Dallas Cowboys have two all time great quarterbacks according to NFL.com
By Richard Ball
Two Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks were named to the NFL.com top 25 all-time list. The list has a common thread that is hard to ignore.
NFL.com’s Elliott Harrison recently posted his top 25 quarterbacks of all time. Former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks Troy Aikman and Roger Staubach made the list.
Of the 25 quarterbacks on the list, 21 won a NFL Championship or the Super Bowl. The exceptions were Dan Marino (one Super Bowl loss), Warren Moon (five CFL Grey Cups), Jim Kelly (four Super Bowl losses) and Fran Tarkenton (three Super Bowl losses).
Harrison ranked Aikman as the 14th best quarterback and called him the embodiment of what every GM in pro football would want. His defining traits were winning and accuracy.
Aikman detractors will claim that his passing numbers are meager at best but Harrison does a good job to highlight why. From 1991 through 1996, the Cowboys threw the ball the 15th most among all NFL teams in the first quarter.
By the second quarter, it dropped to 25th. In the third quarter to 29th and by the fourth quarter the Cowboys were last in the NFL in passing attempts. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that playing with the lead and running back Emmitt Smith would make you want to run the ball.
Harrison ranked Staubach as the 8th best quarterback and stated that there will never be another player like him, much less quarterback. Staubach served four years in the navy which allowed the Cowboys to take him with a 10th round pick and stash him away until his service was completed.
Staubach ranks second all-time in quarterback winning percentage (minimum 100 starts) and his 0.746 trails only Tom Brady’s 0.775. Did you know that in Staubach’s first full season as the Cowboys starter he went 13-0 and won the Super Bowl?
Staubach is also the architect of the Hail Mary pass. He tossed a 50 yard pass to Drew Pearson with 32 seconds left in a playoff game against the Minnesota Vikings on December 28, 1975.
Aikman and Staubach have a lot in common. Both have won multiple Super Bowls, both were named NFL Man of the Year and both had their careers shortened by concussions.
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Time will tell if the current Cowboys quarterback, Dak Prescott, can rise to the occasion. His rumored contract demands north of $30 million per year will only make it harder for him to win a Super Bowl.