Saturday’s playoff game officially crowned the NFC’s worst franchise. Say hello to your Dallas Cowboys.
In a cruel twist of fate, the Washington Commanders are the reason why this is so.
Enjoy sprinkling that on your Wheaties this morning everyone.
The Commanders advanced to the NFC Championship game with a shocking upset win over Detroit. It’s the first time Washington will play for the title since 1991.
That makes the Cowboys the only team in the NFC not to have played in a conference championship game in the 21st Century.
It’s been 29 years since Dallas made it that deep into the playoffs. The next closest are the Chicago Bears, who played in the 2010 game.
That’s about half the number of seasons that the Cowboys’ drought has lasted.
There is some good news though.
Cleveland (1989) and Miami (1992) have longer droughts. The Texans have yet to make it, but they’ve only been around since 2002.
At least the Cowboys aren’t the worst franchise in the NFL in terms of recent post-season success.
Not yet anyway.
The Common Denominator
We’ve talked about it ad nauseam here, and it’s been pointed out by many others elsewhere.
The common denominator for nearly three decades of postseason failure is the franchise’s general manager.
Jerry Jones has often laid claim to being the only person on the planet who could be the general manager of the Dallas Cowboys.
He usually points out the team’s overall record in the regular season over the same time period as a measure of his success.
He has a point there. But the main goal is to win a Super Bowl.
He has no leg to stand on there.
Part of it has been his decisions involving player personnel. For every draft pick he gets right, he misses on at least three others.
A prime example is the 2016 draft when he passed on both Jalen Ramsey and Derrick Henry.
There are many more examples like that too.
His trading record isn’t much better.
He’s overpaid and undersold players and kept players that never paid off. Sending Amari Cooper packing while keeping Michael Gallup is the most recent example.
For that reason alone, any other general manager would have been sent packing years ago.
Especially with the dismal postseason record Dallas has put up in the last 29 seasons.
Then there is his record with coaching hires. Seeing how he is about to hire a new head coach, this might be the greater concern.
Setting The Tone
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter who the Cowboys draft, trade for, or sign in free agency, if the head coach is lacking, it won’t change things.
The last coaching hire Jones got right was Jimmy Johnson. Even Barry Switzer couldn’t completely screw up with the team Johnson left him.
But since then, the Cowboys’ head coaches haven’t gotten the job done.
And that’s 100% on Jones.
What makes it worse is that he has had two coaches on his staff that he decided to let go. Sean Payton went on to win a Super Bowl.
Last year’s defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn, has the Commanders one win from a Super Bowl.
That’s a lot closer than any of the previous six head coaches have taken the Cowboys since 1996.
Oddly enough, in both cases, Payton and Quinn left one year before Dallas had to make a coaching change.
If Jones had made more of an effort to keep both, he might have at least one more Lombardi Trophy in his case. He might even be hosting the NFC title game this year.
But he didn’t do that.
Now he’s beginning his search for the 10th head coach in Cowboys’ history. And still hoping to end a 29-season postseason drought.
Will The Lesson Sink In?
Hopefully, Quinn’s success in Washington this year will finally get the lesson to sink in with Jones as he makes his decision.
Quinn basically rebuilt the Commanders, and used a rookie quarterback to take the NFL by storm.
Jones has been pointing out all the former Super Bowl winning coaches he could hire. But he’s 0-2 with his head coaches with that kind of resume.
Neither Bill Parcells, nor Mike McCarthy, could parlay their previous championships into success in Dallas.
It’s unlikely a Pete Carroll, or any of the others, would fare any better. Even Jon Gruden would likely come up short.
Unless Jones turned over the GM duties to Gruden in all but name only, that seems unlikely.
Jones needs to focus on the current crop of coordinators in the pool. Ben Johnson, Aaron, Glenn, Kliff Kingsbury, among others.
Then he needs to get out of their way and let them build a championship team.
Otherwise, this list below isn’t going to change in Dallas’ favor any time soon.
NFL Teams’ Last Appearance In Title Games
TEAM / CONFERENCE / SUPER BOWL
- Dallas / 1995 / 1995
- Philadelphia / 2022 / 2022
- Washington / 2024 / 1991
- NY Giants / 2011 / 2011
- Detroit / 2023 / NEVER
- Minnesota / 2017 / 1976
- Green Bay / 2020 / 2010
- Chicago / 2010 / 2006
- Tampa Bay / 2020 / 2020
- Atlanta / 2016 / 2016
- Carolina / 2015 / 2015
- New Orleans / 2018 / 2009
- LA Rams / 2021 / 2021
- Seattle / 2014 / 2014
- Arizona / 2015 / 2008
- San Francisco / 2023 / 2023
- Buffalo / 2020 / 1993
- Miami / 1992 / 1982
- NY Jets / 2010 / 1969
- New England / 2018 / 2018
- Pittsburgh / 2016 / 2010
- Baltimore / 2023 / 2012
- Cleveland / 1989 / NEVER
- Cincinnati / 2021 / 2021
- Tennessee / 2019 / 1999
- Houston (2002) / NEVER / NEVER
- Jacksonville / 2017 / NEVER
- Indianapolis / 2014 / 2009
- LA Chargers / 2007 / 1994
- Kansas City / 2024 / 2023
- Las Vegas / 2002 / 2002
- Denver / 2015 / 2015
Was this helpful?
14 Comments
Comments are closed.