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

[Super_Kazuya]

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?

Some people in this thread are imagining their own reality. First of all, it was never really a competition... Walsh was drafted as an asset to bring in more assets. And while Aikman was the one who survived (some say this was Jerry’s call, not Jimmy’s) it sure as heck wasn’t because Aikman “won” some competition. In the games that Walsh subbed in for an injured Aikman in ‘89, Walsh was awful... there was only one QB who was even worse: Aikman, who had an adjusted net yards per attempt of 3.09 (!) (Montana led the league at 8.3) and was clearly the worst QB in the league that year.

 

[kskboys]

If only teams could be managed with 20/20 hindsight, Jerry might actually be good at it.

As it turned out, we did "ok" that draft picking a kid from UF with the 16th pick. So, since we using 20/20 hindsight in this debate, as a result of taking Walsh in the supplemental draft we ended up with Emmitt Smith, Leon Lett, and Russel Maryland. So, yeah, Walsh was a hell of a move.

Maryland also has a funny story. We traded up in the draft in order to get Rocket Ismael. He split for Canada, so we were left w/ the consolation prize in Maryland!!!

 

[gimmesix]

The fans and media made more of it than there was.
Jimmy took Walsh in the supplemental draft as he was his QB at UM. He stepped in when Troy was injured. Walsh was then traded to the Saints for 3 draft picks including their 1st rounder. Jimmy played that one up and came out on top.

No way was Walsh ever going to replace Troy, and Jimmy knew that. Actually I did not like he took Walsh as he gave up the next years #1 overall pick. But in hindsight for Jimmy it worked out. Another lucky item in his tenure that fell his way. He had quite a few things that fell his way actually.

I don't necessarily agree that Walsh wasn't a consideration to replace Aikman. Jimmy spent a No. 1 pick on him to give himself options. He wasn't absolutely sure about Aikman at that point, so he took his former QB as an alternative. He knew one of the two would be traded, but I'm not sure he knew which one at the time that he took Walsh.

Of course, according to this article, it appears I could be wrong about that.

Things took a worrisome turn when Jones told Aikman that the Cowboys would be drafting Washington State quarterback Timm Rosenbach in the supplemental draft. Dallas ended up picking Steve Walsh, who had won a national championship with Johnson at Miami.

"It was really bizarre," Aikman said. "I didn't know what exactly that meant."

In the film, Johnson says he drafted Walsh with the hope of trading him. But he didn't want to downplay Walsh not being a starter because it would hurt his trade value. Aikman said Johnson not sticking by his side early on hurt their relationship.

"It impacted me being an ally for Jimmy very early on in my career. He already had a relationship with Steve because they went back to college. I had no relationship with Jimmy. I had turned him down twice already. So it created a little bit of a friction between us that took a few years to overcome."

He ended up starting 11 games for the Cowboys his rookie year, going 0-11. The Cowboys finished the season at 1-16, with the lone win coming at Washington with Walsh at quarterback.

"The team that I had left at UCLA had more talent than this professional team that I was playing for," he said.

 

[Diehardblues]

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?

Walsh was an Insurance pick for Jimmy since he’d played for him just in case Troy was a bust. But early on Jimmy realized Troy was his guy despite favoring Steve and traded Walsh to Saints for 3 picks early in 1990. Turned out a great deal for Cowboys with two of those picks being Russell Maryland and Erik Williams. The rest is history.

 

[glimmerman]

Aikman was better. I think Walsh played when Aikman was injured. Wow it’s been a while for all that.

 

[Gorgon]

It wasn't close at all. Troy was the clear front runner.

According to "A Football Life," Jimmy was playing mind games with Troy and wanted the competition to keep him sharp, but had no real intention of keeping Walsh.

 

[Cannibal_Cowboy]

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?

Troy had a rocket for an arm. He split the webbing between Alvin Harper's fingers he threw so hard.
Walsh had a rubber band for an arm. Cooper Rush's weak arm>>>>Steve Walsh's
Look at what Walsh did after leaving Dallas, that's all the info you need to know what he was about.

 

[fivetwos]

Troy had a rocket for an arm. He split the webbing between Alvin Harper's fingers he threw so hard.
Walsh had a rubber band for an arm. Cooper Rush's weak arm>>>>Steve Walsh's
Look at what Walsh did after leaving Dallas, that's all the info you need to know what he was about.

Walsh was labeled as a "winner," and Jimmy knew him.

As I alluded to earlier in this thread, Jimmy was such a master motivator that a large part of doing that may have been to push Aikman.

Not that Aikman needed it, but everyone could use a little extra incentive, and at the same time Jimmy hedged his bet. He was nowhere without a QB.

Either way, it worked out folks. Cant argue that one.

 

[OmerV]

Jimmy had Walsh in college, wasn't completely sold on Aikman and wanted to make sure he had a top QB, so he drafted Walsh in the 1st round of the supplemental draft. I thought it was a dumb move at the time because we killed two first round draft picks on QB's, but it ended up working out well because the Cowboys traded him for a 1st and 3rd round pick.

 

[Chocolate Lab]

I went to training camp in '90 and it was amazing watching the QBs doing drills side by side. It was Aikman, Walsh and I believe Babe. The ball just exploded out of Aikman's hand compared to the other two. There was one drill where they would all simultaneously take a 5 or 7 step drop and fire the ball out as quickly as possible. Aikman's ball would be well out before Walsh and Babe had even finished their drop back. It was clear how much superior Aikman was physically. I also remember thinking Walsh looked like a high school kid standing next to him.

Same here at training camp in 1998 or 9 (Gailey was the coach) when you could stand within 10 or 15 yards of the QBs doing drills. They were throwing short out routes and Aikman threw absolute bullets exactly on target, like a machine. On the rare occasion he was off, it was only off by a foot or two, and he'd be visibly upset with himself afterwards.

The other guy was our dearly departed redhead whose passes looked like they had helium in them and were routinely broken up by the DB. Like you said, it literally looked like you'd pulled a high school QB out of the stands compared to Troy.

I've always thought that watching Troy throw that up close is one of the most impressive athletic things I've ever seen.

I also think there's a lot of revisionist history from Jimmy to act like he was just trying to motivate Troy. Even the best make mistakes, and that was one for Jimmy. He's very lucky the Saints were desperate enough to make a stupid trade for a very average QB.

 

[camelboy]

I still think Jimmy only did this to lit the fight under Troy. He has a degree in psychology you know

 

[leeblair]

Troy Aikman was about to request a trade over Beurliein.
I remember the story; Aikman told one of the reporters close to the Cowboys he was done and "this wasn't going to work". He then told the reporter to hold off just a little bit, and Jimmy relented and told Troy it was his team.
Troy was upset that Beurliein was still playing when the Cowboys entered the playoffs, winning their first game.
But at halftime in the loss to Detroit, Jimmy pulled Beurliein-even though the game was close- and Aikman went in.
The next year the Cowboys won the Super Bowl, and the rest is history.

 

[LucaBrasi]

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.

What’s probably more interesting was jimmy’s decision to play Steve Beurlein in the ‘91 playoffs after Aikman was cleared medically. I can’t remember if Troy was available in the WC round, but he most certainly was available in the Divisional round in Detroit. Aikman played in the 2nd half, but Beurlein started that game.

it probably spoke to 2 things: 1) Beurlein finished the defeat of the 11-0 Skins in Nov, and led 4 straight wins to close the reg season and 2) JJ wasn’t 100% certain on Aikman.

Troy would remove all doubt in ‘92.

 

[Whirlwin]

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

The only reason why we even took Steve Walsh in the supplement draft. Because Troy and Jimmy didn’t have the best of relationship initially

 

[Crazed Liotta Eyes]

Same here at training camp in 1998 or 9 (Gailey was the coach) when you could stand within 10 or 15 yards of the QBs doing drills. They were throwing short out routes and Aikman threw absolute bullets exactly on target, like a machine. On the rare occasion he was off, it was only off by a foot or two, and he'd be visibly upset with himself afterwards.

The other guy was our dearly departed redhead whose passes looked like they had helium in them and were routinely broken up by the DB. Like you said, it literally looked like you'd pulled a high school QB out of the stands compared to Troy.

I've always thought that watching Troy throw that up close is one of the most impressive athletic things I've ever seen.

I also think there's a lot of revisionist history from Jimmy to act like he was just trying to motivate Troy. Even the best make mistakes, and that was one for Jimmy. He's very lucky the Saints were desperate enough to make a stupid trade for a very average QB.

Aikman looked like he was built from a QB factory. Truly the prototype of what you want. One cool experience I had at that camp was I was standing at a chain-link fence while they were running some passing drill. Irvin ran a deep out right where I was and Aikman hit him perfectly in the hands but he dropped it. I was amazed by the sound of the ball hitting his hands. It just sounded heavy. Irvin screamed some expletive when he dropped it and slammed the fence in front of me with both hands. I had to recoil to avoid getting smacked in the face. He pointed at me apologetically and I said something like, "get 'em next time 88".

 

[Kwyn]

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?

It was a dumb move by Jimmy and caused needless drama.

 

[TheSkaven]

It wasn't close at all. Troy was the clear front runner.

We're lucky that twitter wasn't around back then.

You're right @jazzcat22 it wasn't close. But at the time, it didn't feel that way. There were plenty of fans still salty about Landry's exit who saw Troy come in and get hammered and wanted a change. Jimmy Johnson was brilliant for doing what he did even though he really rubbed Troy the wrong way in the beginning.

But my point is that while in hindsight it looks like it wasn't close, at the time there were plenty of people on the Walsh bandwagon and plenty of people who doubted whether Troy could be a franchise quarterback.

 

[Hayseed]

For some weird reason whenever I read the thread title I see OIL heads instead of OLD heads. LOL

 

[kskboys]

Walsh was an Insurance pick for Jimmy since he’d played for him just in case Troy was a bust. But early on Jimmy realized Troy was his guy despite favoring Steve and traded Walsh to Saints for 3 picks early in 1990. Turned out a great deal for Cowboys with two of those picks being Russell Maryland and Erik Williams. The rest is history.

Sort of. We gave up 3 first rounders to move up to the top spot to get Ismael. When he fled to Canada, we kept the pick and took Maryland.

 

[fairviewfarmer]

It wasn't close at all. Troy was the clear front runner.

Exactly. Walsh was acquired to use as trade bait. It worked as he was traded for a 1st, a 2nd, and a 3rd. Jimmy was an excellent trader.....or a river boat gambler....see the Herschel Walker trade. It was all Jimmy.