ARLINGTON -- Emmitt Smith ... Bob Lilly ... Troy Aikman.

Good things, sometimes even great things, come after bad. That has been the case nine times out of 10 with the Cowboys when they have lost 10 or more games in a season.

DeMarcus Ware ... Mel Renfro ... Roy Williams.

The NFL is designed to achieve parity which means it rewards mediocrity at the top of the draft for teams that inhabit the bottom of the standings. In a season that came to a merciful conclusion Sunday, the Cowboys finished last in the NFC East, a full five games behind a barely-above-average Washington team.

Tyron Smith ... Terence Newman ...Greg Ellis.

Only once after losing 10 games have the Cowboys not immediately grabbed a highly productive player in the draft and that came in 2002 when they had already sent their first-round pick to Seattle for Joey Galloway. So with the 53rd selection in the 2002 draft, the Cowboys added:

The one and only Quincy Carter.

Dallas fell hard Sunday, losing 34-23 in a game that requires no further dissection in this space. The Cowboys won their season opener, a virtual gift from the Giants' Eli Manning and Tom Coughlin. No one imagined on that Sunday night the Cowboys would not win another home game this season.

It happened. This team lost Tony Romo and, for a time, Dez Bryant, and it never came close to recovering. Only the Tennessee Titans and Cleveland Browns lost more games this season. Not even the salary cap-strapped teams of the Dave Campo Era produced a team as bad as 4-12. The Cowboys will select fourth in the April 28 draft, their highest pick since Aikman back in 1989.

After losing 10 or more games, the Cowboys have chosen the players not named Carter mentioned above with top-20 picks. Those nine represented Dallas in Pro Bowls. Four are enshrined in Canton (Lilly, Renfro, Smith, Aikman) and who's to say a couple more (Ware, perhaps Smith) won't be headed there one day.

He has been known for trading down but it's unlikely Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, already enthused about this team's draft prospects, will do anything other than use the pick. And, yes, it could be for Tony Romo's inevitable replacement. Cal's Jared Goff and Memphis' Paxton Lynch are slated to be high picks, although it's very early in the draft process. Rest assured both will move up and down the imaginary draft board almost without cause for the next four months.

I have considered Jones reluctant to seek Romo's replacement with a high pick even with the quarterback turning 36, given both the owner's steadfast belief in Romo and his financial need for him to play until he's 38.

But on Sunday, Jones gave us a peek behind the curtain, suggesting quarterback will definitely be considered if not hotly pursued in the opening hour of this year's draft.

"When you're up this high in the draft and you do have a future need at that strategic position," Jones said, "that alone would cause you to start looking at that position. You hope you're not here again at this level in the draft.

"We'll have to weigh the value of this high pick that we've earned, really earned it."

The Cowboys earned it because they had no ready replacement for Romo. Backup quarterbacks went 1-11 in their starts. But this team had deficiencies all over the place.

Washington quarterbacks combined for four touchdowns with just 26 pass attempts Sunday. This team has a substantial need at cornerback, a position that only continues to gain prominence in a pass-happy league.

The same can be said along the defensive line. No one knows what's in store for Greg Hardy this off-season. If the Cowboys choose not to re-sign him, then there's really no proven pass rusher on the roster beyond DeMarcus Lawrence. We can't really say Randy Gregory represents anything more than wishful thinking after a rookie season in which he went without a sack.

A team with many needs will not be making significant changes on the coaching staff as Jones reiterated Sunday. That means doing more than just hitting a home run with the fourth pick in the draft.

Let's not forget that in 1989, when there was no real reason to believe the Cowboys knew what they were doing beyond Jimmy Johnson having a handle on college players he faced at Miami, the team followed Aikman with the picks of Daryl Johnston, Mark Stepnoski and Tony Tolbert.

That's the kind of draft this club needs, just to begin to put an eraser to a season that saw the third-highest loss total in more than half a century of Cowboys football.

Twitter: @TimCowlishaw