When going through every NFL team’s biggest draft bust ever, plenty of clubs have fared worse than the Dallas Cowboys over the years. After all, this is a franchise that had Pro Football Hall of Famer Gil Brandt running its draft room for decades, followed by Hall of Fame coach Jimmy Johnson. Still, even America’s Team has made a few regrettable picks.
Here are the 10 worst draft picks in Cowboys history. As we did with the worst picks in Pittsburgh Steelers history and Green Bay Packers history, we’re only looking at first-round picks. Expectations are much lower after that. Also, we won’t go back further than the 1960s. The draft has always been an inexact science, but scouting departments and draft prep were not a serious thing before then.
Worst draft picks in Cowboys history
1. Bill Thomas, RB, 1972
The Cowboys had just won Super Bowl VI, but were unsure about the future of running back Duane Thomas. So they drafted Bill Thomas out of Boston College in the first round, 26th overall, and then took Houston’s Robert Newhouse in the second round, 35th overall. And while Newhouse played 12 years with the Cowboys, rushing for nearly 5,000 yards and scoring 36 total touchdowns, Bill Thomas was never the same after re-injuring a shoulder injury he had suffered in college. Thomas played less than one full season with Dallas, started one game for the Oilers in 1973 and was out of football after the ’74 season.
2. Taco Charlton, DE, 2017
Taco Charlton was the 28th pick out of Michigan. We’re putting him higher on this list than he might deserve because he had a great name for a NFL player and he couldn’t back it up. After notching 10 sacks as a senior with Michigan, he had four sacks in two seasons with Dallas before falling out of favor. After he began the 2019 as a healthy scratch, Charlton took to social media requesting to be released… and the Cowboys obliged. Charlton played sparingly for four different teams over the next four years, and then he was done.
3. Morris Claiborne, CB, 2012
Morris Claiborne wasn’t a bad cornerback, though he never earned a Pro Bowl nod in his eight NFL seasons. He certainly wasn’t worth the sixth overall pick in the draft, which is what the LSU star was. What’s worse, the Cowboys traded up eight spots in the first round to take Claiborne at No. 6 — when they could have taken Hall of Fame linebacker Luke Kuechley, who went eighth. And in order to move up, they traded away a second-round pick, 45th overall. Another great linebacker, Bobby Wagner, went two picks after that.
4. Mazi Smith, DT, 2023
When the Cowboys made Michigan’s Mazi Smith the 26th player drafted three years ago, he became the first defensive tackle Dallas took in Round 1 since Russell Maryland in 1991. Mazi Smith is no Russell Maryland. Smith lost his starting job last season and was a throw-in when the Cowboys sent a first-round pick to the Jets in exchange for Quinnen Williams. As of now, Smith is listed as a backup on a thin Jets defensive line.
5. David LaFleur, TE, 1997
The Cowboys really wanted Tony Gonzalez in this draft, but the future Hall of Famer was drafted 13th overall — nine spots before Dallas settled on David LaFleur out of LSU. While Gonzalez went on the catch 1,325 passes for 15,127 yards and 111 touchdowns during a 17-year career, LaFleur lasted all of four seasons, finishing with 85 catches for 729 yards and 12 TDs.
6. Danny Noonan, DT, 1987
After a decorated college career at Nebraska, Danny Noonan was drafted with the 12th overall pick in 1987, considered a potential replacement for soon-to-retire Hall of Famer Randy White. But he only started 41 games in just over five years. Dallas released him two games into the 1992 season; he played six games as a backup with the Packers, and that was it.
7. Shante Carver, DE, 1994
First off, the Cowboys traded up five spots to draft Arizona State’s Shante Carver with the 23rd overall pick. Didn’t pay off. Carver had 11.5 career sacks in four seasons and was not re-signed. After being out of football for three years, he bounced around the CFL, XFL and arena football, but never returned to the NFL.
8. Kevin Brooks, DT, 1985
This pick was destined to be a disappointment. The player Dallas was planning to draft with the 17th overall pick in 1985 was some guy named Jerry Rice. When the San Francisco 49ers traded up to snag Rice at 16, the Cowboys settled on Michigan’s Kevin Brooks. While Rice became one of the greatest players in NFL history, Noonan lasted just six years in the league. He had 15.5 career sacks, though three of those came during the players strike in 1987, when he crossed the picket line and played as a scab.
9. Billy Cannon Jr., LB, 1984
Billy Cannon Jr., the 25th player taken in 1984, was always going to have too-high expectations. His father was a Heisman Trophy winner and a two-time AFL championship game MVP with the Houston Oilers. Billy Cannon Jr. became the first player the Cowboys ever drafted from Texas A&M, adding to the pressure. But eight games into his NFL career, a preexisting congenital spinal condition was made worse by a tackle that damaged two vertebrae near his neck. Cannon never played again.
10. Robert Shaw, C, 1979
A two-time all-SEC lineman at Tennessee, Shaw was the 27th player taken in 1972. Expected to be the anchor of a rebuilding offensive line in Dallas, Shaw started just six games in three years and was out of football after that.
