The Cowboys had a first-round grade on McCoy, who was a dynamic collegiate player at Pittsburgh. (Although it had been more than 30 years, the Cowboys made it work with a Pitt running back before in Tony Dorsett.) The worry in taking McCoy, however, wasn’t about him, but rather where he’d fit into the scheme.
Just one year prior, the Cowboys had taken Felix Jones in the first round of the 2008 draft, as well as Tashard Choice in the fourth round. Not to mention they had also signed Marion Barber to a seven-year, $45 million contract the previous summer.
So the Cowboys passed on McCoy. They also passed on Oklahoma tackle Phil Loadholt, whose minor injury concern was enough to scare them off.
Still, the Cowboys did like players such as Connor Barwin, Alex Mack and Max Unger. Surely, one of those guys would be around at No. 51. Unfortunately, that would not be the case. All of them, along with a few others of interest, started coming off the board at a rapid pace, according to Cowboys college scouting coordinator Chris Hall.
“The next thing you know, Connor Barwin went off the board, Alex Mack went off the board,” Hall said. “We had six or seven guys and they all went off – ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. All gone. We felt good about six picks, and they all went. We didn’t want to take (McCoy) and couldn’t pull the trigger on Loadholt, so we traded.”
It’s a trade that Hall has written down on a piece of paper and pinned up on a bulletin board that hangs above his desk in his office.
“We traded the 51st pick for the 75th and 110th pick,” Hall said. “We lost about 110 points on any draft chart you look at. We left a first-round pick in LeSean McCoy on the board. We didn’t take Phil Loadholt, who had a higher grade. He would’ve been a right tackle and who knows what happens with
Doug Free. Loadholt might have been our right guard all these years. You just never know.”
The 75th pick turned out to be Western Illinois linebacker Jason Williams and 110 went to offensive tackle Robert Brewster, who played one game and is currently out of the league. Williams played 10 games over a two-year span with the Cowboys before being released. He has spent the last three years as a role player for the Carolina Panthers.
And from there, it didn’t get much better for the Cowboys, who took chances on players such as Stephen McGee, Victor Butler, Buehler and John Phillips – and those are the guys who actually played and contributed. Others such as Brandon Williams, Stephen Hodge, Mike Mickens, DeAngelo Smith and Manuel Johnson barely saw the field, if they did at all.
The lesson learned from the 2009 draft is to stick to the board whenever possible, especially in the early rounds. Even though Hall admits it’s easier said than done when it involves convincing a head coach that value over need is the way to go.
“The coach wants to win now. Stacking up another good running back, when you need linemen or defensive help, in their mind, it’s not going to help,” Hall said. “But if you take ‘A’ players instead of taking ‘B’ players, ultimately you’re going to make your team better. And I think that’s the lesson we learned. It doesn’t matter what you have on your roster, you take a first-round pick if he’s sitting there.”