NFL Draft: 30 worst first-round picks of the 21st century

Part of what made the selection of Morris Claiborne so bad for the Dallas Cowboys was the price they paid for his services. They were in dire need of a shut-down man corner.

To fill that void, they traded their first and second-round pick (No. 14 and No. 45) for the right to select Claiborne at No. 6. Losing out on a premium pick is hard, but it’s worth it if you hit on your guy ‚— and Dallas didn’t hit.

There were also questions about his intelligence, as Claiborne scored a four out of 50 on the Wonderlic test. He said later there were no football questions, so he blew it off. Still, that was a huge red flag that Dallas ignored.

Another reason this move was bad was Dallas gave up on the system they drafted Claiborne for just one season into his career. After pairing him and Brandon Carr in the Rob Ryan led 3-4 defense, the Cowboys converted to a Tampa-2 scheme led by Monte Kiffin — who was later replaced by Rod Marinelli. Now the Cowboys had two press corner, working in zone coverage, which made them both look worse than they were.

As for Claiborne, he still would have struggled regardless as he simply couldn’t stay on the field. He missed 33 games in his five seasons with the Cowboys before they finally just gave up. He’s still playing with the New York Jets, but was never close to living up to his lofty expectations.