The Big Red Zone continues its series looking back on each of the 28 St. Louis Cardinals drafts (1960-87). This installment focuses on the 1984 Draft, which was held May 1-2 in New York.

When the Cardinals selected University of Tennessee wide receiver Clyde Duncan with their first-round pick (17^th overall) in the 1984 NFL Draft, no one was more surprised than Duncan himself.

“It was a really a shock. I had no idea I would go in the first round,” said Duncan, who did not make a significant impact as a receiver at Tennessee until his senior season, when he caught 33 passes for 640 yards and six touchdowns.

The Big Red chose Duncan even though they could have taken the more highly rated Louis Lipps, a wide receiver from Southern Mississippi. 

In his first two seasons in the NFL—his only seasons—Duncan had a combined four receptions for 39 yards and one touchdown. In his first two seasons, Lipps caught 104 passes for 1,994 yards and 21 TDs for Pittsburgh.

There was only one problem with Duncan. He couldn’t catch the football. 

That would eventually become apparent to head coach Jim Hanifan, who told reporters on the day of the draft that he anticipated Duncan would step in as the Big Red’s No. 3 wideout and take away some of the double coverage Roy Green and Pat Tilley faced.

But when Green suffered a knee injury during a 1985 game against Houston, Hanifan inserted third-string quarterback Rick McIvor, not Duncan, at wide receiver.

Hanifan was fired after the 1985 season and succeeded as head coach by Gene Stallings, who had even less patience with Duncan. On August 18, 1986, Stallings released Duncan.

“My position is that I’ve got to see results from a veteran,” Stalling told the media. “At this point, I just hadn’t seen any results.”

Added offensive coordinator Jim Shofner: “Obviously, he had problems catching the ball. His catching the ball worried us the most.” 

A damning appraisal for a wide receiver.

1984 St. Louis Cardinals Draft

Rd-Pick	Player Name	Position	College Name
1-17	Clyde Duncan	WR	Tennessee
2-45	Doug Dawson	G	Texas
3-80	Rick McIvor	QB	Texas
4-101	Martin Bayless	DB	Bowling Green
5-129	Jeff Leiding	LB	Texas
5-136	John Goode	TE	Youngstown St.
6-157	Rod Clark	LB	Texas St.
7-185	Quentin Walker	RB	Virginia
8-201	Niko Noga	LB	Hawaii
8-213	Bob Pauling	K	Clemson
9-241	John Walker	RB	Texas
10-269	Mark Smythe	DT	Indiana
11-296	Kyle Mackey	QB	Texas A&M-Commerce
12-325	Paul Parker	G	Oklahoma

Clyde Duncan’s brief NFL career was a disaster from the start. He missed his entire rookie training camp because of a contract dispute—he finally agreed to a five-year, $1.55 million deal—then suffered a separated shoulder during the 1984 season. Because of the holdout and the shoulder injury, he played in only eight games as a rookie and never caught a pass. Duncan’s 1985 season was only marginally better. He caught four passes for 39 yards, including a 2-yard touchdown in the final game of the season against Washington, and averaged 19.6 yards on 28 kickoff returns. After being released by the Big Red, Duncan never played in the NFL again. As for Louis Lipps, he played nine NFL seasons and finished his career with 359 receptions for 6,019 yards and 39 touchdowns.

Second-round pick Doug Dawson was a first-team All-America selection in 1983 and started for four years at Texas. He played three seasons in St. Louis (1984-86) and started 18 of the 32 games he played in, including all 16 games in 1985 at left guard. He later played with Houston (1990-93) and Cleveland (1994).

Although he wasn’t taken until the eighth round (201^st overall), Samoan Niko Noga was the Cardinals’ most productive draft pick in ’84. In the beginning, Noga excelled on special teams, but it wasn’t long before the hard-hitting former Hawaii down lineman found a starting spot as a linebacker. One of Noga’s best performances came in a 1987 game against Tampa Bay, where the Cardinals overcame a 28-3 deficit in the fourth quarter and won, 31-28. Noga had 10 tackles and returned a fumble 24 yards for a touchdown. During his five seasons with the Cardinals, Noga started 55 of 76 games, recovered six fumbles and had seven sacks. After being released before the 1989 season, he signed with Detroit and played three more seasons in the NFL. 

Rick McIvor (1984-85) was the third quarterback drafted in ’84 after Boomer Esiason and Jeff Hostetler. He played in only six games for St. Louis; he was 0-for-4 passing and rushed three times for five yards.

Martin Bayless, who intercepted 27 passes during his college career (an NCAA record that still stands), played in only three games before the Cardinals released him. He went on to carve out a good NFL career playing for Buffalo, San Diego, Kansas City and Washington.

John Goode played only one season for St. Louis (’84) and caught three passes for 23 yards.

The 1984 season also was the only one for Quentin Walker, who injured his leg in training camp and played in only three games.