| Gosselin: Cowboys' picks must get chances 04/29/2001 
Cowboys loyalists had to be disappointed with their team's 5-11 finish in 2000. Even more disappointing for owner Jerry Jones was the fact that after 16 games, he still had no idea if any of his five rookie draft picks could play.
The season was officially lost by mid-November when the soon-to-be-champion Baltimore Ravens smoked the Cowboys, 27-0, to drop them to 4-7. Yet coach Dave Campo and his staff remained reluctant to play the team's youth.
The club's five 2000 draft picks – defensive backs Dwayne Goodrich, Kareem Larrimore and Mario Edwards, running back Michael Wiley and linebacker Orantes Grant – combined to start only five of a possible 80 games last season. They were game-day inactives a combined 26 times.
Was the Dallas draft in 2000 that bad? Who knows? The rookies never got on the field to show if they could play or couldn't, if it was a good draft or bad.
Which brings us to the 2001 draft. The Cowboys were universally panned for their performance last weekend at the draft. There's only one way to prove the critics wrong: Play the picks.
With Troy Aikman gone, Jones can't talk about Super Bowls. This team needs to rebuild. It needs to again turn to its draft picks as it did in 1989-90. Draft them, play them. They are your future.
Larrimore needs to play. Goodrich needs to play. More importantly, Tony Dixon, Willie Blade and Markus Steele need to play.
The Cowboys are committed to a slower development of quarterback Quincy Carter, their top pick in this draft. Jones says the Cowboys may have rushed it with Aikman, whose body and confidence took a beating in 1989. He was winless in 11 games as a rookie starter.
So Carter will spend his rookie season watching Tony Banks, who is on a one-year contract. This team will become Carter's in 2002.
But patience is no virtue with the next three picks. The Cowboys couldn't stop the run last season. Dixon, Blade and Steele can give the Cowboys size and much-needed tackling ability on defense. Their presence on the field is mandatory. All should be anointed as starters by the opening of training camp.
Of the top five picks, offensive lineman Matt Lehr is the most polished and may be the most ready to play in the NFL right away. So the Cowboys ought to get him on the field soon – at guard, at center, somewhere.
John Nix is a big body on your defensive line. Play him. Char-ron Dorsey is a bigger body on the offensive line. Play him. They don't necessarily have to start. But shame on Campo and his staff if they again don't get their young players on the field this season.
St. Louis could start as many as four rookies on defense this season – and the Rams expect to compete for a Super Bowl. So there's no excuse for a non-contender not to play its youth. It accelerates the rebuilding process.
Undrafted gems
There were some superb signings of undrafted rookies in the hours and days after the draft. Among the winners: Arizona (wide receiver Nathan Poole of Marshall), Buffalo (quarterback Tim Hasselbeck), Indianapolis (defensive end David Warren of Florida State), Philadelphia (punter Jason Baker of Iowa), San Francisco (kick returner Keith Stokes of East Carolina), Tampa Bay (wide receivers Margin Hooks of Brigham Young and Khori Ivy of West Virginia) and Washington (center David Brandt of Michigan).
Family affair
One of the more interesting post-draft, free-agent signings was Central Florida wide receiver Kenny Clark by the Minnesota Vikings. It gives Clark the opportunity to catch passes from Daunte Culpepper at a third different level of competition. Clark caught passes from Culpepper in high school (Ocala Vanguard) and college. The two are cousins, by the way.
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