Old heads: tell me about this Steve Walsh vs Aikman competition

garyo1954 said:

After reading the thread had to go back and read what we got for Walsh....

Johnson, also his coach in Miami, reportedly favored him as the starter,[4] but Walsh was never able to move out of Aikman's shadow and was traded to the New Orleans Saints three games into the 1990 season, in exchange for a first, second and third round draft picks.[5] With the third draft choice the Cowboys selected (#70-Erik Williams), the other two picks (#14-Leonard Russell and #52-Patrick Rowe) were traded to the New England Patriots as a package to move up to the number one overall draft choice to select Russell Maryland.

Final analysis we got Erik Williams and Russell Maryland for a supplemental pick.

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that supp pick was #1 overall.

Chocolate Lab said:

Jimmy supposedly wasn't sure if Aikman had the winner's mentality, etc. at first, so he took the known quantity in Walsh.

Bad move by Jimmy because Walsh wasn't a tenth the QB Aikman was. Walsh was skinny with a noodle arm, and simply didn't have the physical ability to be a top NFL QB. Meanwhile Aikman was basically the perfect prototype. As others said, Jimmy got away with a sort of rookie mistake by duping the Saints into giving a first (and more) for Walsh.

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Jimmy loved to play mind games to get the highest value

I remember not liking Troy because I thought he was a wimp. He would get up from a sack and act like an old man who was frail. He also sucked at the deep ball. Once we put it together he couldn’t be stopped. It was 5 and 7 step drops and boom ball in hands. No hesitation. Just expected his WR to be there in a spot.

DCreppinBoysfan said:

This wasn’t Quincy vs Clint vs Drew? Romo vs Bledsoe?

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not at all. jimmy when he came in wasn't really a fan of aikman, so he took walsh in the supplemental draft, 1st round. that said, when walsh wasn't able to unseat aikman, johnson got more than what he gave up for walsh.

I guess people just feel the need to change and rewrite history for some reason. Troy was the consensus #1 pick and when Jimmy went to see Troy work out, he called Jerry right afterwards from his excitement. Troy was signed by Dallas to a record contract prior to the draft. I guess some folks feel they have to knock Jimmy for some reason.

The lone holdover from Tom Landry's staff is why Dallas became the Legend of Troy. All the ex-miami staff wanted Walsh to start and play over Aikman. Jimmy Johnson however, was always thinking trade with Walsh as he actually tried to move him his rookie year.

Jerry Rhome was a QB guru that Tex, Brandt, and Landry hired for the specific purpose of tutoring and grooming the young legend of Troy (see Jim Zorn, Dave Krieg, and Mark Rypien). Jerry Rhome was a back up QB under Landry until the arrive of a back up QB from the Naval Academy. So Rhome knew the QB position and how to groom young QBs. The fact that Jimmy Johnson kept him even though he made a deal to bring Dave Shula to Dallas as OC in order to get Dave Wannesdat out of Miami (he had signed as the new Dolphins LB coach under Don Shula), shows that Jimmy did respect to most experience coach on his coaching staff.

During staff meeting Johnson had all the coaches comment who should the Cowboys QB between Walsh and Aikman. All the ex-Miami Jimmy Johnson coaches and Dave Shula said Steve Walsh. That is when Jerry Rhome went ballistic asking if they all lost their minds. Troy Aikman was just literally head and shoulders better than Steve Walsh. There was control fighting between Rhome and Shula all year. Shula would be replaced by Johnson in 1991 by Norv Turner. Rhome left in 1990 to be OC of the Cardinals.

Yes Jimmy called Troy a loser but that was not an indicator that he taught Steve Walsh was the long term answer. Jimmy Johnson traded Walsh to the Saints for a 1st, 3rd in 1991, and a 2nd in 1992.The trade to New Orleans would have happen in the 1989 season but Aikman got hurt. 1990 Walsh led the Saints to the playoffs while Aikman sat injured at home again (ironically Walsh knocked the Cowboys out the playoffs the last game of the season). The next year Walsh was beaten out by the Cajun Cannon (Bobby Hebert) and Aikman got injured again as Steve Beuerlein led the Cowboys to the playoffs. By 1992 Troy Aikman was a Super Bowl winning QB and Steve Walsh was a back up about to be cut by the Saints.

jimmy's lack of full faith in Aikman in that first year carried over into 90. It got so bad for aikman where he thought he wasnt wanted he was going to march into Jimmys hotel room the night before they played the rams in 1990 in november and demand a trade. Babe laufenberg has told this story many times...Babe understood what was going on and sat aikman down and convinced him not to do that. they were 3-7 and Aikman didnt win a single game in 89.

Aikman threw for 300 yards and 3 touchdowns...Dallas went on a four game winning streak and were in line for the final wild card spot but Aikman was injured against the cardinals and Babe had to play the final two weeks, the first one against the eagles and their great defense. Babe was terrible, they lost both games and missed the playoffs.

This gave aikman some confidence. They hired norv turner in 91 and there was no doubt whose team it was. However jimmy and troy still didnt get along, Aikman getting hurt at washington in november 91 left some doubt in jimmy's mind and Steve Beurlein led them to the playoffs and beat chicago in the wild card round.

Then Aikman declared he was healthy enough to play and Jimmy didn't want to put him back in and stop the momentum and Beurlein started at Detroit and dallas got blown out. Jimmy put Aikman in later in the game.

anyway. At some point in 92 Aikman and jimmy found common ground and put all this behind them. The rest is history.

It has to to suck for Aikman still to this day to look back and see Steve Walsh one the only game in 89 at washington and then Beurlein won the first playoff game with this team because he was unfortunately hurt.

All the great teams that win have some sort of friction.

I guess I’m an old head.

As to the question, the first thing to note is that there was internet back then. ESPN was in full glory but you couldn’t get the inside of you were out of town like now.

As to the competition, aikman was the starter day one but Walsh actually won the only game that year. Walsh was gritty but aikman was Superman to his Clark Kent.

jterrell said:

Troy was always the better QB athletically but Walsh was a natty winner at Miami with Johnson and most of his NFL staff.
Jimmy wanted to draft the Roid Freak LT and start Walsh but Ackles/Jerry would let him and they took Troy.
Troy struggled a bit at first but you could see the insane arm strength he had. And he was bigger and faster.
That first year Walsh actually won the only game they won as a team.

Aikman had Norv Turner present him for a reason.
Norv was always all in Troy and developed the offense to suit him perfectly.
Run first, then repeated absolute darts to Irvin and the occasional deep shots to WR2 who was always single covered.

As only Jimmy could he turned it all around and got an R1 and R3 for Walsh plus got Aikman to buy in after jettisoning Walsh and bonding over exotic fish.

In the end Troy's sense of discipline and routine were matched perfectly with Jimmy.

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such a good point about Norv..Norv changed the offense to a timing /route based..obviously heavy on the run. Once Norv came , everything seemed to click..Then Haley..then SB's

I will never think of Jimmy as a genius because of the Walsh pick (add Russel Maryland pick , also).

TBH - jimmy was fortunate that the 1st rd pick he recouped by trading Walsh away (we would have had the number one pick in the 90 draft if he hadn’t taken that flyer on Walsh in the supplemental draft) turned out to be Emmitt. We had control of that draft without taking Walsh but being forced to “settle for” Emmitt (it was well known that Jimmy was seriously thinking LB James Francis in the first rd) was the best thing to come from the whole Walsh scenario. Bad decision to take him in supplemental draft, but it led to cementing the triplets.

blueblood70 said:

wasn't Steve Pelluer in this mix all at the same time.. one was a supplemental draft pick from I believe Jimmys Miami hurricanes and he liked him a lot..with troys bad play and injuries, there was a true QB controversy AT FIRST..it was short lived but nonetheless wasn't pretty..

btw those say it wasn't a competition and it was clearly Troys job didnt live through that 1-15 season.. Jimmy brought in HIS guy and was seriously givng him a shot..

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Pelluer was already gone to KC by this time.

jterrell said:

that supp pick was #1 overall.

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That was my recollection. Dallas ended up giving up one hell of a pick just to try Walsh out. As others have said, the competition wasn't much of one. Aikman was such a better thrower. The issue was that #1 overall given up for Walsh. It kind of got hidden by the Herschel Walker haul. Dallas gave up the #1 in a year where Cortez Kennedy and Junior Seau were top 5 picks. I couldn't imagine the butterfly effect if Dallas had kept the pick, traded down to 3 and then taken Kennedy.

robbieruff said:

TBH - jimmy was fortunate that the 1st rd pick he recouped by trading Walsh away (we would have had the number one pick in the 90 draft if he hadn’t taken that flyer on Walsh in the supplemental draft) turned out to be Emmitt. We had control of that draft without taking Walsh but being forced to “settle for” Emmitt (it was well known that Jimmy was seriously thinking LB James Francis in the first rd) was the best thing to come from the whole Walsh scenario. Bad decision to take him in supplemental draft, but it led to cementing the triplets.

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I thought the pick that they got Emmitt with was a part of the Herschel deal.

doomsday9084 said:

I thought the pick that they got Emmitt with was a part of the Herschel deal.

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I think it was the Saints pick but u cud be right. I just know that had he not used the supp pick on Walsh, we would have had the number one pick in the 90 draft. I don’t believe we take Emmitt in that scenario was my point since Jimmy was leaning defense.

DCreppinBoysfan said:

Sounds juicy. I came aboard class of 98 aka the Chan Gailey season. Skip Bayless mentioned this this morning. That sounds like a great camp competition or was it.


And be honest, who were you pulling for? Was it close competition? Anything you have to say about it, speak on it. How did Jerry feel about it?

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First Johnson had to convince Jones to take his former QB at Miami. Jones originally said they drafted Aikman with the 1st pick in the draft and using the 1st pick in the supplemental draft on another QB that declared form the draft to late and would cost the Cowboys their 1st round pick in the 1999 draft wasn't the ting to do. Johnson finally convinced Jones to do it. So Aikman was named the starter and Walsh was his backup. So in their second season after week 1 the saints offed the Cowboys their #1 and 3rd picks in the 1991 draft and their #2 pick in 1992. Jones said that was a no brainer.
.

blueblood70 said:

Steve Pelluer

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Never speak that name again.

robbieruff said:

TBH - jimmy was fortunate that the 1st rd pick he recouped by trading Walsh away (we would have had the number one pick in the 90 draft if he hadn’t taken that flyer on Walsh in the supplemental draft) turned out to be Emmitt. We had control of that draft without taking Walsh but being forced to “settle for” Emmitt (it was well known that Jimmy was seriously thinking LB James Francis in the first rd) was the best thing to come from the whole Walsh scenario. Bad decision to take him in supplemental draft, but it led to cementing the triplets.

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Exactly, Jimmy belongs in the HOF but some fans give him more credit than he deserves. Great coach and motivator but the Hershel Walker trade covered a lot of sins like trading high picks for Alonzo Highsmith and Terrence Flagler. The Saints really bailed Jimmy out like you say, or it would be another mark against Jimmy.

DCreppinBoysfan said:

Sounds juicy. I came aboard class of 98 aka the Chan Gailey season. Skip Bayless mentioned this this morning. That sounds like a great camp competition or was it.


And be honest, who were you pulling for? Was it close competition? Anything you have to say about it, speak on it. How did Jerry feel about it?

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There’s no old heads here, just wiser men.

DCreppinBoysfan said:

Sounds juicy. I came aboard class of 98 aka the Chan Gailey season. Skip Bayless mentioned this this morning. That sounds like a great camp competition or was it.


And be honest, who were you pulling for? Was it close competition? Anything you have to say about it, speak on it. How did Jerry feel about it?

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98? So, you're the bad luck guy!!!!!