Dallas Cowboys roster-building approach: Why can’t they advance in the playoffs?

The Dallas Cowboys are good at building a roster. This argument is heavily debated, but if you take a look at everything they do, it’s hard not to acknowledge that they assemble a pretty good group of talent. It all starts in the draft, and it all starts on Day 1. The Cowboys are absolutely lights out at drafting players in the first round. This is something we’ve always been privy to, but it may not be fully appreciated because some may not be aware of the disparity between the Cowboys and the rest of the teams in the NFL.

Over the last 15 drafts (we won’t count 2025 because players haven’t played yet), the Cowboys have drafted 10 players in the first round who have become All-Pros. For those doing the math, that’s a 67% All-Pro hit rate. That’s insane. To wrap your mind around just how incredibly high that is, the average All-Pro hit rate of all the other 31 teams in the NFL during that period is just three.

Cowboys = 10

Rest of the NFL (average) = 3

That’s a huge difference. If we broke down all the All-Pros from each team during these 15 years, it looks like this:

The next highest teams are the Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs, each with six. If you look at the teams with at least four, most of them have been some of the better teams in the league in recent years. That shouldn’t be too surprising. Teams with great players tend to do well.

The Cowboys lead the pack, and it’s not even close. If you’re curious about which 10 players it is for Dallas, NFL on Prime Video made a nice little graphic for us.

Just to be clear, the players included in this data set are both first- and second-team All-Pros, so if you have higher standards, feel free to bump Byron Jones, Leighton Vander Esch, and Tyler Smith off the list. Of course, seven is still pretty good, and most of the other teams also drop as well.

A stat like this brings out a lot of “yeah, buts.” They are great in the first round, but what about the other rounds? Well, the Cowboys also do pretty well there, too. During that same time, they have drafted 12 additional players who have earned All-Pro and/or Pro Bowl honors. Those players include:

Dak Prescott, Sean Lee, DeMarcus Lawrence, Trevon Diggs, DaRon Bland, DeMarco Murray, Tony Pollard, Jake Ferguson, Tyler Biadasz, Dwayne Harris, Jaylon Smith, and Connor McGovern. Side note – McGovern battled injuries early on and made the Pro Bowl last year as a member of the Buffalo Bills, but regardless, he still counts as a good player the team drafted.

That is a total of 22 good players over 15 years. That equates to 1.5 quality players per year. That’s a good haul. While most would concede the Cowboys are good at drafting, it’s the other methods of talent acquisition that bother people. What about making trades? It doesn’t get talked about that much, but the Cowboys have acquired a pretty decent group of players over the years. This includes the following:

Amari Cooper, Robert Quinn, Rolando McClain, Stephon Gilmore, Brandin Cooks, Johnathan Hankins, Michael Bennett, Brice Butler, and Tavon Austin.

Except for Cooper, all of these guys were acquired with a late-round draft pick. While most of these moves aren’t blockbuster moves, many provided solid contributions for the team that exceeded the average value of return they would have gotten with Day 3 draft picks.

The Cowboys also made four trades this offseason that include George Pickens, Kenneth Murray, Joe Milton III, and Kaiir Elam. When you look at all the trades they’ve made, this collection of players isn’t anything to shake a stick at?

Of course, the biggest “yeah, but” is why can’t they be more active in free agency? And to the chagrin of many, there is no rabbit in the hat for this. They just don’t want to do it. However, in their defense, free agency isn’t a good way to build the roster. Teams can fill voids, and every year, some get lucky, but overall, it’s a losing endeavor. The Cowboys minimize this risk with small purchases and, surprisingly, have found several guys who have outperformed their costs. This includes players like:

Dante Fowler, Randall Cobb, Jonathan Cooper, Aldon Smith, Malik Hooker, Bryan Anger, Jayron Kearse, Carlos Watkins, Darren McFadden, Jeremy Mincey, Anthony Barr, Ty Nsekhe, Cameron Fleming, Kerry Hyder, Joe Looney, Justin Durant, Henry Melton, George Selvie, Alfred Morris, Benson Mayowa, Eric Kendricks, and Cameron Erving,

The Cowboys aren’t solving their problems in free agency, but they aren’t creating more by costly whiffs. They cautiously use it to fill needs without overpaying in the process.

But all of this roster-building “rah rah” falls on deaf ears because even if we made a compelling case that the front office is doing a good job, how do we explain the team’s failure to advance past the divisional round over the last 30 years? That’s an onion with a lot of layers, and certainly the front office has fallen short by not addressing certain areas of the roster at different points, but it pales in comparison to many other things.

Sometimes, the other team came in with a better plan, and they were outcoached. Other times, the apple was there for the taking, but the players just didn’t make enough plays. And when you look at all the opportunities they’ve had, sometimes it’s come down to one unfortunate event. Brainstorming every disappointing playoff loss, here are some things that come to mind…

A fumbled hold

A last-second toe drag

A dropped pass by Crayton

Players not being disciplined

A caught pass that wasn’t caught

Lacking enough talent to stop the run

Being outcoached against tough opponents

A DeMarco fumble that should’ve been a touchdown

A quarterback who throws one too many interceptions

We all have our own theories about what’s holding this team back, but it’s hard to be too critical of a front office that, for the most part, has done an excellent job buying the groceries. With an excellent track record when it comes to the draft, and employing other methods that might be a little over-criticized, the Cowboys put together good teams, and they might be closer than we think to finally turning the corner if they can just get some of these other things worked out.