25 years of roster building- what it reveals

calicowboy54

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Bobhaze said:
A quarter of a century has gone by since the Dallas Cowboys played in and won a Super Bowl. Or played in and won a conference championship game. Or even won a divisional playoff game. Perspective? Dak Prescott was 2 years old the last time that happened. Cedee Lamb wasn’t born yet. Nearly half our current roster wasn’t even born yet. Tony Romo was 15. This could go on....

But I was curious about how this organization invested its roster building capital the last 25 years. By that I mean which positions did the organization spend the most draft and trade capital to build a roster? The answer to that question reveals a big reason why this organization can’t seem to build a playoff winner.

Here are the positions this FO has spent most of its roster and draft capital on the last 25 years showing what they value most:
  • WR- Surprise! The Cowboys have drafted 18 WRs in the last 25 drafts, and have also used 4 number one draft picks in trades for Joey Galloway, Roy Williams, and Amari Cooper. That makes a whopping 22 draft picks used to acquire WRs!
  • DEs- The Cowboys have used 20 draft picks to acquire DEs the last 25 years.
  • LBs- The next most popular position has been LB with 18 draft picks.
  • CBs- Next most popular is corner backs with 13 picks.
  • DTs- only 11 have been drafted over 25 years, and 3 of those were in the last 2 years.
  • I’m not going to go position by position but the bottom two roster positions valued after P and K was also no surprise- S (only 7 drafted in 25 years) and QB (only 6)
If you want to know what an organization values, look at where they spend their roster capital. For the Cowboys the last 25 years, that position is WR. That says a lot about why we can’t seem to get over the playoff hump the last quarter century.

Here is a link I used to look up Cowboys draft history on Pro Football Reference, a free site with lots of good info. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/dal/draft.htm
Click to expand...


this is interesting, now can you do say the Patriots over the same last 25 years and see what they value?
 
Risen Star

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Diehardblues said:
They do and Jethro laid it out recently .
“ relative and interesting “
Click to expand...

Here's Jerry and Stephen's philosophy - they run things.

After that they've got nothing. They don't value any one position over another as some deep philosophical approach to building football teams. That is far above their own capabilities.
 
Diehardblues

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The good news is we haven’t been the Lions, Wash or Browns this era. But that’s who our peers are now.

We are no longer an elite franchise in the NFL. Only at the box office.
 
Bobhaze

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atlantacowboy said:
Great post. Jerry can only imagine winning with that magic "triplets" formula. In order to win, you need someone to play the Aikman , Irvin, and Smith roles. He forgets that he had the #1 defense in the league for much of those super bowl runs.
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Boom! Truth bomb! Those 90s champions had GREAT defenses. Those 70s teams that went to 5 SBs did too. Earth to the Jones cartel- defense matters.
 
CouchCoach

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What was the first team that Booger first looked into buying? The San Diego Chargers and what were they known for? Mad offense and they were the first Greatest Show on Turf. However, they never won anything because they were a thoroughbred than only ran 6 furlongs but they could run them better than anyone, everyone oohed and aahed when they ran. Right up until they had to play defense and go the mile and 16th.

I do not know the specifics of that deal not happening but I think that was an attractant to Booger, show biz was already in his blood.
 

CowboysFaninHouston

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Bobhaze said:
A quarter of a century has gone by since the Dallas Cowboys played in and won a Super Bowl. Or played in and won a conference championship game. Or even won a divisional playoff game. Perspective? Dak Prescott was 2 years old the last time that happened. Cedee Lamb wasn’t born yet. Nearly half our current roster wasn’t even born yet. Tony Romo was 15. This could go on....

But I was curious about how this organization invested its roster building capital the last 25 years. By that I mean which positions did the organization spend the most draft and trade capital to build a roster? The answer to that question reveals a big reason why this organization can’t seem to build a playoff winner.

Here are the positions this FO has spent most of its roster and draft capital on the last 25 years showing what they value most:
  • WR- Surprise! The Cowboys have drafted 18 WRs in the last 25 drafts, and have also used 4 number one draft picks in trades for Joey Galloway, Roy Williams, and Amari Cooper. That makes a whopping 22 draft picks used to acquire WRs!
  • DEs- The Cowboys have used 20 draft picks to acquire DEs the last 25 years.
  • LBs- The next most popular position has been LB with 18 draft picks.
  • CBs- Next most popular is corner backs with 13 picks.
  • DTs- only 11 have been drafted over 25 years, and 3 of those were in the last 2 years.
  • I’m not going to go position by position but the bottom two roster positions valued after P and K was also no surprise- S (only 7 drafted in 25 years) and QB (only 6)
If you want to know what an organization values, look at where they spend their roster capital. For the Cowboys the last 25 years, that position is WR. That says a lot about why we can’t seem to get over the playoff hump the last quarter century.

Here is a link I used to look up Cowboys draft history on Pro Football Reference, a free site with lots of good info. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/dal/draft.htm
Click to expand...
what this reveals, specially since you didn't show the TE and OL and RBs selected, that we are really good at picking offensive players with less draft investment (except WR) given players like Zeke, Dak, Romo, Fredrick, Martin, Smith, Collins, Biadasz, Witten, Schultz (ok, I get it too early to declare anything), Jarwin, etc. we happen to find offensive production including from UDFA..

defensively we invest a lot and we just don't pick well...

why is that?

also, perhaps, not all draft picks are equal and we can do a weighted average, like 1st rounders is 7 pts, 2nd rounders 6 points, etc. and see how many points we spend on each position.....a WR in the 7th round (ala Brown) is not the same as LB in the 2nd round...
 
CouchCoach

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atlantacowboy said:
Great post. Jerry can only imagine winning with that magic "triplets" formula. In order to win, you need someone to play the Aikman , Irvin, and Smith roles. He forgets that he had the #1 defense in the league for much of those super bowl runs.
Click to expand...
As well as the youngest defense in the league, which means they were recent draft selections.

Some may not recall that Emmitt was a fall back after CIN picked James Francis. After getting the QB, Jimmy was all about the D. because he knew how champions were built. He had been a part of a D at AR that set the record for points at that time and didn't give up a point in 5 games. They held the 2nd highest scoring team in the game, the Huskers, to 7 points to win the title.
 
jsb357

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CouchCoach said:
Booger is just following the ball and the money. What position is the most exciting in the game? WR Offense sells tickets and garners attention and he is concerned about putting an entertaining product on the field.
Click to expand...

:hammer:
 
ShortRound

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They've drafted WR's and gotten "lucky" essentially on Romo and Dak. I mean have they drafted the QB spot seriously?
 
cern

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Bobhaze said:
A quarter of a century has gone by since the Dallas Cowboys played in and won a Super Bowl. Or played in and won a conference championship game. Or even won a divisional playoff game. Perspective? Dak Prescott was 2 years old the last time that happened. Cedee Lamb wasn’t born yet. Nearly half our current roster wasn’t even born yet. Tony Romo was 15. This could go on....

But I was curious about how this organization invested its roster building capital the last 25 years. By that I mean which positions did the organization spend the most draft and trade capital to build a roster? The answer to that question reveals a big reason why this organization can’t seem to build a playoff winner.

Here are the positions this FO has spent most of its roster and draft capital on the last 25 years showing what they value most:
  • WR- Surprise! The Cowboys have drafted 18 WRs in the last 25 drafts, and have also used 4 number one draft picks in trades for Joey Galloway, Roy Williams, and Amari Cooper. That makes a whopping 22 draft picks used to acquire WRs!
  • DEs- The Cowboys have used 20 draft picks to acquire DEs the last 25 years.
  • LBs- The next most popular position has been LB with 18 draft picks.
  • CBs- Next most popular is corner backs with 13 picks.
  • DTs- only 11 have been drafted over 25 years, and 3 of those were in the last 2 years.
  • I’m not going to go position by position but the bottom two roster positions valued after P and K was also no surprise- S (only 7 drafted in 25 years) and QB (only 6)
If you want to know what an organization values, look at where they spend their roster capital. For the Cowboys the last 25 years, that position is WR. That says a lot about why we can’t seem to get over the playoff hump the last quarter century.

Here is a link I used to look up Cowboys draft history on Pro Football Reference, a free site with lots of good info. https://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/dal/draft.htm
Click to expand...
great post, as usual, bob. unfortunately, what the cowboys, under the guidance of jerry have not done is invest in a good hc. you would think that the history of tom and jimmy would have been a good lesson. but the "do it my way" guy never got the memo.
 
CouchCoach

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ShortRound131 said:
They've drafted WR's and gotten "lucky" essentially on Romo and Dak. I mean have they drafted the QB spot seriously?
Click to expand...
The last serious one was trying to trade up for Lynch. Even the next day, Booger was kicking himself for not beating DEN's offer of a 2nd and 3rd.

I look at Prescott and think 'what if they'd made that trade or taken Cook as they had planned'? He looks a lot better, a whole lotta mo better.

When all of the Dakbate starts happening, that is my first thought. That and the rogue's gallery between Aikman and Romo.

That is why I think Prescott is a done deal. I believe Booger thinks about where he might be if he had been successful in that trade and not settled on Dak. The saying is "don't look a gift horse in the mouth". Considering this franchise's history with QB acquisition, that wasn't a gift horse, that was the whole herd.
 
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