The Dallas Cowboys are finalizing their NFL Draft board for this month’s selection process. Is there an obvious pick to stay away from?
The Dallas Cowboys have sometimes drafted aggressively, owner Jerry Jones and Co. not always staying away from draftees that had questionable reputations or with a history of trouble.
Do the terms “party animal” and “class clown” fall into either of those categories? Yes, that’s the way smart draft analyst Dane Brugler described University of Texas defensive tackle T’Vondre Sweat. … and now Dallas and the rest of the NFL need to decide if the “party” – in the form Sweat’s recent arrest for a DWI in Austin – is a “problem.”
Sweat has drawn interest from the Cowboys along with many other teams and was projected by Brugler to be a fourth-round pick, while others have him graded as the No. 1 1-technique defensive tackle in the draft this season.
There is buzz that the Houston Texans might take Sweat off their board completely. And elsewhere? While there are usually a handful of draftees that fall in the draft due to sketchy or questionable backgrounds, or sometimes bad interviews with teams, it’s not always an indication of how they’ll turn out in the pros.
Two examples come to mind, Warren Sapp and Randy Moss.
Warren Sapp was shunned in the draft by some teams because of a history of marijuana use in college. He slipped to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1995 to No. 12, where he was taken and spent nine Hall of Fame seasons before moving to the Raiders in 2004 where he put in another clean four seasons.
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Moss slipped all the way to No. 21 in 1998 where the Minnesota Vikings picked him. The former Marshall product had behavioral issues in high school and was denied enrollment by Notre Dame, kicked off the team at Florida State before enrolling at Marshall, where he had a stellar college career.
Still, NFL teams were leery to draft someone with his background so high. And as a pro, he took it upon himself to make every team that passed on him regret it – with great success. And yes, the Cowboys were the No. 1 victim of Moss’ revenge tour.
Is a “party animal” and “class clown” a bad guy? Is a young player who gets arrested for a DWI a lifelong criminal? Not necessarily, and sometimes those labels are overblown. The Cowboys’ job is to do the research to determine the difference between “party” and “problem.”
