Barry Sanders was one of the greatest running backs of all time. However, I believe Emmitt Smith was a better fit for that 90s era Dallas Cowboys. Sanders was the best pure runner of that era, but Smith was a better all-around back. It made a big difference that Smith was a good receiving running back in addition to being a good runner. Could that team have been successful with Sanders instead of Smith? Sure. Sanders was an amazing talent and that was a well-rounded team on both sides of the ball. But we're talking hypotheticals because we could not have drafted both Aikman and Sanders without some kind of bizarre trade, and that could have hurt us down the road. If for some bizarre reason, the Lions and Cowboys had traded Sanders for Smith straight up, those 90s teams could have been successful with Sanders, but the approach would have been quite different.
There are other running backs I wished at the time could have been Cowboys. I loved OJ Simpson. The Cowboys of the 70s would have made smarter use of his skills than his lowly Bills did. Simpson was way better than the running backs we had at the time such as Calvin Hill and Robert Newhouse. That's not a slam on them; they were quality running backs, but they didn't have what Simpson had. Today I'm somewhat relieved that Simpson didn't play for the Cowboys because of what a jerk he ended up being in his personal life, but at the time I wished he had played for the Cowboys. I also would have love to have had Walter Payton. He was an amazing runner and a stand-up guy, but the team did pretty well with Tony Dorsett.
