The Cowboys headed into the 1985 draft with the highest pick the team had since trading for the #2 pick to take Tony Dorsett in the 1977 draft. Given that the team had obviously slipped in talent, the team could not afford another sub-par draft.
The Cowboys used a 5th round pick on former Heisman winner Herschel Walker in 1985.
The Cowboys had significant needs at wide receiver, offensive line, and linebacker. According to Dallas Morning News columnist Randy Galloway, the general consensus among fans was, “Draft beer at Texas Stadium before a defensive lineman.”
The Cowboys, of course, drafted a defensive lineman in Kevin Brooks. And the results were predictable: Brooks played four seasons in Dallas and managed a total of 12.5 sacks before being shipped to Detroit after the 1988 season.
The most interesting pick of the draft was the fifth round selection of former Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker. Walker had been playing in the USFL, which folded after 1985. In 18 games in 1985, Walker set a professional football record by rushing for 2411 yards on 438 carries.
Here is what the Cowboys hoped they could look forward to if Walker ever joined the team:
Walker joined the team one year later and became a star. He more famously played a major role in the team’s resurgence during the 1990s, thanks to a rather big trade with the Minnesota Vikings.
It turns out that the Cowboys’ selection of Walker in the fifth round provides a connection between the Cowboys of the 1970s and the Cowboys of the 1990s. In 1984, Dallas traded receiver Butch Johnson and a second round pick to the Oilers in exchange for receiver Mike Renfro, the Oilers’ second round pick, and the Oilers’ 5th round pick in 1985. Dallas used the fifth round pick (114th overall) to take Walker. Thus, trading a receiver who scored a touchdown in Super Bowl XII helped the Cowboys to acquire Walker, whom the Cowboys later used to acquire draft picks that were used to build the 1990s team.
Ok, that was a stretch.
The 1985 draft—
Round(Position): Name, Pos., College
1(17): Kevin Brooks, DT, Michigan
2(44): Jesse Penn, LB, Virginia Tech
3(76): Crawford Ker, G, Florida
4(103): Robert Lavette, RB, Georgia Tech
5(114): Hershel Walker, RB, Georgia
5(119): Matt Darwin, C, Texas A&M
6(144): Kurt Ploeger, DE, Gustavus Adolphus
6(157): Matt Moran, G, Stanford
7(178): Karl Powe, WR, Alabama State
7(184): Jim Herrmann, DE, BYU
8(216): Leon Gonzalez, Bethune-Cookman
9(243): Scott Strasburger, LB, Nebraska
10(270): Joe Jones, TE, Virginia Tech
11(297): Neal Dellocono, LB, UCLA
12(324): Karl Jordan, LB, Vanderbilt
Many Dallas fans wanted the Cowboys to take Miami receiver Eddie Brown instead of Brooks. The Bengals decided to take Brown with the 13th pick, though, and the 49ers traded several draft picks to move up and take a receiver named Jerry Rice. That led Dallas to take Brooks.
Brooks held out before signing a contract, and when he signed, he was guaranteed more money than any other player other than Randy White and Gary Hogeboom.
The remaining players either never played or were forgettable:
* Penn never became a starter and lasted only three seasons.
* Ker became a starter in 1986, but he was never considered among the league’s better guards.
* Lavette wasn’t a bad returner, but he never provided help for the offense.
* Ploeger played a total of three games with the Cowboys.
* Powe caught 14 passes as a rookie in 1985 and even started a game in place of Tony Hill. However, Powe hurt his neck in the season opener in 1986 and never played again.
* Gonzalez served as a punt returner in 1985 but did not play until emerging as a replacement player with the Falcons in 1987.
* Jones never played with the Cowboys. Like Gonzalez, Jones was a replacement player in 1987 with the Colts.
Maybe one of the most overrated running backs to play in the leauge.Herschel was really fast,but had next to no moves,could hardly make anybody miss.I remember Walker running soft when you needed an extra yard for a first down.He was the out of bounds runner that Dorsett,and Emmitt were’nt.All the Walker deal accomplished was put the pieces together for the 90′s,and put a real sour ending to Tony Dorsett’s career here.If you watch a few highlights of Tony against the Giants in ’87,he still had that extra gear,even playing behind a bad line.Herschel’s a nice enough guy,but a little bit of a flake then,and now.
I disagree adamantly with the above comments. As the highlight shows above, he makes a nice cut to avoid a tackler while going in the hole. He was not tremendously nimble, but I saw plenty of times he made a move. I also saw him break many tackles too and he was often renowned for being difficult to tackle. Sometime he ran too upright, and sometimes he may not show agility on Dorsett’s level (how many do that?). I also remember criticism about Dorsett by many fans about his lack of tough running (not true, given his size). I think the above comments represent an overgeneralization. They guy played well in the NFl, and I think, given a couple of better seasons he could have broken 10,000 career yards. A review on Pro Football Reference of his career and his career standing says quite a bit about his value as a player. Did he live up to his college career. MOst likely not. But I would not consider him one of the most overrated.
Walker most certainly had talent. He was very fast, but his running style hid exactly how fast he was. He was also a big threat out of the backfield– probably even more so than Roger Craig.
Walker’s biggest problem, I think, was that his teams did not flourish when those teams centered the offense on him. He came along at the tail end of the single-back offense craze, where teams focused entire offenses on one running back (John Riggins, William Andrews, James Wilder, to name a few). With Walker gaining 2,400 yards in the USFL, I think many believed he would step in and shoulder an offense. I think his teams would have been more effective thinking of him as a multi-talented weapon, much like Dallas used him in ’86 and ’87 before he took over for Dorsett. The Cowboys problem was more about the lack of talent around him (i.e., no solid QB play once Danny White broke his wrist; lack of a solid receiving threat) than the team’s use of Walker. By 1988, the team had nobody to complement Walker and could not win by focusing the offense so much on his skills.
I think you are right Matt. In the NFL, Walker would have been served better in the long run as a multi-talented threat. While not a great blocker at times, I thoght he was ok as a FB with Emmitt Smith for the short period of time. And he could catch pretty well too. You had provided one time, I think, a synopsis of Walker’s style and why it had problems in the NFL when he went to Minnesota. But in the long run, Walkewr’s problem at Dallas ( and he still had one really great year and one very solid year) was the surrounding cast–especially with DW out with the wrist injury and his problematic recovery that limited the wuality of his play afterwards)