Cowboys About To Cut Deuce Vaughn?

Has the Dallas Cowboys' feel-good story deteriorated into a wasted draft pick?

A year ago, fans - and the Dallas-Fort Worth media - were all agog over Deuce Vaughn. At only 5-foot-5, he was the quintessential too-short, long-shot underdog. The draft phone call from his father (Cowboys' assistant director of scouting, Chris) produced a goose-bumpy, viral moment. And then in the preseason, Vaughn juked and darted his way onto highlight reels and into end zones and hearts.

Wrote seemingly every headline writer in DFW: "Deuce is Loose!!!"

But then, as quickly as he emerged, the darling of the preseason vanished. Vaughn got 20 carries (for only 40 yards) and made five catches for another 19 in Dallas' first five games. Then ... poof. The dazzling went into the dog house.

Over the season's final 12 games Vaughn was inactive nine times and got on the field only twice.

Sure, he was just a sixth-round draft choice, selected 212th overall down where few gems are unearthed. Unless you're the Green Bay Packers, who 20 picks later in the seventh round selected Carrington Valentine. The cornerback started 14 games as a rookie - including the upset playoff win at AT&T Stadium last January - and begins this season entrenched as a key cog in Green Bay's defense.

The Cowboys are left only with Vaughn's flash-in-the-training-camp pan, because he now resides on the roster bubble after a camp slowed by a hamstring injury and crowded competition.

Related: Matthew Judon Trade BREAKING: Cowboys Idea, But Falcons Making Move

Vaughn is still likely the Cowboys' quickest player, but he doesn't necessarily do anything consistently better than Ezekiel Elliott, Rico Dowdle, Royce Freeman or fullback Hunter Luepke.

At this point - as he returned to work on Wednesday following time off with a hamstring problem and now targeting snaps in preseason Week 2 on Saturday at the Raiders - last year's warm-and-fuzzy narrative has two Hail Mary hopes ...

1. Land on IR with the hamstring injury to buy more time;

2. Hope the Cowboys use him in a dual-return role alongside KaVontae Turpin in the NFL's new kickoff configuration.