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Each year, this particular question resurfaces, is barely re-worded, and always contains a misplaced assumption, which is: "I, <insert member's name>, would pick <hypothetical position/college player> if the team has a losing season this year." It is a misplaced assumption for several reasons:
- A losing season is any finish below .500, from 8-9 to 0-17
- An undetermined number of other NFL teams finish with sub-.500 records each season
- The team's final specific losing season depends upon various unpredictable factors, such as injuries to key players, etc.
- How the member's desired losing season for the team shall (not possibly but will) materialize into a particular drafted player and most importantly
- Totally ignoring and dismissing Jerry Jones' complete autonomy in making the actual pick in any draft following any losing season
I will not tell anyone how their dream wlll unfold. Neither do I have a crystal ball nor a time machine. What I do have is Jerry Jones' actual track record in making the final decision in every draft during the post-Jimmy Johnson era. Here are all the first picks per draft made by Jones in that timeframe, sorted by least-to-most wins per previous sub .500 regular season record:
| Draft | Previous | |||||||||
| Year | No. | Round | Pick | Player | Name | Position | College | Season | W | L |
2016 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 4 | Ezekiel Elliott | RB | Ohio State | 2015 | 4 | 12 |
2001 | 1 | 2 | 22 | 53 | Quincy Carter | QB | Georgia | 2000 | 5 | 11 |
2002 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | Roy Williams | DB | Oklahoma | 2001 | 5 | 11 |
2003 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | Terence Newman | DB | Kansas State | 2002 | 5 | 11 |
1998 | 1 | 1 | 8 | 8 | Greg Ellis | DE | North Carolina | 1997 | 6 | 10 |
2005 | 1 | 1 | 11 | 11 | Demarcus Ware | DE | Troy | 2004 | 6 | 10 |
2011 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 9 | Tyron Smith | T | USC | 2010 | 6 | 10 |
2021 | 1 | 1 | 12 | 12 | Micah Parsons | LB | Penn State | 2020 | 6 | 10 |
Every year, some folks are extremely confident their hoped for losing season will make Jerry Jones pick the player or position they want. Me? I have never trusted Jones to decide on the 'right player'. I always wait-and-see who he actually picks, regardless of how the team finishes every year.
And before any member looks at the list above and asks a question like 'What about Jerry picking <insert player(s) names>?", understand that question will be automatically followed by my questions, "What about them? How did Jones picking them translate into the DALLAS COWBOYS winning a Super Bowl?"
