Within the glory days of the franchise’s Corridor of Fame triplets — quarterback Troy Aikman, working again Emmitt Smith and vast receiver Michael Irvin — the Cowboys claimed three Tremendous Bowls from 1992-1995 with an astounding roster largely constructed by HOF head coach Jimmy Johnson. These days are lengthy passed by now, the years of the Cowboys developing brief within the postseason placing them additional and farther from it.
Since 1996, Dallas is 0-7 within the Divisional Spherical, worst within the NFL in that span, in accordance with NFL Analysis.
In the course of the aforementioned Lombardi-filled run of 1992-1995, the Cowboys had been 10-1 within the playoffs general.
Courting again once more to 1996, the Cowboys are 5-13 within the playoffs general. No different membership has double-digit playoff losses with 5 or fewer wins in that span, per NFL Analysis.
As they’ve come up brief in each Divisional Spherical look since successful their final Tremendous Bowl, they’ve now gone 28 seasons with out an NFC Championship Sport berth. It is the second-longest lively drought behind solely the rival Washington Commanders (32 seasons).
Dallas’ newest playoff setback got here with a surprising upset loss in final season’s wild-card spherical to an upstart Inexperienced Bay Packers workforce. It was the Cowboys’ third 12-5 season in a row and it was one more 12 months of a much-ballyhooed, high-profile roster finally falling brief. McCarthy, whose first season was a 6-10 exhibiting in 2020 marred by a horrendous Prescott harm, is simply 1-3 within the postseason because the Cowboys head coach, with the lone victory coming in opposition to an eight-win Tampa Bay Buccaneers workforce.
The Cowboys are perennially in win-now mode, with nary a rebuilding part to be seen.
This 12 months has a little bit of a distinct really feel, although.
Dallas misplaced Professional Bowlers Tyron Smith, Tyler Biadasz and Tony Pollard to free company, Leighton Vander Esch retired and Stephon Gilmore stays available on the market. In flip, the Cowboys welcomed solely two free brokers who’re projected to be 2024 starters — Ezekiel Elliott and Eric Kendricks.
Extra regarding is that Prescott, CeeDee Lamb and Micah Parsons are every out there for extensions, however the faces of the franchise stay on their outdated offers because the summer time burns on. They don’t seem to be the one ones. A staggering 9 former Professional Bowlers on the Cowboys have just one or two seasons left on their present contracts.
Cowboys proprietor Jerry Jones has drawn the ire of followers and the criticism of pundits for stating that Dallas was going “all-in” for the 2024 season and following it up with an offseason that was subsequent door to silent and a draft that was hardly splashy. Nonetheless, if Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, John Monnette or some other professional poker participant pushes his chips all-in, it’s totally a lot a win-or-go-home state of affairs. Maybe that is what lies forward for the 2024 Cowboys.
Ought to Dallas win the Tremendous Bowl — or maybe even attain it or the NFC Championship Sport — maintaining its present solid collectively would appear to be paramount. If this posse of Cowboys goes bust within the postseason but once more, although, it would not be exhausting to fathom an enormous overhaul.
The reigning NFC East champions are very a lot anticipated to be within the combine with regards to Tremendous Bowl rivalry. Nevertheless it’s nonetheless simply June. Come February of 2025, maybe the query of whether or not the Cowboys’ Tremendous Bowl window is open or closed shall be answered.