Tony Romo. Terrell Owens. Sean Lee. DeMarcus Ware. Jason Witten. Travis Frederick.
The list of top players on the Dallas Cowboys who never got the chance to play at the highest NFL level continues to grow each year the team fails to reach the Conference Championship game.
It seems we can now add All-Pro tackle Tyron Smith to that list.
Smith and the Cowboys are expected to part ways this offseason with the organization allowing the future Hall-of-Fame left tackle to hit free agency and potentially sign elsewhere.
The move was a maybe-expected one for an organization needing to give long-term deals to some of their other stars, but it’s a direct example of the recent failings the Cowboys have had in recent memory. Whether it was tying their success to inadequate coaching or mistaken free-agent decisions, there are plenty of reasons why Dallas hasn’t reached a conference championship game since 1996.
But maybe it’s that stat alone that shows how far Dallas has fallen. In their heyday, the Cowboys were synonymous with Super Bowls. Whether it was Roger Staubach and Tom Landy dominating the NFC in the 70s or Jerry Jones and Jimmy Johnson building an overwhelming dynasty in the 90s, the Cowboys were always seen as title contenders.
When they weren’t, particularly in the 1980s, the players were seen as failures. Everyone compares former quarterback Danny White as a failing player in the Cowboys system because he could never get the franchise over the hump when Staubach retired.
Getting over the hump was winning a conference championship.
Now, the Cowboys are trying to just reach the conference title game, let alone win it.
That’s what has led to the organization wasting away Hall-of-Fame players like Tyron Smith. Since being selected in the first round in 2011, few tackles have been as dominant as the eight-time Pro Bowler. The issue is that Dallas won just three playoff games in Smith’s entire career.
It’s the waste of talent that is perhaps the most alarming in Dallas. They’ve had plenty of All-Pros and Pro Bowl players walk through the door of the team facility over the years, and the lack of results speaks to a bigger issue as to why they have yet to reach the Super Bowl.
Whether it was Jones “parting ways” with Johnson after back-to-back Super Bowl wins or failing to hire anyone but himself to be general manager, the Cowboys owner has as much blame as anyone over the last 30 years of futility.
If people are looking for someone to blame for wasting the career of Smith, and others before him, Jerry Jones is the top man for that.
There are plenty of other Cowboys that could be added to this list after Smith like All-Pro Zack Martin. Younger stars like Micah Parsons and CeeDee Lamb could be next on this list if Dallas can’t end their current near-three-decade championship drought.
