What Trevon Diggs reminds us again about drafting

[Bobhaze]

With the overall 27th pick in the first round of the 2015 draft, the Cowboys drafted defensive back Byron Jones. He was considered an “athletic freak” from his combine performance including his 4.43 speed and his world record for standing broad-jump with a leap of 12-feet, 3-inches. Remember the video of Jones jumping over a car? He’s athleticism was off the charts.

Five years later, after not re-signing Byron Jones to a second contract and losing him to the Dolphins in Free agency, we drafted Trevon Diggs with the 51st pick in the draft in the second round. He did not have the “measurables” that Byron Jones had in the combine.

But who is a better football player- Diggs or Jones? Let’s look at the comparisons:

• Jones has 4 career INTs in 98 games, and is in his 7th NFL seasons.
  
• Diggs has 9 INTs in 17 games in his 2nd year (he missed 4 games last yr with a foot injury)
• Jones was a combine “freak” who was pretty good at football.
• Diggs is an outstanding football player- first.

Reminder for future drafts: Draft great football players who may also have great measureables. Not the other way around.

 

[TheMarathonContinues]

Yeah but Byron Jones was a great player for us lol. He contribute despite poor coaching. Byron Jones is not the guy to make a example out of....maybe Mo Claiborne?

 

[Frozen700]

Yeah but Byron Jones was a great player for us lol. He contribute despite poor coaching. Byron Jones is not the guy to make a example out of....maybe Mo Claiborne?

Yeah Byron wasn't bad, he just played the ball horrible, but played his man pretty well

We are just so lucky to have Diggs to be honest.

 

[Western]

Granted very early in careers, but Diggs has more interceptions--9, than Chase Young's sack totals--8.5
Chase Young was the 2nd player, and 1st player defensive player taken in the 2020 draft.
If redo that entire draft, Diggs probably be a top 3 pick (behind Herbert, and Burrow).

 

[Aulac]

Change "dig" to "Diggs"

 

[TheGoat73]

Our approach of filling roster needs w affordable free agents pre-draft so we can draft players high on our board is paying off.

 

[BAT]

Is this a we will rue not drafting Asante Samuel Jr. over Kelvin Joseph thread?

With the overall 27th pick in the first round of the 2015 draft, the Cowboys drafted defensive back Byron Jones. He was considered an “athletic freak” from his combine performance including his 4.43 speed and his world record for standing broad-jump with a leap of 12-feet, 3-inches. Remember the video of Jones jumping over a car? He’s athleticism was off the charts.

Five years later, after not re-signing Byron Jones to a second contract and losing him to the Dolphins in Free agency, we drafted Trevon Diggs with the 51st pick in the draft in the second round. He did not have the “measurables” that Byron Jones had in the combine.

But who is a better football player- Diggs or Jones? Let’s look at the comparisons:

• Jones has 4 career INTs in 98 games, and is in his 7th NFL seasons.
  
• Diggs has 9 INTs in 17 games in his 2nd year (he missed 4 games last yr with a foot injury)
• Jones was a combine “freak” who was pretty good at football.
• Diggs is an outstanding football player- first.

Reminder for future drafts: Draft great football players who may also have great measureables. Not the other way around.

 

[CowboyRoy]

Yeah but Byron Jones was a great player for us lol. He contribute despite poor coaching. Byron Jones is not the guy to make a example out of....maybe Mo Claiborne?

No Jones is the EXACT example to use. Jones is EXACTLY what this did no longer need. This team was devoid or "Playmakers". Jones lacked all of that. He lacked toughness, swag, and that competitive spirit and play making ability. Diggs is the guy you resign, not Jones.

 

[speedkilz88]

Diggs didn't workout. So there is no way to know how he would test. I would guess similar to what Surtain put up.

His brother Stefon was 4.42/4.46 at the combine.

 

[Easyout66]

No Jones is the EXACT example to use. Jones is EXACTLY what this did no longer need. This team was devoid or "Playmakers". Jones lacked all of that. He lacked toughness, swag, and that competitive spirit and play making ability. Diggs is the guy you resign, not Jones.

He could also shut guys down in a contract year

 

[Aviano90]

The Byron days when we were told interceptions weren't important.

 

[ElGatoGrande]

Byron is a good player and Miami is happy about having him. There are also a lot of players that kicked butt in college only to find out they were too slow (or dumb) for the NFL,,, Claiborne might have fit that category. Lots of moving parts to this drafting thing.

 

[Zman5]

It actually says more about the difference a good coaching can make more than the draft. JG/Marinelli try to make Byron a FS and wasted first two years of his career.
Diggs looked OK last year but now with DQ and Joe Whitt, he is playing at elite level.

Byron is a good player and had Byron started out with same level of coaching we have now, I think he would have had a much better results.

 

[Ranching]

With the overall 27th pick in the first round of the 2015 draft, the Cowboys drafted defensive back Byron Jones. He was considered an “athletic freak” from his combine performance including his 4.43 speed and his world record for standing broad-jump with a leap of 12-feet, 3-inches. Remember the video of Jones jumping over a car? He’s athleticism was off the charts.

Five years later, after not re-signing Byron Jones to a second contract and losing him to the Dolphins in Free agency, we drafted Trevon Diggs with the 51st pick in the draft in the second round. He did not have the “measurables” that Byron Jones had in the combine.

But who is a better football player- Diggs or Jones? Let’s look at the comparisons:

• Jones has 4 career INTs in 98 games, and is in his 7th NFL seasons.
  
• Diggs has 9 INTs in 17 games in his 2nd year (he missed 4 games last yr with a foot injury)
• Jones was a combine “freak” who was pretty good at football.
• Diggs is an outstanding football player- first.

Reminder for future drafts: Draft great football players who may also have great measureables. Not the other way around.

It's a crap shoot.....we drafted Taco over TJ.....many more examples.

 

[ConstantReboot]

Yeah but Byron Jones was a great player for us lol. He contribute despite poor coaching. Byron Jones is not the guy to make a example out of....maybe Mo Claiborne?

Mo Claiborne was one of our worst draft picks in the modern era. He was average at best. You don't draft a 6th overall corner who has 4.5 speed and lacks agility to turn on a dime. We were a slow team then. Drafting Claiborne made the team even slower.

 

[JD_KaPow]

With the overall 27th pick in the first round of the 2015 draft, the Cowboys drafted defensive back Byron Jones. He was considered an “athletic freak” from his combine performance including his 4.43 speed and his world record for standing broad-jump with a leap of 12-feet, 3-inches. Remember the video of Jones jumping over a car? He’s athleticism was off the charts.

Five years later, after not re-signing Byron Jones to a second contract and losing him to the Dolphins in Free agency, we drafted Trevon Diggs with the 51st pick in the draft in the second round. He did not have the “measurables” that Byron Jones had in the combine.

But who is a better football player- Diggs or Jones? Let’s look at the comparisons:

• Jones has 4 career INTs in 98 games, and is in his 7th NFL seasons.
  
• Diggs has 9 INTs in 17 games in his 2nd year (he missed 4 games last yr with a foot injury)
• Jones was a combine “freak” who was pretty good at football.
• Diggs is an outstanding football player- first.

Reminder for future drafts: Draft great football players who may also have great measureables. Not the other way around.

Jones was an excellent CB for us and worthy of the pick. We just wasted two years trying to make him a safety. I mean, emphasizing production when drafting is a good rule to live by, but Jones is not an example of that.

 

[Runwildboys]

I have to admit, I was a huge fan of Byron, and thought if he just had a coach who could teach him ball skills, he'd be great, and I didn't want to let him go...but Diggs is looking like a special player, for sure. On a defense that needs turnovers to succeed, he's a perfect fit.

 

[Bobhaze]

Yeah but Byron Jones was a great player for us lol. He contribute despite poor coaching. Byron Jones is not the guy to make a example out of....maybe Mo Claiborne?

Good point. And I’m not saying Jones was no good at all for us. I just wanted to make the point that when drafting, pick a guy because he’s a great football player first, then the other stuff.

 

[ElGatoGrande]

It actually says more about the difference a good coaching can make more than the draft. JG/Marinelli try to make Byron a FS and wasted first two years of his career.
Diggs looked OK last year but now with DQ and Joe Whitt, he is playing at elite level.

Byron is a good player and had Byron started out with same level of coaching we have now, I think he would have had a much better results.

LOL,,, that's cold, but funny!

 

[Sydla]

With the overall 27th pick in the first round of the 2015 draft, the Cowboys drafted defensive back Byron Jones. He was considered an “athletic freak” from his combine performance including his 4.43 speed and his world record for standing broad-jump with a leap of 12-feet, 3-inches. Remember the video of Jones jumping over a car? He’s athleticism was off the charts.

Five years later, after not re-signing Byron Jones to a second contract and losing him to the Dolphins in Free agency, we drafted Trevon Diggs with the 51st pick in the draft in the second round. He did not have the “measurables” that Byron Jones had in the combine.

But who is a better football player- Diggs or Jones? Let’s look at the comparisons:

• Jones has 4 career INTs in 98 games, and is in his 7th NFL seasons.
  
• Diggs has 9 INTs in 17 games in his 2nd year (he missed 4 games last yr with a foot injury)
• Jones was a combine “freak” who was pretty good at football.
• Diggs is an outstanding football player- first.

Reminder for future drafts: Draft great football players who may also have great measureables. Not the other way around.

Let's be a bit fair here. The Cowboys dicked around for a few years trying to make Jones a S. If they had made him a CB right from the start, he likely would have had a pretty good 5 year run and worth that pick.

Diggs is better but there was nothing wrong with taking Jones where we did.