FanPost

Dynasty? The 90's Cowboys and Their Eerie Similarity To The Hawks


The Seattle Seahawks have a budding dynasty on their hands. To soon you say? Well here's the proof. I present to you the 1990's Dallas Cowboys. In terms of how the teams were built, their progress in year 3 of rebuilding, and the play of their QB's, the 12' Seahawks are eerily (and excitingly) similar to the 91' Cow Pokes.

Records:

1991 was year three of a total overhaul for the Cowboys under new GM Jerry Jones and Head Coach Jimmy Johnson. Through week 10 the team was 6-4 with aspirations of a playoff birth. After finishing 7-9 in 1990 the Cowboys were seemingly heading in the right direction with a young core of talented, but unproven, players. Fast forward to 2012 and after 10 weeks into the third year of the rebuilding process, the Hawks sit at 6-4. They finished 7-9 the previous year.

Quarterbacks:

Each team hitched their star to a young QB from the draft, the Cowboys with Aikman and the Hawks with Wilson. I believe in terms of their strengths and what they were asked to do for their teams, Wilson and Aikman are more alike than you may think. Both were asked to be accurate and efficient. Remember, the big knock on Aikman's career has always been he never put up big numbers during his career... unless you count those 3 Super Bowl rings. Wilson has been criticized in much the same way but all he does is win games. They are both extremely accurate and efficient, while limiting their turnovers. Lastly the most important way they're alike is their leadership. You have read the countless stories about Wilson's maturity and work ethic. If you look back at the comments made about Aikman you'll see a lot of the same observations. That's what championship QB's are made of, superior leadership. Lastly, check out the stats through week 10 of Aikman's 91' season and Wilson's 12' season, they're remarkably close. The craziest part about this is Aikman was in his THIRD year and Wilson is just a rookie.


Aikman: 208-Comp, 318-Att, 65.4%-Comp, 2400 yards, 10-TD, 9-INT, 86.72 qb rating

Wilson: 157-Comp, 253-Att, 62.1%-Comp, 1827 yards, 15-TD, 8-INT, 90.5 qb rating


Coaching:

Both teams hired a high profile college coach that had just left highly successful, but soon to be troubled programs. Carroll and Johnson have similar coaching philosophies in that they want their offenses to be balanced and to play hard-nosed defense. However, it is their ability to relate to young players and to work seamlessly with their GM's that attributed to both of their success by year 3.

Team Building:

The front office combinations of Schneider/Carroll and Jones/Johnson both proved themselves as forward thinking and highly creative with roster building. The Cowboys are credited with the creation of the TVC (Trade Value Chart). This system simply assigned point values to the different picks in the draft allowing the Cowboys to manipulate their trading partners --looking at you Vikings/Herschel Walker-- and stock piling picks. Schneider has been equally as shrewd in his approach. I'm pretty sure he hasn't made a whole new TVC but he has found a way to find unique talent especially with multiple late round picks. It seems as if Schneider has revolutionized the way talent is evaluated, as well as the way he collaborates with his head coach.


In 91' the Cowboys finished 11-5 and went on to win a playoff game. The next year? It was the first of their 3 consecutive Super Bowl titles. Here's hoping these coincidences continue!

P.S. I can't stand the Cowboys but facts are facts.