From 1992 through 1995, the Dallas Cowboys went 49-15 in the regular season and 10-1 in the post-season. When they won their third Super Bowl in four seasons in 1995, Troy Aikman was 29, Emmitt Smith was 26, and Michael Irvin was 29.
The Cowboys won one more playoff game in 1996, and haven't won a playoff game since.
What happened? Why couldn't a team with young superstars that was so dominant for four seasons maintain its dominance?
The answer is simple: they failed to continue to add talent through the draft.
The 1992, 1993, and 1995 Super Bowl teams featured many Pro Bowlers that were Dallas draft picks: Troy Aikman ('89), Emmitt Smith ('90), Michael Irvin ('88), Mark Stepnoski ('89), Erik Williams ('91), Russell Maryland ('91), Ken Norton ('88), Larry Allen ('94), and Darren Woodson ('92) were all Cowboy draft picks that made at least one Pro Bowl during a Cowboy Super Bowl season. Dallas built its championship nucleus successfully through the draft.
However, after 1995, the Cowboys generally failed to draft Pro Bowl quality players. 1997 draft pick Dexter Coakley made Pro Bowls in '99, '01, and '03. 1998 draft pick Flozell Adams made Pro Bowls in '03, '04, and '06 (after Aikman, Smith, and Irvin were all gone). No other Cowboy draft picks from 1995 through 2001 made a Pro Bowl while playing for the Cowboys.
Dallas dominated from 1992 through 1995. They were good from 1991-1999, when they made the playoffs eight of nine seasons, but they really only maintained a level of superiority for four seasons. In pro football, it appears hard to maintain dominance with the same nucleus for too much longer than that. The Packers won five championships over a seven year period from 1961 to 1967, largely with the same nucleus. The Steelers won four championships over six years from 1974 to 1979, again largely with the same nucleus. As I discussed previously, the San Francisco 49ers were able to maintain dominance longer (four championships in nine years from '81 to '89, five championships in 14 years from '81 to '94) because they consistently added quality football players through the draft.
The Dallas Cowboys built a dominant team through the draft, but failed to maintain a dominant team through the draft.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
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6 comments:
PV:
I have not checked into this but is it possible the Cowboys drafting got worse after the picks they acquired from the Vikings in the Herschel Walker trade ran out?
This might be oversimplifying things but with the bounty of picks they got from the Vikes, they had a greater margin for error in the draft than any other NFL team for a couple of years. That is, they could almost afford to make a few mistakes and still come out with strong drafts because they had so many more draft picks than other teams.
Woodson is one player they drafted with a pick they got from the Vikings. I'm not sure about any of their other key players. It would be interesting to track what players they got during those years with the picks they acquired from the Walker trade.
Free Agency is another "BIG" reason why the Cowboys Dynasty didn't last longer. The draft no doubt was a contributing factor, a huge one, but Free Agency made it possible for other teams to come in and sign away some of Dallas's key players. Ken Norton was one. The same could be said for other NFL teams, but at the time, Dallas had more to lose because they were in their Dynasty at the time and had their players in place.
dc: their waning draft success also coincides with Jimmy Johnson leaving, but I think you have a point.
incubusor: I've been precisely trying to show that FA is NOT what brought down the Dallas dynasty. They lost FAs, but they also added FAs (like Deion Sanders).
In the 49er post, I showed that the 49ers maintained long-term success not by keeping all the same players, but by consistently drafting quality players to replace those they lost. Between 1981 and 1989, they replaced 20 of 22 Super Bowl starters, mostly through the draft.
The Cowboys had opportunities to replace the players they lost due to age or free agency. But if you look at their drafts after 1992, you see very few quality players added. It wasn't free agency that ended the Dallas dynasty; it was Dallas' failure to draft quality players to replace leaving or aging players.
The 49ers drafted well. Whether there was FA or not, they consistently drafted Pro Bowl quality players between 1981 and 1994. The Cowboys drafted poorly. Free agency would have had a neglible effect on them if they would have drafted quality players from 1992-2001. They didn't.
DC-
Just to tell you all those picks that the Cowboys got they used to make trades to get more picks and to move up in the draft.
In 1990 they used some Minnesota picks to trade up with Pittsburgh to get EMMITT SMITH.
In 1991 they traded the Minnesota 1st rounder along with a pick of theirs and players to get the Patriots #1 overall pick and select Russell Maryland.
And as you said in 1992 they traded picks, etc. and selcted Darren Woodson. Fact is after 1992 their gluttony of picks from Minnesota were gone and they had built a young team via trading those picks etc that went on to be the Championship teams they were. Emmitt Smith is the key.
The Cowboys dismantled their scouting staff in the 1990s after Jones started to get more comfortable and started to assume a lot of the authority. Most observers back then could see that the collapse was coming.
Good research, but the salary cap did a better job of bringing Dallas down than anything. IIRC, Dallas only signed 5 FA's from like '93-'95 (i.e. Deion), but lost something like 33 players to FA because of salary cap restrictions. It certainly didn't help that they didn't draft very well after '95, but they probably would have won at least 1 more Super Bowl if the salary cap didn't happen.
I'm a Cowboys fan, but I still think the current cap system is best for the league.
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