It’s a time of inaction for the NFL as OTAs and minicamps are over and teams are preparing for training camp. A quiet period during the offseason means a myriad of lists to stoke the fires of fans who otherwise have little distractions.
Bleacher Report recently ranked the seven worst trades since 2000, and the Dallas Cowboys found a place on it with their storied acquisition of WR Joey Galloway.
The Cowboys needed help at receiver after star WR Michael Irvin was forced to retire with a spinal cord injury that he suffered against the Philadelphia Eagles in 1999. Owner and general manager Jerry Jones decided to make a splash move and traded two first-round picks to the Seattle Seahawks for the speedster Galloway.
Unfortunately the trade never paid dividends for the Cowboys. Galloway tore his ACL in his first game with Dallas and never made the impact the team was expecting. The trade was listed as the fourth worst since 2000 as the Cowboys went “all-in on Galloway:”
“Through four years in the NFL, Joey Galloway averaged more than 1,000 yards per season and totaled 36 touchdowns. The wideout wanted a new contract from the Seattle Seahawks badly enough that he held out for half of the 1999 campaign.
In the following offseason, Seattle slapped the franchise tag on Galloway and engineered a massive trade win.
Galloway went to the Dallas Cowboys for a pair of first-round picks. One of those picks turned into Alabama running back Shaun Alexander, who would eventually win NFL MVP while setting a league record for single-season touchdowns. Alexander smashed Seattle’s franchise records for yards and touchdowns.
On the other hand, Galloway missed most of 2000 because of a torn left ACL. He managed 2,279 yards and 11 scores over the next three seasons before Dallas traded him to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.”
The trade was clearly a bust for the Cowboys, who felt the sting of not having first-round selections in back-to-back drafts. Not having those picks hurt even more as the team tried to then replace quarterback Troy Aikman, who retired in 2000 and never really got to play with Galloway.
However, as bad as that trade was for the Cowboys and Jones, was there a trade that might have been worse since then? During the 2008 season, the Cowboys might have made an even bigger trade mistake by acquiring WR Roy Williams from the Detroit Lions in exchange for first, third and sixth-round picks in the 2009 draft. The team then immediately signed Williams to a six-year, $54 million contract.
The trade and the contract turned out to be huge mistakes. The Cowboys needed a star WR, and Williams never worked out. In his 2.5 seasons with the Cowboys, Williams never topped 600 yards receiving or had double-digit scores as he struggled to mesh with the Dallas offense under QB Tony Romo. Really, he was one of the few receivers who had this issue, as Romo routinely made lesser receivers into stars.
Further troubling for the trade was the Cowboys found their No. 1 receiver in undrafted receiver Miles Austin when Williams was brought in. During 2009, Williams’ first full season in Dallas, he caught just 38 passes for 596 yards and seven touchdowns. By comparison, Austin racked up 81 receptions for 1,320 yards and 11 scores that same year and Williams became the second option.
The Williams trade was likely worse for the Cowboys.
Galloway, although he never hit 1,000 yards receiving with the team, did have productive seasons. In Galloway’s three full seasons with Dallas, he went over 600 yards in each and approached 1,000 yards (908) during the 2002 season. And that was with quarterbacks Quincy Carter, Ryan Leaf, Clint Stoener, and Chad Hutchinson.
With Aikman under center for his only game in 2000, Galloway had 64 yards and a score, so it seems fair to assume he would’ve been more productive with Aikman at QB and if healthy.
Williams was never close to being what the Cowboys traded for at WR, despite playing with Romo as his QB. The Cowboys expected a Pro Bowl WR, but Williams didn’t come close to getting that level of play, catching just over 48% of the passes thrown his way during his time in Dallas.
Neither trade will be remembered fondly, but the deal for Williams turned out worse for the franchise. The Cowboys needed Williams to help during Romo’s prime and when the team was legitimate contenders. Galloway came on during the end of an era and when the Cowboys probably weren’t competing for the Super Bowl.
Ironically, neither failure ultimately stopped Jones and the Cowboys from being aggressive in acquiring receiving talent. The 2018 deal for Amari Cooper was one that finally worked out. The team has gotten from Cooper what they needed from Galloway and Williams.
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