Dallas Cowboys: 5 Biggest draft busts in franchise history

1. Morris Claiborne, CB: 2012 | Round 1, Pick 6

The No. 1 draft bust in Dallas Cowboys history (since 1989) falls on the shoulders of Morris Claiborne. Overall, Claiborne wasn’t a terrible player but he just had a lot of unfortunate breaks and never really fit in with the Cowboys defense.

First off, the pick itself just felt like a spontaneous move rather than a well-thought-out plan. In a shocking move, Dallas traded their first pick (No. 14 overall) and their second-round pick (No. 45 overall) the St. Louis Rams to be able to draft Claiborne — meaning they gave up two possible starters to get one player that never panned out.

Dallas then took Claiborne which even surprised the player since they never met with him ahead of the draft. The Cowboys said they never met with him since they didn’t think he would be there at 14, but that also means they clearly never thought about selling the farm to move up for his services.

Once he was in Dallas, more concerns were raised — including a shockingly low score on his Wonderlic. Claiborne famously said afterward that he blew off the test because there were no football questions.

Even so, it wasn’t his intelligence that hurt him but rather his durability — or lack thereof. Claiborne missed one game as a rookie, six in year two, 12 in year three, and five in year four. Dallas then brought him back on a minimal deal in 2016 for one last shot at proving he can make it, and he missed nine games.

He did have a decent two-year run with the Jets in 2018 and even earned a Super Bowl ring with the Kansas City Chiefs in 2019 but he was never what Dallas thought he could be.

And due to the cost of acquiring him, Claiborne ends up with the unfortunate honor of being the biggest bust in recent history for the Cowboys.