Dallas Cowboys: 5 Biggest draft busts in franchise history

3. David LaFleur, TE: 1997 | Round 1, Pick 22

Jay Novacek was one of the best tight ends the Dallas Cowboys ever had and their offense looked much different during the 1996 season without him. In an effort to replace the production he once gave them, Dallas went for a tight end with their first pick in the 1997 NFL Draft.

The player they took was David LaFleur from LSU who was expected to be a good player who was able to block and catch the ball very well. With the front office knowing they wanted to go tight end, they decided to get the input of former quarterback Troy Aikman who liked LaFleur even more than Tony Gonzalez — although Gonzalez was gone by pick 13 so at least they never actually chose LaFleur over the Hall of Famer.

Once in Dallas, LaFleur struggled to find his footing. He had just 18 receptions for 122 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie. He didn’t perform much better in his second campaign, but by year three, he started to find his groove.

That year, he had 322 yards and seven touchdowns on 35 receptions but he still wasn’t breaking the game open as he had just 9.2 yards per catch (although that did prove to be the best average of his career).

Unfortunately, he was unable to duplicate those numbers as he had 12 catches for 109 yards and a single touchdown in 2000, which ended up being his final season with the team. Part of the reason for his inability to stretch the field was a lingering back issue, which he had during his college days and the team just pretended it would get better (sounds vaguely similar to the Leighton Vander Esch issue doesn’t it).

He was waived in 2001 when he couldn’t pass a physical and never played again.