- Super Bowl Championships: 5
- Last Super Bowl Championship: Super Bowl 30
- Claim to Fame: Have won the most NFC Championships (8) and have the highest regular-season winning percentage in NFL history (57.3%)
- Claim to Shame: Just three winning seasons in the last eight years
“America’s Team” took shape in 1960 under the guidance of head coach Tom Landry.
Starting in 1966, the Cowboys set the standard for excellence, with an NFL-record 20 straight winning seasons that included 18 playoff appearances, 13 division titles, five Super Bowl appearances, and a pair of Super Bowl titles.
The current iteration of the Cowboys took shape in 1989, when the team was purchased by Jerry Jones.
A franchise-altering trade of Herschel Walker netted them a bounty of pics that would form “The team of the 90s”. Led by QB Troy Aikman, RB Emmitt Smith, WR Michael Irvin, and a cast of other stars, they won three Super Bowls in four years, the last being Super Bowl 30.
But that’s the last time Dallas has been to the big dance, as success has been much harder to come by of late.
In 2016, the team found a pair of cornerstones in quarterback Dak Prescott and running back Ezekiel Elliott, to match what is widely considered to be the best offensive line in football.
After a 14-2 season in 2016, expectations were through the roof in Big D, but everything cratered. Elliott’s off-field issues eventually led to a suspension, and five-time Pro Bowl LT Tyron Smith battled injuries, missing games and limiting his effectiveness.
Those factors helped lead to Prescott’s regression in his sophomore year. He dipped in every major offensive category, including completion percentage, passing yards, TD passes and – two of the most glaring – his QB rating plummeted from 104.9 to 86.6 and his interceptions spiked from four to 13.
The 2018 season marked something of a rebound, as Dallas won the NFC East with a 10-6 record, despite a middling +15 point difference. Last year’s ‘Boys were a defense-first team, surprisingly, which recorded the second-best points against in the NFC (324).
When Elliott’s holdout is finally put to rest, the 2019 Cowboys will have the look of a balanced NFC Championship contender. The defense has all the pieces that made it elite last year, the run-game will be a menace once again, and Prescott should continue to build chemistry with mid-2018 addition Amari Cooper.
