Welcome to draft week, and for Dallas Cowboy fans, it normally is a time where we get a bit excited. The reason is because, overall, this front office normally does one thing well, and that is drafting talent.
It is always fun to go over the best picks and who we liked over the years, but how about we just have a fun post and look at some of the players they drafted over the last ten years that left us all scratching our heads.
I am going back as far as 2016 on this list. It is crazy that we are already in the year 2025, so yes, before you comment, I know players before this have been worse and just as bad, but for the length of this, I am only going back to the 2016 draft.
Two of these guys you may not remember until you read below, but the last guy we all know all too well is maybe one of the biggest busts for the Dallas Cowboys in recent years.
Charles Tapper
Like, I completely forgot that they even drafted this guy.
In 2016, Tapper was a fourth-round draft pick of the Dallas Cowboys. The 6-foot-3, 270-pound Tapper only played in two NFL games in four seasons with the Dallas Cowboys and New York Jets.
The hope is that Rashan Gary is more Everson Girffen than Charles Tapper. pic.twitter.com/ns47TSxOSn
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) March 27, 2019
Yes, you read that correctly, he played in two games in four seasons.
Dallas placed him on injured reserve in 2017 and 2018 due to complications from a back injury. He was cut from the Cowboys in 2018, but then re-signed to the practice squad two days later.
This was a back injury. The team knew he was coming out of college and they went ahead and drafted him anyway.
For a guy with back problems, taking him in the 4th round that year was an odd one.
Chaz Green
What an awful pick this was. Chaz Green was taken as a 3rd round pick in 2015 by the Cowboys, and for a team who can normally hit a home run on an offensive lineman, he was not one.
The first memory and maybe the only thing that comes to mind when I think of Green is that game against the Falcons in 2017.
Defensive lineman Adrian Clayborn set a single-game Falcons franchise record with six sacks against the Cowboys in that game.
Four of which came against Green when he started at left tackle, and I bet you can guess what happened to him after that?
That might be the end of the Chaz Green era in the NFL. https://t.co/Z2Z2WaRrDN
— Marcus Mosher (@Marcus_Mosher) May 29, 2019
He never played another snap for the team and was a roster cut the following year.
Taco Charlton
I mean, do I even need to go into how bad of a first round pick this was?
Picked two spots ahead of T.J. Watt at the end of the first round in 2017, he started only seven games in Dallas over two frustrating seasons.
Charlton never lived up to that pedigree. He played sparingly during his rookie season, logging limited snaps and finishing with 19 tackles and three sacks.
Just think. Cowboys could’ve drafted T.J Watt, but instead chose Taco Charlton. Steelers were like.. thank you. T.J is having HOF career. #SundayNightFootball #CowboysSteelers.
— shannon sharpe (@ShannonSharpe) October 7, 2024
The 2018 season saw him earn three starts, but he only played in 11 games and was a healthy scratch in the second half of the year – raising concerns about his development.
I would be here all day if I named them all, but for me these are three that when I look back, jump off the screen. Others do as well, but based on where they were drafted, and seeing who got taken right before or after them in that years draft just makes me sick.
We know a pick will be a bit sideways this week like always, but as long as they are not depending on one of those guys to be a game changer.