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Posted on Sun, Apr. 27, 2008

When great things are possible, good feels bad

By Jennifer Floyd Engel

Star-Telegram Staff Writer

The Cowboys had a good draft Saturday, landing two players many had penciled in for them beforehand and happily so.

The problem is they were sitting on the makings of a great draft.

Possibly as karmic restitution for participating in "Save a Thug" month, draft day had dropped a projected mid-teen player, the second-best running back in the draft in Illinois' Rashard Mendenhall, into their laps at No. 22. And they passed on him because, and I am not making this up, they believe he is not as good of a backup as Felix Jones.

Owner Jerry Jones actually launched into a long explainer of his logic that, quite frankly, made me crazy. It went something like this: Felix is a better complement to Marion Barber and has experience being a No. 2 and, unfortunately for Mendenhall, his potential to be an every-down back also hurt him.

"The reason there was a distinction is because one could be a full-time, 25-carry back, if you wanted him to," Owner Jones said. "We don't see Felix that way."

This, I think, was meant as a compliment.

It definitely was the deciding factor. And, really, why would the Cowboys want a potential 25-touch back with speed and power and wiggle when a part-time "wow" was available?

Owner Jones' answer was Barber.

He said having MBIII -- or is he going by LTII nowadays? -- allowed him the luxury of bypassing the better back for the better fit. Forgetting for a second that Barber is unproven, an injury risk and not signed long-term, the biggest flaw in this logic is that you don't draft backups, or complementary players for the PC crowd, in the first round. You draft the best player on your board.

And it was obvious from Owner Jones' reaction that Felix was not that guy.

He shushed Coach Wade when he tried to kibosh Pacman questions with a "this is the draft, man" plea, yet refused to say if Mendenhall rated higher on their board.

Of course, he did. He was ahead of Felix Jones on every single board out there.

This is not to say Felix was not close. He was. He has "wow" potential as advertised. And if Mendenhall had been gone as expected, we'd be praising this pick this morning.

Nor is this to say that Mendenhall will be a better pro. Nobody knows if he will, and anybody who says they do is lying or stupid or both. These drafts are educated guesses, and you cross your fingers and hope. And this goes for the Cowboys as well.

That said, you had better not be wrong, Jerry.

Even for the risk-loving Jerry, this has been a particularly gutty week. He hopped into bed with the lying liar of a cornerback nobody else in the NFL dared touch, then ignored his board for an encore.

You can almost hear the people who predicted failure within a couple of years of Big Bill's departure chuckling, with this week providing evidence of Valley Ranch's return to a dice-rolling, wildcatting halfway house.

Owner Jones chuckles at this characterization. Kind of.

"Let's be accurate about this thing; we're also seeing that when Bill was here we also made a lot of mistakes, too. Not him, we," he said. "It would be unfair to say that some of our picks, where we are on [Anthony] Fasano and where we are on [Bobby] Carpenter, that's on Bill. That's very unfair. That's not Bill. That was us. By the same token, it's unfair to really say without Bill here, the good stuff is changing. That's not right."

They had a good draft without him.

What Owner Jones has to hope is that he did not squander the makings of a great one.