The Cowboys had two first-round picks in the 2008 NFL draft. Neither of them is on the team anymore.
One of them, cornerback Mike Jenkins, just signed with the Raiders. The other one, running back Felix Jones, is currently a free agent without a contract. But the man who decided to draft those two players, Cowboys owner and General Manager Jerry Jones says it would be incorrect to call them busts.
“We got starting time out of both of them,” Jones said, via the Dallas Morning News. “That’s not enough, but those guys aren’t NFL busts. We were proud to have [Felix Jones] with that No. 1 pick, and as late as last year I was proud to have that No. 1 in Jenkins. But it is five years down the road now.”
Jenkins was a starter for three seasons in Dallas, and Felix Jones has had his moments, and so maybe “busts” is too strong a word for them.
On the other hand, the Cowboys had to spend a lot last offseason to sign Brandon Carr and draft Morris Claiborne, and they wouldn’t have had to make those moves if Jenkins had become the No. 1 cornerback they wanted him to be. And plenty of people thought Jerry Jones became overly enamored with Felix Jones because of their Arkansas connection, and the decision to draft Felix Jones looks especially bad in hindsight because of the other running backs who were chosen in that draft after him, including Chris Johnson, Matt Forte, Ray Rice and Jamaal Charles.
So if Jenkins and Jones weren’t busts, they weren’t particularly good picks, either. If they were, Jerry Jones wouldn’t let them get away.