In today's thread, I'm going to examine 3 decisions that were made by Jerry that, compounded with each other, has, imo, led us to where we are now. These are mistakes that changed us from a dominant team to what we are now. I'm not going to include Jimmy as that's been discussed ad nauseam. Instead, I'm going to examine three other mistakes that, between 1998-2000, practically destroyed the Cowboys. I'm going to go in year order with this. I was a new fan in 2000, but this is based on what I've read and based on what could've changed our fortunes. Additionally, these are examples that also show the poor future planning of Jerry.
- In 1998, we drafted Greg Ellis instead of Randy Moss. While Ellis was a very good player for us, we should have gotten Moss. This is an example of poor planning in my view because Irvin was going into his 10th season at the time at an age in which players didn't often play long. So, Moss could've been a nice successor to Irvin when he retired. Also, those two together would've been dynamic and could have led to more Lombardis. It seems to me, as a young fan, that this was the moment in which Jerry lost his mojo, and he's never gotten it back. It was at this moment he's been craving great WRs to try to expunge this massive mistake.
- Trading for Joey Galloway – in an effort to try to make up for the mistake of not getting Moss and the recent retirement of Irvin, Jerry made a baffling trade to the Seahawks, in which two firsts were swapped for Joey Galloway. This was likely a panic move that wouldn't have been needed had Jerry planned adequately. It set into motion missing out on some truly great players such as, perhaps, Shaun Alexander who the Seahawks chose who could've been a nice eventual replacement for Emmitt, Nate Clements, who could've replaced Deion at CB, and others.
- Missing out on Tom Brady – okay, nobody knew Brady was going to be what he is, but I think it's probably safe to say that Jerry missed by not taking him later in the 2000 draft. I'm not saying he should've been the first pick. But, we could have had him in the 6thnround when we took Mario Edwards instead. It shows poor planning, imo, because Aikman was going into his 11th season, and he had missed 5 games in 1998. Therefore, it'd have been smart to have drafted Brady in round 6 to try to develop a QB. I'm not saying he'd have been the Brady we know due to Belichick, but he probably would've been a top QB nonetheless.
I think these are 3 Pivotal mistakes in 3 years that Jerry made that changed the course of the Cowboys from the dominant kings of the League at the time to what we are now. I think these are mistakes that haunt Jerry, and, had he made these moves, he might've actually gotten what he wanted. Instead, he's been scrambling like a chicken without a head since.
