When and how did the Cowboys become a well run organization?

doomsday9084

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We all know the history of the Jerry Jones Cowboys. Hires Jimmy Johnson, does fantastic. After Johnson gets fired, the next 10-20 years were all about Jerry's ego. Some horrible drafts, crappy free agent decisions, bad coaching hires, overpaying washed up vets trying to chase the past, etc. The moment of clarity that was the Parcells hire brought in Ware, Witten, Romo, etc. but that kind of washed away as the team slid back into Jerryness.

Its painful as a Cowboys fan to admit but for a lot of the period from 1993-2013 or so, the Cowboys were not a well run team.

Something happened though. I can't really put my finger on a date. There is no one in the organization that I can say was hired that caused the turnaround. That said, they now:
- Draft extraordinarily well. Don't let a few missed picks bother you. Drafting is hard and even the best at it have their share of misses. If you can get a hit 50% of the time you are really good.
- Don't overpay people on the downside of their careers.
- Started hiring younger, out of the box thinkers (Moore, Richard)
- Stopped chasing free agents who were going to get overpaid

What happened? Are they just lucky? Is Stephen Jones really a genius and is taking over? Is there some really smart guy buried in the organization like a Gil Brandt that is making everyone look good? Did Jerry just learn how this all works?

The thing that we, as Cowboy fans should be encouraged by is that what is going on doesn't look like a flash in the pan. This looks like an organization that is well run and that means its sustainable. I know everyone hates the Squealers and Cheatriots but those organizations have a total of 2 losing seasons between them this century. Even in this age of parity, its possible to have sustained success.
 
Reality

Reality

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It's just my opinion, but I think the biggest change in the Cowboys is they have been drafting better the last several years.

I think that happened because Jerry and company started letting the player personnel staff and scouts decide who to draft.

Outside of a couple of picks, most of the picks the Cowboys have made have been rather "blah" on draft day compared to the past and many of those "blah" picks turned out to be really good players.

As for luck .. they were somewhat lucky in drafting Prescott in the 4th (they expected Romo to be here a few more years) and drafting Jaylon Smith with a 2nd (especially after losing on other high-risk and/or injured pick gambles).
 
Whirlwin

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Reality said:
It's just my opinion, but I think the biggest change in the Cowboys is they have been drafting better the last several years.

I think that happened because Jerry and company started letting the player personnel staff and scouts decide who to draft.

Outside of a couple of picks, most of the picks the Cowboys have made have been rather "blah" on draft day compared to the past and many of those "blah" picks turned out to be really good players.

As for luck .. they were somewhat lucky in drafting Prescott in the 4th (they expected Romo to be here a few more years) and drafting Jaylon Smith with a 2nd (especially after losing on other high-risk and/or injured pick gambles).
Click to expand...
If I'm correct I believe we had 14 different starting quarterbacks after Troy Aikman. Before Tony Romo. Getting Prescott in the fourth round for me and have him be this accomplished already. Was priceless. And William McClay has been absolutely brilliant in his analysis
 
CATCH17

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Sloooooooooooooooooowly


I just think Will McClay deserves a lot of credit for his drafting. We got a lot of good players and now they may actually have some decent coaching to go with it.
 
exciter

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Reality said:
It's just my opinion, but I think the biggest change in the Cowboys is they have been drafting better the last several years.

I think that happened because Jerry and company started letting the player personnel staff and scouts decide who to draft.

Outside of a couple of picks, most of the picks the Cowboys have made have been rather "blah" on draft day compared to the past and many of those "blah" picks turned out to be really good players.

As for luck .. they were somewhat lucky in drafting Prescott in the 4th (they expected Romo to be here a few more years) and drafting Jaylon Smith with a 2nd (especially after losing on other high-risk and/or injured pick gambles).
Click to expand...
Stopped all the trading up and down and have let the board fall to them and been able to pick players a round lower than what they were graded in several instances! Still think they got really lucky with Jaylon working out!
 
ElGatoGrande

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It happened when Garrett convinced Jerry to rebuild the team from the inside out. It's taken time to do it through the draft and there was a stall when Romo was lost but all seems to be back on track with Dak getting over the hump.

All hail the Red Genius!
 
AsthmaField

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Drafting (including paying a lot of attention to smarts and character), a different approach to free agents, and improving with the salary cap.

These things have changed in a big, big way... and that is pretty much everything that matters.

No longer is this a dysfunctional franchise. They’re one of the best.

Been different since the 2011 draft.
 
big dog cowboy

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doomsday9084 said:
We all know the history of the Jerry Jones Cowboys. Hires Jimmy Johnson, does fantastic. After Johnson gets fired, the next 10-20 years were all about Jerry's ego. Some horrible drafts, crappy free agent decisions, bad coaching hires, overpaying washed up vets trying to chase the past, etc. The moment of clarity that was the Parcells hire brought in Ware, Witten, Romo, etc. but that kind of washed away as the team slid back into Jerryness.

Its painful as a Cowboys fan to admit but for a lot of the period from 1993-2013 or so, the Cowboys were not a well run team.

Something happened though. I can't really put my finger on a date. There is no one in the organization that I can say was hired that caused the turnaround. That said, they now:
- Draft extraordinarily well. Don't let a few missed picks bother you. Drafting is hard and even the best at it have their share of misses. If you can get a hit 50% of the time you are really good.
- Don't overpay people on the downside of their careers.
- Started hiring younger, out of the box thinkers (Moore, Richard)
- Stopped chasing free agents who were going to get overpaid

What happened? Are they just lucky? Is Stephen Jones really a genius and is taking over? Is there some really smart guy buried in the organization like a Gil Brandt that is making everyone look good? Did Jerry just learn how this all works?

The thing that we, as Cowboy fans should be encouraged by is that what is going on doesn't look like a flash in the pan. This looks like an organization that is well run and that means its sustainable. I know everyone hates the Squealers and Cheatriots but those organizations have a total of 2 losing seasons between them this century. Even in this age of parity, its possible to have sustained success.
Click to expand...
It's a process.
 

Sydla

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Make a NFCCG for the first time in two decades and we can talk about how well they are run. Being "well run" means they have all phases covered - drafts, free agency, contract handling, coaching, etc.

At every point since the last SB, this team has failed in at least one of the areas above and cost themselves. I mean if this team makes the playoffs again and then bows out before or in the divisional round, can we claim they are "well run"?

At this point, after 20 years, I need actual results, not feel good stories.
 
xpistofer

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doomsday9084 said:
We all know the history of the Jerry Jones Cowboys. Hires Jimmy Johnson, does fantastic. After Johnson gets fired, the next 10-20 years were all about Jerry's ego. Some horrible drafts, crappy free agent decisions, bad coaching hires, overpaying washed up vets trying to chase the past, etc. The moment of clarity that was the Parcells hire brought in Ware, Witten, Romo, etc. but that kind of washed away as the team slid back into Jerryness.

Its painful as a Cowboys fan to admit but for a lot of the period from 1993-2013 or so, the Cowboys were not a well run team.

Something happened though. I can't really put my finger on a date. There is no one in the organization that I can say was hired that caused the turnaround. That said, they now:
- Draft extraordinarily well. Don't let a few missed picks bother you. Drafting is hard and even the best at it have their share of misses. If you can get a hit 50% of the time you are really good.
- Don't overpay people on the downside of their careers.
- Started hiring younger, out of the box thinkers (Moore, Richard)
- Stopped chasing free agents who were going to get overpaid

What happened? Are they just lucky? Is Stephen Jones really a genius and is taking over? Is there some really smart guy buried in the organization like a Gil Brandt that is making everyone look good? Did Jerry just learn how this all works?

The thing that we, as Cowboy fans should be encouraged by is that what is going on doesn't look like a flash in the pan. This looks like an organization that is well run and that means its sustainable. I know everyone hates the Squealers and Cheatriots but those organizations have a total of 2 losing seasons between them this century. Even in this age of parity, its possible to have sustained success.
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, Parcells wanted to draft Spears at #11, but Jerry talked him into Ware (then they got Spears at #20). And Romo was in town because of Payton, and would have been cut if not for Q's drug issue. Yes, Parcells was excellent, but Jerry deserves some credit for helping build that era team, IMHO.
 
zrinkill

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I remember when we drafted Fredbeard ........ there was an uproar about how he would have been there in the 3rd round........ that we wasted a 1st round pick.
 
NeathBlue

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Previous mistakes that left us unable to bring in expensive free agents, actually contributed to the position we are at now.
We’ve drafted really well these last few years which is where we have the majority of our starters, and because we were unable to bring in those overpriced free agents over the last few years, we now have the cap space to give new contracts to the players we drafted.
If we’d had cap space a few years ago and signed free agents, chances are we’d be up against the cap again right now.
So with a mixture of good management and a bit of luck, the Cowboys are now run like they should have been years ago.
 
Blackspider214

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We are more stable than the past but we still employ Garrett and he has been terrible since the end of 2007. He had no business being head coach. We have made no progress at all over the last 2 decades. We have never put back to back playoff seasons in how long now? 2006 to 2007? I would not call that a well run organization. I like the direction but we have to prove we can actually sustain the success we want and not be "next year's champs" constantly.
 
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