The 2024 NFL Draft is rapidly approaching. The 2024 NFL Combine has passed us by, and the underwear Olympics didn’t disappoint.
Draft prospects were able to show off their speed, strength, and athleticism in front of hundreds of NFL team personnel in attendance scouting talent for their respective teams.
With the combine in the rearview mirror, pro days have started in colleges all across the country.
It’s sometimes frustrating to watch these draft prospects skip drills at the behest of their agents, but aside from the top prospects, most athletes are hungry to show everything they can do on the field.
The Dallas Cowboys are in a unique position this year. They are caught between a team close to competing for a championship and a team that has reached a peak with the current core.
It should come as no surprise to anyone that the Cowboys have relatively refrained from participating in the early waves of free agency.
Cowboys Nation watched all the high-impact free agents sign with teams within the first few days of free agency while fans could just look on in wonder.
We are blessed with a team that is better than average at drafting and retaining talent but also cursed because they refuse to play the game of free agency.
The Cowboys have seven draft picks this year, one in each round except the fourth and doubling up in the seventh round.
A few weeks ago I wrote about their history with the 24th pick and this time I want to do the same with their second-round pick at 56.
The history is brief, only selecting a player with the 56th pick three times in franchise history, and they haven’t been fruitful.
TE Todd Christensen
Draft Year: 1978, Round 2 Pick 56
College: Brigham Young University (BYU)
TE Todd Christensen was drafted by the Dallas Cowboys in the 1978 NFL Draft from BYU.
Let me start by saying that Christensen played 11 years in the NFL but he did not play a single regular season down for the Dallas Cowboys.
Christensen was drafted as a running back and that’s exactly where he lined up during the preseason.
He led the Cowboys in rushing in those exhibition games but suffered a broken foot in the final game before the regular season and was put on injured reserve.
Christensen was anxious for the 1979 season until he was informed he was moving to tight end.
Dallas already had running backs Tony Dorsett and Ron Springs ahead of Christensen on the depth chart, and they felt his larger frame was better suited as a tight end.
Christensen refused to move and was waived.
After a one-game stint with the New York Giants, he eventually switched positions to tight end and spent the rest of his career with the Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders.
It appears the Cowboys had the right idea moving him to tight end.
Christensen made five Pro Bowls and was selected to the All-Pro team twice while winning two Super Bowls with the Raiders.
DB Tony Dixon
Draft Year: 2001, Round 2 Pick 56
College: University of Alabama
The next time the Cowboys chose a player at pick 56 was actually in this century.
DB Tony Dixon was selected from the University of Alabama to help supplement a secondary sorely lacking playmakers outside of safeties Darren Woodson and George Teague.
The 56th pick wasn’t the Cowboys’ original draft slot. Several trade downs were executed to accumulate picks after sending two first-round picks to Seattle for WR Joey Galloway.
Dallas’ original pick was at 37, but they moved down to 52 after a trade with Indianapolis in which they also gained another third-round selection at 81 overall.
They then sent the 52nd pick to Miami in exchange for pick 56 and another 4th-round pick at 122 overall.
Miami chose WR Chris Chambers with that pick and in hindsight, Dallas might have been better off staying put and choosing him themselves.
The Galloway experiment didn’t work out after he tore his ACL early in the season and never returned to form.
Chambers went on to have a successful career with Miami, while Dixon started just 15 games in four seasons with Dallas.
DE Sam Williams
Draft Year: 2022, Round 2 Pick 56
College: Ole Miss
The most recent selection at pick 56 is DE Sam Williams from Ole Miss and the jury is still out on this pick.
Williams was regarded as a first-round talent who fell in the draft due to character concerns and a history of legal issues.
Dallas, as they are prone to do, used their second-round pick on the risky Williams, and as of yet it hasn’t paid off or gone to the wayside.
Williams will have his chance to prove if he belongs this season as he will likely be thrust into a starting role after the free agency departures of Dorance Armstrong and Dante Fowler.
Hopefully, the end of his story will be a better tale for the Cowboys than the other two players they’ve taken at the same spot.