What would have been the outcome if Jerry had retained Tom Landry?

If I must, Landry would absolutely have turned this franchise around with Aikman but it would have taken a lot longer. The Hershel Walker trade was so out of the box thinking in the NFL at that time, only an outsider with a mind like Jimmy Johnson would have thought of it. Without that trade, it would have taken years longer.

The same outcome had he "retained" Johnson. More rings!

I just can't see that happening, Tom Landry was royalty, Jerry perceives himself to be royalty. The throne cannot be shared we saw that with Jimmy Johnson. It is as it has always been "the king is dead long live the king"

rnr_honeybadger said:

Given the state of the Cowboys and the general doom and gloom in this place, I figured it might be a good idea to discuss some hypotheticals of what might have been.

Go back in time to when Jerry purchased the Cowboys. What would have been the outcome if he had retained Tom Landry and allowed Landry to rebuild the Cowboys. What would he have done differently? Would he have been as successful as Jimmy in creating a SB contender?

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The outcome would have been coach Landry beating jerry's ***.

rnr_honeybadger said:

Given the state of the Cowboys and the general doom and gloom in this place, I figured it might be a good idea to discuss some hypotheticals of what might have been.

Go back in time to when Jerry purchased the Cowboys. What would have been the outcome if he had retained Tom Landry and allowed Landry to rebuild the Cowboys. What would he have done differently? Would he have been as successful as Jimmy in creating a SB contender?

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Jerry wouldn't own the team

Sorry, but Landry is not trading for Charles Haley, who basically brought Super Bowls to Dallas as much as, or even more, than the Triplets. He's not trading up for Emmitt Smith. He's not drafting pot-smoking Stepnoski (don't think for a moment people didn't know he smoked pot). And he's not trading Herschel Walker.

Landry was getting older and the game was passing him by. But even if you don't buy that, Jimmy Johnson brought a MENTALITY to the Cowboys that made them the Super Bowl teams that they were. Landry would never have bragged that we're going to win the football game. He would never have promised that the Cowboys WILL make the playoffs before the season starts. He's not letting his team talk trash. I'm not knocking that because that would be my approach as a coach. But Johnson's way worked for him and this team. That cockiness, "you can't beat us" attitude fueled the Dallas Cowboys of the 90s. And they played like it.

As much as I loved the Landry Cowboys, they would always manage to lose a game you thought they would win. Johnson's teams hardly ever - not saying never - did that.

Johnson brought fundamental soundness to every unit - offense, defense and special teams. His teams blocked more punts than I've seen before or since from a Cowboys squad.

No! The Cowboys wouldn't have won three Super Bowls under Landry.

But as I've shared previously, I got a chance to interview Tom Landry before he died. I could tell when I asked him about what transpired in Dallas, he was deeply hurt by it, which is understandable. He had spent the better part of his coaching career with the Dallas Cowboys. Having that ripped away from you (whether warranted or unwarranted) had to be heart-wrenching even for a man who appeared as stoic as Tom Landry.

RIH Coach!

What if Kennedy never came to Dallas in 63?

I am one of Tom Landry's biggest fans and he's probably the greatest thing that ever happened to this club. But, it was time for him to retire. In his last year, his playbook had become pretty predictable. On pretty much every series, the first and second downs were off-tackle runs for no yardage. Then, there was a 50-50 attempt at a 3rd down pass. It became hard to watch at times. I loved Coach Landry and still honor the man in the hat.

CouchCoach said:

Tom Landry was a great HC in his time but his time was over, he was no longer innovative and Brandt and Schramm had fallen off their game as well.

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This. The Cowboys were old, depressing, and getting worse. It was time for a rebuild. Jimmy was the right guy for a rebuild.

We'd still be at 3, I love coach Landry but Jimmy is what was needed at the time..

------We'd have 3 fewer SB titles is my guess.

No guessing about it. I went Ape S crazy when he brought Jimmy in....told one of by Packer friends that he would be the most dominant coach in the NFL within 5 years.... best prediction I ever made. Still remember UM trailing Michigan 30-14 in the Big House with 8-9 minutes left,,,,UM won 31-30 in regulation,,,,Jimmy was in TOTAL control with 100,000+ fans against him and his hated renegades....NOBODY will EVER have bigger ones....they are brass!!!

-------If I must, Landry would absolutely have turned this franchise around with Aikman but it would have taken a lot longer.

Sorry...SO wrong....he would have let Randy White and Bill Bates stick around until they were both 55.

this is one of the what-ifs i like to tinker with.

he was going to draft Troy...Herschel and Michael Irvin were already here so i think a turn around from division dweller to contending for the division would be possible.

his last team that went 3-13 was still very competitive...7 of the 13 loses were by 8pts or less...and in many of those games they had the lead going into the last 2min...so he knew he had some guys with some fight.
what he needed was a QB.
i don't know if Troy starts...but i have read several quotes from Danny saying in '89 his wrist had fully healed.
so i think Pelluer probably still gets traded...Danny starts and he brings Troy along slowly...similiar to his other QBs.

he wrote in his book he had hired 2 new def asst's and "knew what changes he needed to make"...but did not flesh that out.
Tex was quoted at the time that Tom was going to involve the 3-4.
Everson and Michael Downs stay so that gives us a solid veteran secondary.
Coach also wrote in his book that Randy White was going to be a player/coach so that would've been cool.

with a veteran QB...i think the win 9 or 10 games in '89...Coach brings us back from the dead and retires.
but if Jerry retains him past '89...Landry's triplets of Troy,Herschel and Michael win 1 super bowl.

fun what if to think on.

Ranching said:

What if Roger had played 4 more years?

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Then that 1980 Super Bowl between the Cowboys and Raiders would have been a classic.

The question should be what if Jerry decided to make Tom Landry the GM?

jsb357 said:

A team living off it's glory days in the 90's...

sounds familiar

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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH MY EYES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what if rockport comes in a call all of you guys trolls?

mrmojo said:

What if Kennedy never came to Dallas in 63?

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No one would care about Dealey Plaza?

FiveSuperBowls said:

The question should be what if Jerry decided to make Tom Landry the GM?

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Even better. Think Tom could have coexisted with Jimmy?

Tom Landry would have resigned before letting Jerry Jones have control over assistant coaches and personnel decisions. And Landry would have never let the salary cap hit figure into who he kept on the roster or who played.