DMN: Jerry Jones must really be losing sleep now over failure to get Paxton Lynch

[dbair1967]

Jerry has a severe hard on for finding “the next Charles Haley”. He had the same hard on for “the next Novacek” too. That’s how we went up with Shante Carver, Kavika Pittman, and David LaFleur.

Carver was rated a 1st rd/early 2nd rd pick and LaFleur was rated the top TE by BLESTO that yr, and was actually rated a top-10 pick by their service (which at the time, most NFL teams used). Carver and LaFleur were both outstanding college players at top-schools and neither had any red-flags when we took them. Carver had 4 consecutive 10+ sack seasons at Arizona St.

LaFleur wasn't intended to be a "Novacek". He was far bigger and stronger than Novacek was. LaFleur was drafted because they did NEED a quality TE. The guy they drafted to be the next "Novacek" was Eric Bjornson, an athletic guy who had a similar build as Novacek. Bjornson was never more than a JAG though.

Carver's career was ruined by becoming an alcoholic, and LaFleur's was ruined by a degenerative back issue.

Pittman was clearly the worst pick of those 3, as we passed on Tony Brackens (a guy rated as a top-15 on our draft board that yr) and instead traded down, ending up with Pittman (massive bust) and Clay Shiver (also horrible) instead of Brackens, who was a really good player for awhile at a position we needed help at.

Revisionist history definitely takes over for a lot of people when looking back at drafts. Some players end up bad but are not bad picks at the time they are made. Neither Carver nor LaFleur were over-drafted for where they were rated coming out, although in hindsight neither was a good pick.

 

[bbgun]

Aikman worked out Gonzalez and LaFleur before the draft. Not sure if that would even be allowed today. Anyway, Gonzalez was long gone, leaving us with Frenchie. He actually had some decent games before his back gave out. Carver was a dud but held his own when Haley suddenly retired (then unretired) in '95.

 

[dbair1967]

Aikman worked out Gonzalez and LaFleur before the draft. Not sure if that would even be allowed today. Anyway, Gonzalez was long gone, leaving us with Frenchie. He actually had some decent games before his back gave out. Carver was a dud but held his own when Haley suddenly retired (then unretired) in '95.

LaFleur had an outstanding game vs Cinci his rookie yr and made a couple of tremendous grabs, including a diving, outstretched TD catch in the endzone (he had two tds that game) In addition to the back issue, the other thing that hurt him was hiring Chan Gailey the next season because Gailey's offense hardly utilized the TE in passing situations, other than short yardage stuff. he did set career highs in 1999 with 35 catches and 7 tds in addition to his outstandding blocking, but the back thing did him in the next yr and he retired after the 2000 season.

Carver's best yr was 1996 (6 sacks) and he was done after that season due to the alcohol. Most people forget the game he had vs Tony Boselli and the Jags that yr. He gave him fits all day and had a couple sacks that day.