Rank Top Rookie Seasons in Team History

Dak was truly special that rookie year….didn’t see it coming at all.

NeathBlue said:

Walls for me should have been at 1, with Parsons 2 and Dak at 3.
Downs should have been a lot higher… and Walker probably also should have been, especially when you consider how badly the rest of the team that year disintegrated after Danny White went down.

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Your top end makes more sense that what they had.

plasticman said:

I would push Walls and Hayes ahead of Parsons. I would also push Duane Thomas ahead as well.

Why?, Bob Hayes changed the game. He changed both offensive and defensive philosophies. He is #2.

Walls didn't disappear in the playoffs as a rookie. Many people forget that Montana threw three INT's in "The Catch" NFC championship game. Two of them were by Walls who also recovered a fumble. He is #3.

In 1970, the Cowboys reached the Super Bowl for the first time in their history. They weren't even supposed to make the playoffs. In a fourteen game regular season with only one wildcard team per conference, the Cowboys started out 5-4 with both the Cardinals and Giants ahead of them.

Then they gave the ball to Duane Thomas who ran for over 100 yards in three of the remaining five games. He ran for over three hundred yards in the playoffs. He is #4.

Forget regular season numbers. Greatness is measured by how big they play in big games, the ones that will be remembered.

Great rookies don't just accumulate big numbers, They make a difference by changing history. When you subtract my #2 to #4, you subtract championship games.

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Wish I could give 10 likes to this post.

jazzcat22 said:

https://www.dallascowboys.com/news/rank-em-top-25-rookie-seasons-in-team-history

Not a big fan of slide show articles. But sometimes they are the better format.
Some interesting stuff here, as I am sure there will be many different opinions.
Have at it.

I will not spoil it, so you need to go through it.
Any names missing?

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solid list, agree with most... zeke and dak would be high that was great rookie combo

Tony Dorsett was the best rookie year. He won NFL Rookie of the year, scored 12 TDs on the ground, was the missing piece for a Super Bowl team (traded up to get him), got his team to the Super Bowl leading the team in rushing and was the only Cowboy to gain 1K his rookie year for 39 years (Zeke 2016), and then won the Super Bowl scoring the first TD by a rookie RB in the Super Bowl history at the same stadium (Super Dome) he won the College Football Championship scoring a TD in the same endzone. That was a hell of a rookie year from Heisman winner to College Football Champion to Super Bowl Champion in 365 days.

I put Dorsett performance ahead of Dak and Elliott because Dorsett was the lead RB to a Super Bowl.

Larry Allen had an impressive rookie year starting at LT and LG, and making the All Rookie Team. His famous chase down of a LB after an interception was in his rookie year. That OL went to the NFC Championship game. If he and Emmitt did not have bum ankles leading to and in that game, the Cowboys 3-peat.

plasticman said:

I would push Walls and Hayes ahead of Parsons. I would also push Duane Thomas ahead as well.

Why?, Bob Hayes changed the game. He changed both offensive and defensive philosophies. He is #2.

Walls didn't disappear in the playoffs as a rookie. Many people forget that Montana threw three INT's in "The Catch" NFC championship game. Two of them were by Walls who also recovered a fumble. He is #3.

In 1970, the Cowboys reached the Super Bowl for the first time in their history. They weren't even supposed to make the playoffs. In a fourteen game regular season with only one wildcard team per conference, the Cowboys started out 5-4 with both the Cardinals and Giants ahead of them.

Then they gave the ball to Duane Thomas who ran for over 100 yards in three of the remaining five games. He ran for over three hundred yards in the playoffs. He is #4.

Forget regular season numbers. Greatness is measured by how big they play in big games, the ones that will be remembered.

Great rookies don't just accumulate big numbers, They make a difference by changing history. When you subtract my #2 to #4, you subtract championship games.

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I hadn’t even read the piece yet and my first reaction was “Walls”…it was incredible what he did. Pretty much a lockdown rookie that was undrafted.

The ones I had the chance to watch I would rank:

Prescott: Even being limited, hard to argue with a Pro Bowl rookie QB

Parsons: Look up his stats and compare them with Khalil Macks DMVP seasons....

Zach Martin: He had few rivals amoung the best intior OL the minute he stepped on to the field

Elliott: 1600 yards in 15 games is impressive no matter the era

Tyron Smith: Was one of the best OL in the game playing at RT in 2011. Took a short step back as a LT in 2012, but his rookie year he was almost as dominant as Martin

Travis Frederick: Came in as a pro bowl caliber player day 1. Frederick was Oblivion where Martin was Skyrim

Emmitt Smith: The only rookie from that era Ill put on the list, just because he signled a turn of fortune in 1990 and he stood out

LVE: He was a dominant player as a rookie, I knock him down the list because he was exposed a couple times that year. He was good, but he could be gameplanned

Ceedee Lamb: Almost got 1k playing most of the year with a collection of backups and no OL.


Julius Jones: He looked like a future all pro as a rookie. 800 yards in 8 ganes

Coakley: As productive as LVE was, but not nearly as dominant.

Antonio Bryant: Didnt work out, but he looked like a future #1

Ware: Seems sacrilegious to have him so low, but before his last two games he was so so

Murray: Gets the hype, but outside his big game, he was so so. Jones was a better rookie

Honerable mention: Larry Allen, Kevin Smith, Darrin Smith, Robert Jones. Notable rookies from that early 90's era. I exclude them because I was so young at the time, it would be difficult for me to give them a propler value

Miller said:

I hadn’t even read the piece yet and my first reaction was “Walls”…it was incredible what he did. Pretty much a lockdown rookie that was undrafted.

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Add in the fact that, in the 1981 season, he was accompanied by another undrafted free agent rookie in the defensive backfield, Safety Michael Downs. Downs had 7 INT's

On the other side they had CB Dennis Thurman with 9 INT's that season. Thurman was a 1978 11th round pick. So, by today's standards, the Cowboys starting defensive backfield in 1981 featured three undrafted free agents, two of them rookies. Two of the backups in the secondary were also undrafted free agents, Benny Barnes with one INT and Steve Wilson with two.

That season 30 of their 37 total INT's were made by undrafted free agents.

That puts into context just how amazing that season was when they led the league in INT's while setting a Cowboys record for INT's in a single season. If I'm not mistaken, they are still ranked 4th in NFL history. A lot of credit should go to former Junction Boy, Cowboys Defensive Back Coach and eventual Crimson Tide HC, Gene Stallings.

That 1981 defense produced a total of 53 turnovers. There was only one game in their 16 game season where they didn't produce a turnover and only three total games where they didn't produce at least two.