[joseephuss]

What are the best/luckiest moves in Cowboys history?

These are moves where the organization took chances and also benefited by other teams passing on players or willing to trade something to Dallas. Some of it is the shrewdness of Tex, Tom, Jimmy and Jerry, but some of it is also luck to be in that position:

1. Cowboys secure rights to Don Meredith? Due to my age, I don’t know the specifics to this signing. I just heard something about how they beat other teams to getting his rights.

2. Dallas drafts Bob Lilly. Again before my time, so I don’t know what other options they had in the draft going into their second season. Seems like a great choice in retrospect.

3. Drafting the rights to Roger Staubach. Obviously every team had more than one chance to draft Roger. Dallas took it. What if they waited one more round? Would he have still been there?

4. Trading for the pick that was Tony Dorsett? Very shrewd move.

5. Drafting the rights for Herschel Walker? Same as the Staubach draft.

6. Trading Herschel Walker. Did they really imagine they would get that much in return for Walker? This is the luckiest move in my opinion. To find a team that would give up that much just amazes me.

7. Positioning themselves to get Emmitt Smith. Other teams wanted Smith and Jimmy supposedly wanted James Francis. The end result was Smith to Dallas.