFlorida State
7219Orantes GrantLBGeorgia

 

[Alexander]

COWBOYS 2000 DRAFT

RDSEL #PLAYERPOSITIONSCHOOL
249Dwayne GoodrichDBTennessee
4109Kareem LarrimoreCBWest Texas A&M
5144Michael WileyRBOhio State
6180Mario EdwardsCBFlorida State
7219Orantes GrantLBGeorgia

Awful. Three corners and two of which were headcases.

 

[Stash]

Awful. Three corners and two of which were headcases.

Goes down as one of the team's worst in their history. And, in retrospect, it was a clear indicator of the team being headed towards obscurity and irrelevance.

 

[CalPolyTechnique]

The draft is anything but a crapshoot, especially when taking players in the early rounds.

If the draft was truly a "crapshoot," then Goodell would sit up there with a black velvet bag with the name of every prospect in it. Then, he'd have every team come up and blindly pick a name and that random player would be the guy you're stuck with.

Instead, teams spend enormous amounts of time, money and resources (think scouting personnel, medical evaluations, travel costs, etc.) trying to investigate, identify and project how an individual prospect would be a fit for their respective franchise.

Of course when you're dealing with human beings, there are never guarantees, but what you are trying to do is be informed to the greatest extent possible to make an educated decision.

 

[Stash]

The draft is anything but a crapshoot, especially when taking players in the early rounds.

If the draft was truly a "crapshoot," then Goodell would sit up there with a black velvet bag with the name of every prospect in it. Then, he'd have every team come up and blindly pick a name and that random player would be the guy you're stuck with.

Instead, teams spend enormous amounts of time, money and resources (think scouting personnel, medical evaluations, travel costs, etc.) trying to investigate, identify and project how an individual prospect would be a fit for their respective franchise.

Of course when you're dealing with human beings, there are never guarantees, but what you are trying to do is be informed to the greatest extent possible to make an educated decision.

Please also take note that the term "crapshoot" only comes out when we're talking about this team's misses.

The hits are due to great scouting and front office preparation.

 

[gimmesix]

How does the fact that they drafted at the same exact position of cornerback make them look?

It's one thing to pass on a player where you don't feel that you have a dire need, it's quite another to get the pick totally, utterly, and completely wrong.

I don't know. Teams get picks totally, utterly, and completely wrong every year.

The year Tom Brady was selected in the sixth round (2000), there were six other QBs taken in front of him: Chad Pennington (1st round), Giovanni Carmazzi (3rd), Chris Redman (3rd), Tee Martin (5th), Marc Bulger (6th) and Spergon Wynn (6th).

I would say the teams that selected Carmazzi, Redman, Martin and Wynn got it totally, utterly and completely wrong based on what we know now. Now, I just pulled Brady out as an example off the top of my head, but there are plenty others we could go with.

Let's go with Alfred Morris in 2012, taken by the Washington Commanders in the sixth round. We can say now that Indianapolis (Vick Ballard in the fifth), Pittsburgh (Chris Rainey in the fifth), Atlanta (Bradie Ewing in the fith), Baltimore (Bernard Pierce in the third), San Francisco (LaMichael James in the second), St. Louis (Isaiah Pead in the second), NY Giants (David Wilson in the 1st) and Cleveland (Trent Richardson in the 1st) got the pick wrong, including several (depending on your definition) totally, utterly and completely wrong.

I want to make it clear that I am not defending Dallas' draft failures. The team should continue to work to refine its draft process and should closely examine each draft failure and why it missed on the players who succeeded.

Examining any team's draft history and the drafts themselves shows that the process is impossible to get right, but scouts still need to be held accountable for the picks they miss so that the team can try to put together the best draft team possible.