Ranking the greatest players in Dallas Cowboys history

Throughout their storied history, the Dallas Cowboys have had several star players take the field for them. As of the 2022 season, there are 29 Cowboys in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, which shows just how fortunate they have been in terms of talent.

This is just one of many reasons they’re known as “America’s Team,” but it also makes it even more difficult to decide which players are truly the best among many greats in franchise history. Here, we try and select the top 10 members of the team since the Cowboys joined the NFL in 1960.

The top 10 Dallas Cowboys players in franchise history

A third-round pick back in 2003, Jason Witten wound up becoming one of the most productive (and most popular) members of this team over the past 20 years.

Witten had just 347 yards and a single touchdown as a rookie but still endeared himself to fans that year when he displayed the toughness that helped him become a superstar. In October of that rookie campaign, Witten suffered a broken jaw that required three plates to fix.

Miraculously, he missed just one game that year — and it ended up being the only missed game for him throughout his 17 NFL seasons. That’s an amazing feat for any player, let alone a tight end who took punishing hits when making a catch in the middle of the field and also took on defensive ends with the ferocity of an offensive lineman.

In all, Witten played 255 games for Dallas and owns the record for the most receptions (1,215) and receiving yards (12,977). He’s also second in touchdowns with 72, just one behind former teammate Dez Bryant.

It was a different time in the 1960s. In today’s NFL, teams have a timeframe for making their selections in the NFL Draft, and if they don’t turn the card in on time, they lose their pick. We saw this happen in 2003 with the Minnesota Vikings as well as in 2011 with the Baltimore Ravens.

However, back in 1964 when the Cowboys were on the clock at No. 17 overall. They delayed the draft for six hours while a doctor checked out an injured wrist on Mel Renfro.

Eventually, they decided to make the selection but they didn’t use the collegiate running back on offense. Instead, they converted him to safety where he would go on to become a star.

Renfro proved to have a nose for the ball from the start as he had seven interceptions as a rookie. He was also deadly once he got the ball in his hands, quickly returning to his offensive roots.

A 10-time Pro Bowl selection to start his career, Renfro had a league-leading 10 picks in 1969 and finished with 52, which is the most in team history. On top of that, he had 626 yards and three touchdowns on interception returns.

In addition to his role on defense, Renfro was an accomplished return man who had three career touchdowns on special teams. After playing 14 seasons in the league, Renfro was inducted to the Hall of Fame in 1996.

Larry Allen was an absolute monster. The 46th overall pick in 1994 out of Sonoma State, Allen quickly became a star in the Big D. He started 10 games as a rookie at right tackle and while there are no stats that can show how good an offensive lineman really was, all you had to do with Allen was turn on the tape.

No. 73 was always pushing opponents but he wasn’t just a massive bully — he could also turn on the jets. During his rookie season, he showed off his speed when he chased down New Orleans linebacker Darion Conner on an interception.

There’s not much that’s more enjoyable than watching a big man show out like that, and Allen did this throughout his 12 seasons in Dallas.

He was also wildly versatile. Known as a guard for much of his career, he spent two full seasons playing tackle including 1998 when he made the Pro Bowl as a starting left tackle. Allen stayed dominant into his late 30s, although he finished his career by playing for the San Francisco 49ers in 2006 and 2007. He even made another Pro Bowl for the Niners in his first season with them.

Like many others on this list, Allen was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, earning the distinction in 2013.

At 5-foot-11 and 192 pounds, Tony Dorsett was considered a smaller running back but that didn’t prevent him from having a phenomenal career with the Cowboys. A star for the Pittsburgh Panthers, Dorsett was the No. 2 overall pick in the 1977 NFL Draft and had an immediate impact.

As a rookie, Dorsett had 1,007 yards and 12 touchdowns. He topped the 1,000-yard mark in each of the next four seasons, then did it three more times after having 745 yards and five touchdowns in 1982.

That year, he played in just nine games thanks to the season being shortened by a strike. He didn’t allow the limited games to keep him from making it a memorable season though.

In the Cowboys’ final game, which was on January 3 of 1983, he ripped off the longest run in NFL history. Dorsett went 99-yards to the house, and while Derrick Henry has since tied the run, the Dallas back accomplished the feat with just 10 men on the field.

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Dorsett continued to put up solid numbers but when Herschel Walker arrived in 1986, his carries and yardage went down. He left in 1988 and had a decent final season with the Denver Broncos but he’s still known for what he did with America’s Team.

In 11 seasons, Dorsett had 12,036 yards rushing and 72 touchdowns — both of which were franchise records when he retired. Now, he’s second only to Emmitt Smith in each category.

A defensive lineman at Maryland, Randy White was the second overall pick in the 1975 NFL Draft and Tom Landry quickly decided to move him to middle linebacker. He was able to record 11 sacks in his first two seasons with the franchise but was still primarily a reserve with Lee Roy Jordan taking the starting spot.

His third season in the league, however, saw another change. White was moved back to the defensive line and became a starting tackle. He broke out that year with 12.5 sacks and had another 16 the following year.

That 1978 campaign would end up being the first of seven times White was named a First-Team All-Pro and it was his second of nine Pro Bowl seasons.

White finished his 14-year career with 111 sacks, which had him second all-time behind Harvey Martin. Both were eventually passed by DeMarcus Ware, who had 117 (both Ware and Martin should be honorable mentions for top-10 players as either one could arguably have a place on this list).

One of the biggest accolades of White’s career was when he was named co-MVP in Super Bowl XII along with Martin as the two led Dallas to a win over the Denver Broncos. In that victory, White had a huge hand in shutting down the Denver offense that day, as they harassed quarterbacks Craig Morton and Norris Weese all day and allowed only eight completions.

Michael Irvin, simply known as ‘The Playmaker’, was one of the most dynamic wide receivers of his time. He played in Dallas from 1988 through 1999 and saw them grow from a struggling franchise to the most recognizable team in all of sports.

Irvin helped the Cowboys win three Super Bowls in the 1990s as he served as Troy Aikman’s No. 1 wideout. His numbers were spectacular during his prime including a 1,503-yard season in 1991 when he made his first Pro Bowl and a 1,603-yard campaign in 1995 when he made his fifth consecutive Pro Bowl.

That ended up being his best statistical campaign with No. 88 pulling in 111 receptions in addition to his personal best yardage and added 10 touchdowns.

Irvin’s career came to a sad end in 1999 when he suffered a serious neck injury in Week 5 against the Philadelphia Eagles. To this day, Dallas fans are bitter about the fact that Irvin’s injury was cheered by the fans in attendance by the Philly home crowd.

He never returned to play and shortly after legendary coach Tom Landry passed away, Irvin announced his retirement. This announcement made him the final player to be coached by Landry to call it a career.

For his career, Irvin is second in team history with 750 receptions and 11,904 yards. While he was passed by Witten, Irvin played in nearly 100 fewer games in his career. He also accomplished this on a team that featured the all-time NFL rushing leader in Emmitt Smith, meaning his numbers could have been even more impressive on a team that was more pass-happy.

The only thing that keeps Troy Aikman from going higher on this list is the same thing that sometimes gets him overlooked when discussing the greatest quarterbacks of all-time — his numbers.

Aikman didn’t have bad statistics in the least, but he never once threw for as much as 3,500 yards in a season and he hit the 20 touchdown mark just once in his career. Those stats are why he never earned a selection to the All-Pro Team, but he was still a six-time Pro Bowl selection.

Of course, anyone who watched Aikman and the 1990s Cowboys understands why he didn’t post video game numbers — it was because he didn’t have to. Dallas was a run-first team that dominated opponents with a powerful running game led by Emmitt Smith.

Both Aikman and Irvin were among the best in the business but they often played second-fiddle to Smith and that bulldozing line.

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The formula worked very well as Aikman led the franchise to three Super Bowls while posting a 94-71 mark as a starter and was an even more impressive 11-4 in the playoffs.

The QB did have a couple of personal accolades as he was the league’s most accurate passer in 1993 when he completed 69.1 percent of his throws and he won the Super Bowl MVP when they knocked off the Bills in January of1993. In that win, Aikman threw for 273 yards with four touchdowns and no interceptions as his team embarrassed the high-flying Bills.

Since retiring, Aikman has become one of the most successful broadcasters in the business and is still a respected name in the league.

The very first player ever taken in franchise history was none other than defensive lineman Bob Lilly, which earned him the fitting nickname “Mr. Cowboy.” As if being the very first member of America’s Team wasn’t enough of an honor, Lilly also turned out to be the first member of the organization to be enshrined in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

A local product who was born in Texas but moved to Oregon where he was a high school standout, Lilly returned to the Lone Star State to play collegiately as he took a scholarship at TCU. An All-American, Lilly was honored to be the face of the franchise after they made him the 13th overall pick in 1961.

Dallas did a little maneuvering before taking Lilly, trading their original pick to Washington for quarterback Eddie LeBaron and then sending the Browns their first pick in 1962 for the rights to draft Lilly.

Throughout his career, he moved from defensive end to defensive tackle and was the leader of the “Doomsday Defense.” Sacks weren’t an official stat during his day but they have been retroactively added and Lilly was credited with 95.5 in his 14 seasons.

His accolades were plenty and included 11 Pro Bowls (10 consecutive), seven First-Team All-Pro nods, and a Super Bowl championship.

In today’s NFL, it would be insane to put a running back ahead of a quarterback on a dynasty. But in the 1990s, that was the case. The Cowboys were the team to beat for most of that decade and while Aikman rightfully deserves his credit for their success, this was a run-first team led by Smith.

The list of accomplishments for Smith seems endless as he was a four-time All-Pro First-Team selection, a two-time Second-Team selection, an eight-time Pro Bowler, a four-time NFL rushing leader, three-time NFL touchdown leader, three-time Super Bowl Champ, and also won the NFL MVP in 1993. As if that wasn’t enough, you could throw in the fact that he won the NFL Offensive Rookie of the Year in 1990 and was the MVP of Super Bowl XXVIII.

Oh, and he also owns the record for the most rushing yardage in NFL history with 18,355 yards in his 15-year career (17,162 of those came with the Cowboys).

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Smith was able to notch that many yards thanks to his unbelievable consistency. He topped 1,000 yards in 11-straight seasons and had more than 1,200 in nine of those campaigns. He also topped 20 touchdowns twice and had 153 on the ground and 11 through the air in his Dallas career.

He was so good that he even put up 937 yards and nine touchdowns for the Arizona Cardinals in 2004 at the age of 35. It’s still odd to ever picture him in that uniform but Smith was running hard even after his time with Big D.

There have been several great quarterbacks in this team’s storied history but every time one of them begins to have success, they start getting compared to Roger Staubach. A Heisman Trophy winner for the U.S. Naval Academy, Staubach was drafted in the 10th round of the 1964 NFL Draft and the 16th round of the AFL Draft.

However, he first went to serve his country in the Navy and even had a tour of duty in Vietnam during the war. Eventually, he joined the Cowboys, making his debut with the team in 1969 at the age of 27.

His first two seasons in the league saw him serving as a backup. He appeared in 14 games but had just four starts and threw three touchdowns with 10 picks in that span. Then in 1971, the legend was born.

Staubach took over for Craig Morton early that season and the Cowboys didn’t lose again. He led them to 10-straight regular-season wins and then helped them win their first Super Bowl, knocking off the Miami Dolphins 24-3 — he was even named the MVP in that win.

He continued to win for Dallas, leading them to an 85-29 mark as the starting quarterback, and winning another Super Bowl for them as well.

Staubach had several traits that endeared him to fans, which included his high character off the field, his leadership on it, and his persistence as a player. Dallas was never out of a game as long as Staubach was under center and his knack for coming from behind earned him the nickname “Captain Comeback.”

To this day, he remains the best player in franchise history and is still a recognizable figure despite not playing since 1979.