In the 2012 NFL draft, Cowboys General Manager Jerry Jones traded both his first-round pick and his second-round pick to St. Louis to move up and draft cornerback Morris Claiborne with the sixth overall pick. So far that’s not looking like a great move.
Jones says he still has hopes that Claiborne is going to turn out to be a very good player in Dallas, but he admits that through two-plus seasons, Claiborne hasn’t been the player the Cowboys believed he was when they pulled the trigger on that trade.
“Is he what we had hoped for at this point when we drafted him with the sixth overall pick, giving up the [second-round] pick to go up to the sixth pick to get him? No,” Jones said on KRLD-FM, via the Dallas Morning News. “But he’s going to be a good player.”
Claiborne had a late interception on Sunday against the Rams, but St. Louis quarterback Austin Davis was also picking on Claiborne all day until that point. Claiborne has to play better than he did on Sunday.
The two picks the Cowboys traded away turned out to be Michael Brockers, who is now starting for the Rams at defensive tackle, and Alshon Jeffery, whom the Bears drafted after a trade with the Rams and who has become one of the best young receivers in the NFL. Jones probably wishes he had stayed put and used those picks on the same two players, rather than using both picks to get Claiborne.