Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  That being said, we have existing Top 50 lists out and we always consistently look to update them when we can and based on necessity.  As such, we are very happy to present our pre-2021 revision of our top 50 Dallas Cowboys of all-time.

As for all of our top 50 players in football we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2.  Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NFL. 

3.  Playoff accomplishments.

4.  Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

This is our first revision after our inaugural unveiling, with only one slight elevation. There are no new entries.

1. Emmitt Smith

2. Bob Lilly

3. Roger Staubach

4. Randy White

5. Mel Renfro

You can find the entire list here.

The only jump was Running Back, Ezekiel Elliot, who advanced one spot to #47.

We welcome your input and commentsand as always, we thank you for your support.

Drafted in the 3rd Round out of Tennessee in 2003, Witten would see significant playing time in his rookie year but in 2004 he would rise to Pro Bowl status with a 980 Yard season. This would be the first of many seasons where the Dallas Cowboy would be considered an elite Tight End.

From 2005 to 2010 he would be named to six more Pro Bowls, which would also include two First Team All Pro Selections. Four more Pro Bowls would follow (2012-14 & 2017). Four of his seasons would see Witten exceed over 90 Receptions and 1,000 Yards, incredible numbers for a Tight End.

Witten first retired after the 2017 season with 11 Pro Bowls, and went into the broadcast booth for ESPN for their Monday Night Football package.  He unretired, coming back in 2019, and joined the Las Vegas Raiders in 2020 before retiring for good.

Witten retired as the all-time Cowboys leader in Receptions (1,215) and Receiving Yards (12,977) and with 13,046 Yards and 74 Touchdowns in total, behind only Tony Gonzalez among Tight Ends.

We have another major retirement in the National Football League as Jason Witten has called it a career.

Drafted in the 3rd Round out of Tennessee in 2003, Witten would see significant playing time in his rookie year but in 2004 he would rise to Pro Bowl status with a 980 Yard season. This would be the first of many seasons where the Dallas Cowboy would be considered an elite Tight End.

From 2005 to 2010 he would be named to six more Pro Bowls, which would also include two First Team All Pro Selections. Four more Pro Bowls would follow (2012-14 & 2017). Four of his seasons would see Witten exceed over 90 Receptions and 1,000 Yards, incredible numbers for a Tight End.

Witten first retired after the 2017 season, and went into the broadcast booth for ESPN for their Monday Night Football package.  He unretired, coming back in 2019, and joined the Las Vegas Raiders last year.

Witten retires as the all-time Cowboys leader in Receptions (1,215) and Receiving Yards (12,977).  and he retires with 13,046 Yards and 74 Touchdowns in total.

With his 11 Pro Bowls and statistical accumulation he has an excellent shot at entering the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2026. He will certainly have a prime position on our Notinhalloffame.com Football list.  In our 2020 pre-season rank of active players and their Hall of Fame credentials, Witten was placed #9 overall and #2 in Tight Ends behind Rob Gronkowski.

We will be creating his Notinhalloffame.com profile shortly in the 2026 section.

We here at Notinhalloffame.com would like to thank Jason Witten for all of the memories on the field and we wish him the best in his post-playing career.

A late First Round pick from Wisconsin, Travis Frederick was an immediate starter for the Dallas Cowboys when he arrived in 2013.

Yes, we know that this is taking a while!

As many of you know, we here at Notinhalloffame.com are slowly generating the 50 of each major North American sports team.  We have a new one to unveil today, that of the Dallas Cowboys. 

Known to many as America’s Team, the Cowboys are one of the most recognized professional sports programs on the globe.  Formed in 1960, the Cowboys have won five Super Bowls (VI, XII, XXVII, XXVIII & XXX), and when they play, regardless of their record, NFL fans pay attention.

As for all of our top 50 players in football we look at the following: 

1.  Advanced Statistics.

2. Traditional statistics and how they finished in the NFL.

3. Playoff accomplishments.

4. Their overall impact on the team and other intangibles not reflected in a stat sheet.

Remember, this is ONLY based on what a player does on that particular team and not what he accomplished elsewhere and also note that we have placed an increased importance on the first two categories.

This list is updated up until the end of the 2019 Season.

The complete list can be found here, but as always we announce our top five in this article.  They are:

1. Emmitt Smith

2. Bob Lilly

3. Roger Staubach

4. Randy White

5. Mel Renfro

We will continue our adjustments on our existing lists and will continue developing our new lists.  Up next, will be the Seattle Seahawks.

Look for our more material coming soon!

As always we thank you for your support.

You don’t usually talk about personal services contracts, but that is how Don Perkins was signed by Dallas…providing they got an NFL team.  They did, and the NFL allowed it, as the Cowboys had to send a compensatory 9^th Round Pick to the Baltimore Colts who chosen him that year.

After a bad scouting combine, Everson Walls would not hear his name called during the 1981 Draft.  The Cowboys would sign him, and it was easy to say that the move benefited both parties.

A superstar at Arizona State, the Dallas Cowboys, drafted Danny White in the third round of 1974.  With the knowledge that he was going to be used primarily as a Punter, White joined the Memphis Southmen of the upstart World Football League, where he could play Quarterback.  The league folded quickly, and he joined Dallas in 1976, as the Punter, but also as Roger Staubach’s backup.

The Dallas Cowboys have been known throughout their history as having outstanding Offensive Linemen, and John Niland was the first one they acquired with a first round pick (5^th Overall in 1966).  

“Dandy” Don Meredith arrived from SMU to the Dallas Cowboys, and the original Cowboy would become Dallas’ star Quarterback in 1963. 

Ralph Neely played his entire career with the Dallas Cowboys, where the All-American from Oklahoma found a long-term home.

Playing his college ball at Florida A&M (well before they were an FBS school), Nate Newton did not receive a lot of attention from the NFL, and he had to settle for signing with the Washington Redskins as a Free Agent.  He didn't make the team, but he found a home in the USFL with the Tampa Bay Bandits.  In the upstart league, Newton shined, and following the folding of the league, he was named to the all-time USFL Team.

“Prime Time” Deion Sanders had already proven himself as a superstar in Pro Football, as he was already a four-time Pro Bowl and three-time First Team All-Pro.  The year before he signed with Dallas, he was a San Francisco 49er for one year, and he helped them win the Super Bowl and won the Defensive Player of the Year.

Charles Haley had already won two Super Bowls as a San Francisco 49er and was coming off his third Pro Bowl year in four seasons.  He was still very much in his prime, but his volatile nature became too much for Head Coach, George Siefert to handle, he was dealt to Dallas, who was happy to have him.

You always hear about the brilliance of Dallas Cowboy scouting (see Brandt, Gil), and likely that is how Calvin Hill was drafted in the first round out of Yale in 1969.  The Ivy League wasn’t, and isn’t known for producing high-end offensive talent, but that is what the Cowboys got in Hill.

Flozell Adams played for the Dallas Cowboys for the first 12 years of his 13-year career, where he might be one of the most underrated Offensive Linemen in franchise history.

When the Dallas Cowboys had the “Triplets” of Quarterback, Troy Aikman, Running Back, Emmitt Smith, and Wide Receiver, Michael Irvin, there was another dependable offensive option in Tight End, Jay Novacek.

Central State in Wilberforce, Ohio, is not known for being a football factory, but they produced Erik Williams, who went there mainly because his grades were so weak, he could not get a Division I scholarship.  No matter, as the Offensive Lineman was still turning heads, and he was a third round pick by the Cowboys in 1991.

When you think of Marquette, you don’t come up with visions of football.  Perhaps that is because the program shut down in 1960, which was the year that George Andrie was a junior.  This meant that during his senior year, he wasn’t playing football, and as such, slipped under the radar of many teams, but the Dallas Cowboys were not one of them.  He was chosen by Dallas in the 6^th Round, and he was set to begin his pro career.

At 6’ 9”, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, had one of the coolest and appropriate nicknames in not just football, but in all of sports.