2001 Cowboys draft; five years later

By Grizz
Posted on Mon Jun 19, 2006 at 05:21:42 PM EST

Peter King runs down the 2001 draft, five years after the fact. How did teams grade-out? You might have guessed the Cowboys didn't fare too well. Yes, we were still stuck with the aftermath of the Joey Galloway trade, dooming us from the start. But we sure didn't make much of the rest of our picks. Here's King's analysis:

Grade: D

28. Dallas. They had no first-round pick because of the remnants of the ill-fated Joey Galloway trade. Then the Quincy Carter mistake at No. 2. Not a totally useless pick, because he did start 31 games for them, but what the pick did was derail the Cowboys' search for a long-term solution at quarterback. The rest of the draft had some borderline effective (for a time) players -- Tony Dixon, Markus Steele, Matt Lehr, Daleroy Stewart -- on some mediocre teams. But no player of 2006 impact remains.

That was during the Dark Ages II.

The original Dark Age occurred after the demise of the 80's team up until Jimmy Johnson rebuilt the franchise. The Dark Ages II technically begins after the last Super Bowl victory against Pittsburgh, but was set in motion a couple of year's before with Johnson's departure. Parcells' arrival and the re-stocking of talent has ended the Dark Ages II.

Look at this 2001 draft:
2 Quincy Carter
2 Tony Dixon
3 Willie Blade
4 Markus Steele
5 Matt Lehr
6 Daleroy Stewart
7 Colston Weatherington
7 John Nix
7 Char-ron Dorsey