ESPN NFCE Blog: Dallas Cowboys: Franchise player

[viman96]

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Dallas Cowboys: Franchise player

August 18, 2008 1:00 PM

Posted by ESPN.com's Matt Mosley

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Emmitt Smith was voted the greatest player in Cowboys history.

Readers' pick: Emmitt Smith, RB

I'm not surprised that our SportsNation friends selected Smith as the greatest player in Cowboys history. But the fact that it was such a landslide caught me off-guard. Smith won with more than half of the votes, and Roger Staubach was a distant second. Staubach is the most iconic member of the organization, so I thought it would be a lot closer.

It's also surprising that Troy Aikman only finished with a small percentage of the vote. I watched pretty much every game during the Super Bowl years of the early '90s and you always had the feeling that the Triplets (Aikman, Smith and Michael Irvin) were all about equal in terms of their importance to the team.

My biggest gripe about the fan voting is that defensive tackle Bob Lilly finished sixth, behind offensive lineman Larry Allen. This tells me that we didn't have a lot of the 50-and-over crowd rockin' the vote. I'm not old enough to have watched Lilly in his prime, but they call him "Mr. Cowboy" for a reason.

Putting him sixth on a list of all-time Cowboys is way low. On my list, he would be fighting for the top spot. Allen was a great player, but I have a hard time putting him ahead of Randy White, Rayfield Wright, Michael Irvin and Mel Renfro. Honestly, I'd have a hard time putting him ahead of Lee Roy Jordan and Cliff Harris, but I'll save those arguments for another day.

 

[big dog cowboy]

Any time (or aport) you have fan voting used as a means to determine something like this will always result in a scewed result IMO.

 

[cowboys2233]

It's also surprising that Troy Aikman only finished with a small percentage of the vote. I watched pretty much every game during the Super Bowl years of the early '90s and you always had the feeling that the Triplets (Aikman, Smith and Michael Irvin) were all about equal in terms of their importance to the team.

Disagree, big time. Smith and Irvin were about equal, but we could actually perform quite well without Aikman, with Garrett. No as good, mind you, but we could get the job done.

Smith and Irvin were irreplaceable and the effects were noticeable when they weren't out there. Overall, I give the nod to Emmitt.

 

[Echo9]

:abuseme:

Disagree, big time. Smith and Irvin were about equal, but we could actually perform quite well without Aikman, with Garrett. No as good, mind you, but we could get the job done.

Smith and Irvin were irreplaceable and the effects were noticeable when they weren't out there. Overall, I give the nod to Emmitt.

 

[cowboys2233]

:abuseme:

In eight seasons with the Cowboys, Garrett played in 39 games and completed 165 of 294 passes (56.1%) for 2,042 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. The highlight of his career with the Cowboys occurred on Thanksgiving Day, 1994, when Garrett, starting in place of an injured Troy Aikman, led the Cowboys over the Green Bay Packers by completing 15 of 26 passes for 311 yards and 2 touchdowns in a second-half comeback.

Not bad. Go hit yourself on the head some more, maybe it will knock some sense into you.

 

[halcyon]

I am inclined to believe that age vs. usage of the internet has a lot to do with the results. While I do not contend that E. Smith is not a better option that R. Staubach and Lilly, I believe that such a "landslide" type result has a lot to do with the percentage of people that use internet (which presumably had a lot of contact with E. Smith and Aikman) as opposed with the percentage of people using internet, that were able to see Staubach, Lilly and others.

I am suprised though, to see that Aikman did not get a larger percentage of votes.

 

[ajk23az]

In eight seasons with the Cowboys, Garrett played in 39 games and completed 165 of 294 passes (56.1&#37 for 2,042 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. The highlight of his career with the Cowboys occurred on Thanksgiving Day, 1994, when Garrett, starting in place of an injured Troy Aikman, led the Cowboys over the Green Bay Packers by completing 15 of 26 passes for 311 yards and 2 touchdowns in a second-half comeback.

Not bad. Go hit yourself on the head some more, maybe it will knock some sense into you.

You do know that Cleo Lemon had a 56% completion percentage last year. Worst in the league. That was Garretts career average......not very good.

6.9 yards/attempt. Also not very good. That was equal to Brian Griese, Chad Pennington, Damon Huard & Vince Young last year. I don't want my QB to be like any of those guys..

1 game doesn't define an athlete's career.

 

[Echo9]

In eight seasons with the Cowboys, Garrett played in 39 games and completed 165 of 294 passes (56.1%) for 2,042 yards, 11 touchdowns, and 5 interceptions. The highlight of his career with the Cowboys occurred on Thanksgiving Day, 1994, when Garrett, starting in place of an injured Troy Aikman, led the Cowboys over the Green Bay Packers by completing 15 of 26 passes for 311 yards and 2 touchdowns in a second-half comeback.

Not bad. Go hit yourself on the head some more, maybe it will knock some sense into you.

You do know that Cleo Lemon had a 56% completion percentage last year. Worst in the league. That was Garretts career average......not very good.

6.9 yards/attempt. Also not very good. That was equal to Brian Griese, Chad Pennington, Damon Huard & Vince Young last year. I don't want my QB to be like any of those guys..

1 game doesn't define an athlete's career.

Beat me to the reply. Well Done.:bravo:

 

[EMMITTnROY]

i really don't get how Mosley says he got the feeling that the Triplets were all about equally important.. if you watched all those 90's Cowboys games, it was abundantly clear that Emmitt was far and away the most important piece of that puzzle.. not to take anything away from Aikman or Irvin, but even the two of them admitted freely that Emmitt was the key piece..

and while i agree that Lily is too far down the list, i don't like his argument about some others being higher than Larry Allen.. Allen is one of the NFL's all-time best offensive lineman.. he even says he'd put Rayfield Wright above him.. no, no, no.. how long did it take Wright to get into the HOF? Larry Allen is a first ballot guy..

 

[cowboys2233]

You do know that Cleo Lemon had a 56% completion percentage last year. Worst in the league. That was Garretts career average......not very good.

6.9 yards/attempt. Also not very good. That was equal to Brian Griese, Chad Pennington, Damon Huard & Vince Young last year. I don't want my QB to be like any of those guys..

1 game doesn't define an athlete's career.

I didn't say it did, it simply points out that he was capable of putting together a very good game. His TD-Int ratio with us was better than 2:1. His QB rating with us was 83.2. As I stated, not bad. And as I also stated, we were not as good without Aikman (obviously) but he could get the job done. I can't find his win-loss record when subbing for Aikman, but I'm willing to bet it wasn't bad. On the other hand, we went 0-2 with Emmitt holding out and fell off the map when Irvin retired.

Beat me to the reply. Well Done.

Yeah, he beat you to the reply alright. Dude, the only thing your capable of it putting together posts consisting almost entirely of clapping emoticons or ones beating themselves over the head. Really insightful stuff.

 

[AMERICAS_FAN]

My biggest gripe about the fan voting is that defensive tackle Bob Lilly finished sixth, behind offensive lineman Larry Allen. This tells me that we didn't have a lot of the 50-and-over crowd rockin' the vote. I'm not old enough to have watched Lilly in his prime, but they call him "Mr. Cowboy" for a reason.

That's plain false, otherwise Stauback would not have finished second and Aikman would have been rated in that slot instead.

I'd also put a tie between the three triplets for the #1 spot, and if I was to pick one, I'd go with Aikman first (always go with the QB), Irvin second (he was the heart and soul of that dynasty) and E.Smith third.