Disheveled in Dallas: Drafting mediocrity

By a Dallas Cowboys fan from T.O., not that T.O. But that is my quarterback

No executive has ever batted 1.000 at the NFL Draft. Not even St. Jimmy.

And yes, hindsight is 20/20.

Give Dallas Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones some credit. The Generalissimo has fared rather well in early rounds recently, scooping up blue chippers Dez Bryant, Sean Lee and Tyron Smith. Last season’s daily double of Travis Frederick and Terrance Williams also looks promising.

But…

Those are the picks you’re supposed to hit on. They’re batting practice fastballs. Whiff on them and you’re the Raiders.

A Super Bowl contender hits on picks early in the draft consistently and gets “lucky” with some late rounders.

The Super Bowl may be won in February but it is most often lost in May, at the NFL Draft. Teams that draft the best are the ones jumping on the podium with confetti raining on their heads.

In 2010, one team drafts safety Akwasi Owusu-Ansah in the fourth round. The next defensive back off the board is Kam Chancellor.

A year later, one team drafts DB Josh Thomas in the fifth round. Eleven picks later, that same other team takes Richard Sherman.

The Seahawks net two Pro Bowlers, including the self-proclaimed best cornerback in the game, while the Cowboys get 10 games out of Owusu-Ansah.

What are the chances the Seahawks hit the jackpot on both picks and the Cowboys crap out?

Drafting is not an exact science but it’s not a game of chance either.

The Cowboys’ draft history under Jones, without the assistance of Jimmy Johnson and Bill Parcells, is underwhelming, and astonishingly poor in the later rounds.    

In the past five years, Dallas has chosen 27 players in rounds 4 through 7. There’s not a pick that comes within sniffing distance of what the Seahawks unearthed in 2010 alone.

The best of the lot may be linebacker Victor Butler or on special teams, kicker David Buehler.

In 2010, Seattle came away with K.J. Wright (4^th), Sherman, Byron Maxwell (6^th) and Malcolm Smith (7^th). Four Super Bowl starters, including the MVP. Seattle’s other recent drafts produced similar quality.

Not only have the Cowboys failed miserably to find diamonds in the rough, most of their later picks are no longer with the team or the NFL, leaving the franchise with little or no depth. It’s why an unsigned free agent like George Selvie can come in off the street during training camp and start 16 games at defensive end.

The Seattle comparison is one-sided but useful because that’s your competition in the NFC. That’s the top dog you have to punch in the mouth. Do the Cowboys have the guns to do it?

The answer is no.

Given the team’s draft record, there’s not much hope that franchise players are suddenly going to start popping out like popcorn. And there are no extra picks to increase those chances.

Moreover, the team’s core of Pro Bowl players is getting older and the team is in salary purgatory, so not only are free agent fixes unavailable, the Cowboys have to shed a portion of their mediocre amount of talent to meet the league’s cap.

To be continued.

The disheveled state of Big D

By a Dallas Cowboys fan from T.O., not that T.O. But pass the popcorn.

My buddy Melo, a Giants fan, was trying to cheer me up after the Dallas Cowboys’ third straight regular-season ending loss with the NFC East title on the line, a loss that also meant no entry to the post-season for the umpteenth time since the Triplets retired.

I would have none of it.

I don’t need sympathy from a Giants fan. EVER, EVER, EVER.

Did I mention Melo was my best friend.

Ah, he still is.

 

That’s because that 'title' game really didn’t matter.

Win or lose, the Cowboys have become irrelevant in the NFL pecking order.

Had Dallas won, they would’ve been summarily dumped in the post-season by the New Orleans Saints, just like the Philadelphia Eagles did, only more spectacularly so. Exhibit A would be the regular-season beatdown by the team coached by the Cowboys’ former assistant. 

The Cowboys have fallen so far below the elite squads that a late-80s depth charge to 1-15 seems only a couple of seasons away. 

Too harsh?

Can Dallas play on a level field against the Seahawks and 49ers? 

Not even on any given Sunday.

Their paper-thin roster has been perennially exposed. The window on an aging roster is closing rapidly and with a lengthy salary-cap jail term in the offing, there isn't an easy way out. There are no Herschel Walkers to trade.

As I told Melo then:

When I started watching this team, they were in the Super Bowl or NFC championship game almost every year. Then when I knew better, they stomped off with three Super Bowls in four years – should`ve been four if not for Coach 501.

Now my hopes ride on a division title game for a playoff ticket that’s going to be shredded the next week?

Don't think so.

Yes, I was emotionally detached by the end of the season, which featured pull-your-heart through-the-toilet  losses to Denver, Detroit, Green Bay. Did I miss any? It was such a methadone-inducing blur.

But at some point during the gut-punching session season, there was that moment of clarity, sober second thought that crystallized where the franchise stood: At the precipice of the Steve Pelluer / Quincy Carter eras -- although with Generalissimo Jerry at the tiller, the Carter era seems so much more appropriate.

Look it up:

BP – Before Pelluer, from 1984 to 1987: 9-7, 10-6, 7-9, 7-8 – 33-30

BC – Before Carter, from 1997 to 2000: 6-10, 10-6, 8-8, 5-11 – 29-35

From 2010 to 2013: 6-10, 8-8, 8-8, 8-8 – 30-34

A one-game gap in the pre-Carter era and today.

Two seasons ago, one could argue the Cowboys could've beaten the Giants and perhaps gone on a Super Bowl run like New York but those would be pipe dreams now. The NFL balance of power has shifted and it's tilted far, far away from the NFC East.

If not for hapless Washington, New York and Philly (5-1), the Cowboys would be looking at a top-10 draft pick. Outside of the division last season, they could only beat St. Louis, Minnesota and Oakland.

Here's what else is frightening: Cue The Exorcist intro.

Both of these fall-from-grace eras were, not suprisingly, preordained by historically weak drafts.

In the BP period, it was Gil Brandt losing his touch – after two and a half decades of glory.

In the BC era, like now, the Generalissimo had assumed total control, then from Jimmy Johnson, and most recently, from the association with Bill Parcells.   

To be continued