NFL Spin Zone picks 1 Cowboys player who fans wish had never joined team

While we give the Joneses a lot of criticism, it’s certainly not easy to be a member of the front office of an NFL team, especially a team with as much notoriety and history as the Dallas Cowboys. Every GM has made a trade they regretted or drafted a player who ended up being a bust. It happens. While the Cowboys have actually had great luck with their first-round draft picks in recent history, there are definitely outliers with draftees and trades.

To prove that poor trades and decisions happen to every team, NFL Spin Zone (a FanSided network site) compiled a list of one player every team in the league likely wishes was never on their team. The answers ran the gamut from Johnny Manziel (Browns) to Chad Jackson (Patriots) to Tim Tebow (Jets) to Sam Bradford (Cardinals) and more.

For the Cowboys, it was Roy Williams. To clarify, there have been two very different Roy Williams in Cowboys history. The first one was a safety who was a first-rounder, 5x Pro Bowler, and an All-Pro. That’s not who we are talking about. We are talking about the wide receiver that Jerry Jones so desparately wanted on his team who didn’t even last a full three seasons in Dallas. Jones was so confident in this receiver that he sent a whopping three draft picks (including a first round pick) to the Detroit Lions just to secure him.

NFL Spin Zone names WR Roy Williams as one player Cowboys fans wish was never on their team

The writer of this article said this decision was so bad that it is part of the reason Stephen Jones helped take more of the reigns in the front office than his father:

"“One of the reasons his son knew he had to step in was the way Jones would get fixated on a certain player and then overpay. That was what happened when Dallas spent two seasons trying to land Roy Williams from the Detroit Lions.”"

Overpay is exactly what Jones did. The second Williams got to Dallas, they signed him to a $54 million contract, which turned out to be a giant waste of money. In two seasons with Dallas, the receiver caught only 48% of his catches and never collected more than 600 yards in a season.

Does giving away great picks sound familiar? The Cowboys recently did something similar to obtain Amari Cooper from the Raiders. Although Cooper had far better success with the Cowboys than Williams, the receiver is already onto his next team and Dallas gave up a lot to get him.

Williams was supposed to be a stellar receiver, but he just never was. The receiver was brought in to hopefully replace Terrell Owens, but it turned out that Miles Austin would go on to be the WR1 for 2009. It’s one thing to bring someone to your team who doesn’t pan out. It’s a whole other to lose $54 million on him. Do you agree with NFL Spin Zone?