Cowboys Super Bowl Drought Tied To 1 Glaring Flaw

Since '95 the Cowboys have boasted a Hall-of-Fame tight end (Jason Witten), NFL rushing leaders (DeMarco Murray, Ezekiel Elliott), the best receiving season in franchise history (CeeDee Lamb) and Pro Bowl quarterbacks in Tony Romo and Dak Prescott who set team records and finished second in MVP voting.

Add it all up and in 29 seasons the barrage of offense has produced only five playoff wins and nary a sniff of a Super Bowl. Why?

Altogether now: Deeee-Fence!

The solution to Dallas' postseason woes has been staring it right between the eyes and yet somehow also going right over its head. As the Philadelphia Eagles' ferocious pass rush proved once again in harassing Patrick Mahomes in their dominating Super Bowl LIX, offense sells tickets but defense wins championships.

Bottom line: The Cowboys have never won a Super Bowl without a Top 10 defense. In their five Super Bowl seasons, in fact, they finished in the Top 8:

1971 - 3rd

1977 - 8th

1992 - 5th

1993 - 2nd

1995 - 3rd

What were the Cowboys ranked during last season's 7-10 disaster? 31st, including 29th against the run.

It's simply not a winning formula. The last five seasons the Cowboys' defense has been ranked behind the Super Bowl champion. The Eagles, for example, were No. 10.

During their drought, they have often had the best player in the league a variety of offensive positions, and for a time had the best offensive line anchored by Tyron Smith, Zack Martin and Travis Frederick.

But outside of Hall-of-Famer DeMarcus Ware, can the same be said about their defense?

It's not for a lack of trying. Since '95 Jerry Jones has used his top draft pick on a defensive player 17 times, but almost exclusively with disappointing results.

1996 - Kavika Pittman

1998 - Greg Ellis

1999 - Ebneezer Ekuban

2000 - Dwayne Goodrich

2002 - Roy Williams

2003 - Terence Newman

2005 - DeMarcus Ware

2006 - Bobby Carpenter

2007 - Anthony Spencer

2009 - Jason Williams

2012 - Morris Claiborne

2015 - Byron Jones

2017 - Taco Charlton

2018 - Leighton Vander Esch

2019 - Trysten Hill

2021 - Micah Parsons

2023 - Mazi Smith

In the 1990s Jerry's bold moves - trading for Charles Haley; signing Deion Sanders - were aimed at fortifying the defense. In the last two seasons he's overpaid in trades for backup offensive players in Trey Lance and Jonathan Mingo.

He also just hired a new head coach in Brian Schottenheimer who in 25 years has never worked on the defensive side of the football.

The beat goes on ...