The current team lacks a super intense butt kicking type player that is a bit insane.
The biggest hitter on the current team is Jeff Heath and the player with the most "attitude" is probably Michael Bennett. La'el had potential to be that type of player but young players with Garrett as Head Coach tend to become emotionless robots.
The 85 Bears had Mike Singletary.
The late seventies Cowboys had Randy White.
The Nineties Cowboys Super Bowl teams had Erik Williams (Yes, they had Charles Haley, but it was EW that put fear into opponents). Most fans/media think Larry Allen was the most feared Cowboys player but for those couple of years prior to the car accident, EW was probably the scariest player to ever suit up in a Cowboys uniform.
Erik Williams had the Randy White "I want to kill you" mentality on the field, but he did it in a 6-6, 330+ body which was a big scale up from Randy at 6-4, 260 (Randy's natural weight was really a good bit below 260. He was originally a 4-3 LB. By living in the weight room Randy was able to get up to that 260 range). EW had to work to keep his weight down to around 330.
Just ask Darren Woodson or Nate Newton about Erik Williams. Both laugh when people ask about Charles Haley being a scary guy. Haley didn't scare teammates, he just annoyed them. Woodson has described in some amount of detail how everyone including teammates and opponents were scared of EW, especially on game day.
The concept of opponents suddenly coming up with injuries before playing the Cowboys started with EW, not with Larry Allen. When you make Reggie White cry, other defensive players take notice. Woodson said that Reggie White was the nicest man of all players that he ever met but that EW made Reggie White want to fight which Woodson said had probably never happened before.
The other issue with EW is that opponents didn't just claim to be injured, they often did get injured by EW. He was directly involved in two DL that got broken legs and many other front 7 defensive players seemed to end up injured after coming into contact with EW.
The Wade Phillips era had Jay Ratliff. You had to see Ratliff up close in training camp to really appreciate him as a player. When they did DL/OL drills, the intensity level of Ratliff completely dwarfed all other players. It liked sounded and looked like a tornado had suddenly hit the field. Words just don't do justice to what I saw back then when stand 10 yards away from those drills.
Side Note:
The intensity I describe seeing with Ratliff is something I really only saw from 2 players in all of my years of going to training camp (I started going to camp in 92). Erik Williams was the original intensity freak that I saw in TC. At one (I think it was the 93 training camp) I though EW had killed Charles Haley. Haley tried his slap to the head move on EW and in one sweeping move EW with one hand picked up Haley and slammed him to the ground in a way that I've never seen in a game. I never saw Haley line up against EW again in that or any other training camp (It was not Haley's normal side anyway, but I'm certain that Haley intentionally avoided EW). There is a rumor that EW was standing nearby or involved in the incident when Jimmy Johnson shoved Haley into a toilet stall and flushed, telling Haley that was his career going down the drain. I've never found a confirmation of that rumor, but it would be interesting if true. It is well known that the OLine back then policed the locker-room with Mark Tuinei also known to have a low tolerance for nonsense.
The closest the Garrett era Cowboys got to that was for 7 glorious games in 2014 when Jermey Parnell played RT next to a healthy Zack Martin. That combo physically dominated DLinemen and Parnell was the guy that would jump into any skirmish and be ready to fight. The Cowboys best assistant coach in the Garrett era loved Parnell but Garrett preferred Doug Free who could not fight his way out of a wet paper bag.
The Cowboys have super intense Sean Lee and guy that lives for football in Witten but they are not crazy enough to fit the type of player that I'm suggesting.
Ron Leary had a bit of that mean streak but was too often injured.
Tyron is obviously physically intimidating but is "too nice".
Michael Bennett has a bit of that mentality but has not been here long enough and Garrett would try to shut him down anyway.
Greg Hardy could have been that guy. If Jimmy was the Head Coach, he would have made Hardy into a Charles Haley type Hall of Fame player, but Garrett could NOT deal with Hardy. Maybe the Goodell era NFL would limit what Jimmy could do with Hardy, but he definitely could have gotten another couple of years from Hardy (Hardy played at a high level on the field. Offenses focused on him which allowed DLaw to have success on the other side).
It required having Kris Richard on the coaching staff to even make obtaining Michael Bennett an option.
How it relates to Garrett:
Garrett has made a concerted effort to get rid of players like Greg Hardy but Garrett probably needed a couple of those type of players even more than a butt kicking type Head Coach like Jimmy needed them because Garrett is too passive during games.
Garrett's one foray into showing emotion actually had good results. When Garrett when ballistic on the Ref early this season and got the 15 yard penalty, the team responded with an obvious increase in intensity.
Appendix (Since this post turned into a book...):
While not a "butt kicking type player per se", the extreme intensity of a drugged up Lawrence Taylor changed the NFL. Fans first became aware of the "blindside" concept due to LT. The the premium on Left Tackles that could protect the passer took a huge jump due to LT. It was similar to the idea of Zone Coverage(s) being invented because of Bullet Bob Hayes.
