If Jerry Jones had hoped to be known as a great judge of football talent he forever killed that hope on April 24, 2004, in New York City.
The Cowboys held the 22nd pick in the opening round of the 2004 NFL Draft held at Madison Square Garden. Apparently dissatisfied with what he saw, Jones traded the pick to Buffalo.
In return, Dallas got the Bills' second-round pick (43rd overall), their fifth-rounder (114th), and the Bills' first-round pick in 2005 (20th).
That 2005 pick would become defensive end Marcus Spears.
As it turned out, he was the best player Dallas got out of the deal.
The player that was still on the board at 22 – who played the same position as the Cowboys' eventual pick at 43 in the second?
Stephen Jackson is out of Oregon State. And all Jackson did was play 12 years in the NFL.
He finished with 11,438 yards and 69 rushing touchdowns while adding another 3,683 yards and nine touchdowns receiving.
He fell to the St. Louis Rams at 24 in the first round.
He remains the Rams' all-time leading rusher. Keep these numbers in mind as we review the player Jones elected to draft instead.
Julius Jones
The Cowboys went with Jones out of Notre Dame as their new running back.
He would last four years in Dallas before losing the starting job to Marion Barber III.
He rushed for 3,484 yards and 18 touchdowns – with 672 yards and no receiving touchdowns – in those four years.
He would play four more years in the NFL and barely got over 5,000 career rushing yards by a scant 68 yards.
Jackson would last four more seasons and more than double Jones' career output.
Imagine how much different Tony Romo's career might have been with the right back behind him.
Jacob Rogers
Nine picks later, the Cowboys' regular second-round pick came up. They took offensive tackle Jacob Rogers out of USC.
Dallas got two games out of Rogers in 2004.
That was two more games than any other NFL team ever got out of him.
Things did not improve for Dallas afterward in this draft class.
Stephen Peterman
In the third round, the Cowboys drafted guard Stephen Peterman out of LSU.
Peterman played in three games for Dallas in 2005. He spent six of the next seven years as the Lions' starting right guard.
He was a great pick but Dallas apparently didn't see that at the time.
Bruce Thornton
Taken in the fourth round out of Georgia, Bruce Thornton played one game for Dallas in 2004 at defensive back.
The next year he was the starting left cornerback for the 49ers in 11 games.
He had 41 tackles and defended eight passes for San Francisco.
Are you sensing a pattern yet?
Sean Ryan
That fifth-round pick Dallas got when they traded out of the first round? It became tight end Sean Ryan out of Boston College.
Ryan lasted two whole seasons in Dallas and started two of the nine games he played in.
But he failed to record a single stat in any of those nine games.
He would play for five other teams between 2006-09.
His best year was his last in the NFL. He started in eight games for Kansas City and caught 14 passes for 135 yards and two touchdowns.
A Trio Of Seventh Round Picks
The Cowboys actually did much better at the end of the 2004 Draft than they did at the beginning.
The Cowboys drafted Nate Jones (205th), Patrick Crayton (216th), and Jacques Reeves (223rd) in the seventh round.
Jones only started one game at defensive back in four years with 79 tackles and two sacks.
He later went on to play for Miami, Denver, and New England.
The best player Dallas drafted in 2004 was Crayton, a receiver out of NW Oklahoma State.
In six years with the Cowboys, Crayton had 2,888 yards and 23 touchdowns. He also scored two touchdowns as a kickoff and punt returner.
Reeves, a defensive back from Purdue, also gave Dallas four seasons. He had 123 tackles and an interception.
He also had 19 passes defended.
His lone season as a starting cornerback came in 2007 and he had his best year stats-wise.
But Dallas did not retain Reeves.
He went on to have a monster year for the Texans in 2008 – with four interceptions, including his lone NFL touchdown.
It is not a stretch to say that the 2004 Draft would have gone down as Dallas' worst ever had it not been for the selection of Crayton.
But it did prove that Jerry Jones is not the best judge of football talent.
