In this series, I will be looking at the history of coaches, quarterbacks, rushers, and receivers for all 32 franchises. For coaches and quarterbacks, I will be looking at how much their franchise’s career records (regular season only) would change if we removed the games with that person. For rushers and receivers, I will note how many times that player was the team’s leading rusher/receiver over the course of their time with that franchise (regular plus postseason).

Previous Teams:

Dolphins

For the Cowboys, it’s not hard to figure out who is the best coach in team history. Tom Landry was so good for so long, that he’s really inflated the team’s overall mark. Consider Jason Garrett, who has gone a very respectable 77-59 as head coach of the Cowboys. That’s a 0.566 winning percentage, but that’s actually lower than the team’s overall winning percentage of 0.573. In other words, Dallas has a better career record in games without Garrett than with Garrett, which is a harbinger of things to come in today’s post. Meanwhile, Dave Campo is the only coach in Dallas history who had a losing record.

Ovr Rk Coach G W L T HC Win % FrG FrW FL FrT Fr W% Win% w/o HC Diff 21 Tom Landry 418 250 162 6 0.605 898 512 380 6 0.573 0.546 2.8% 108 Barry Switzer 64 40 24 0 0.625 898 512 380 6 0.573 0.57 0.4% 132 Wade Phillips 56 34 22 0 0.607 898 512 380 6 0.573 0.571 0.2% 204 Chan Gailey 32 18 14 0 0.563 898 512 380 6 0.573 0.574 0% 251 Jason Garrett 136 77 59 0 0.566 898 512 380 6 0.573 0.575 -0.1% 290 Jimmy Johnson 80 44 36 0 0.55 898 512 380 6 0.573 0.576 -0.2% 330 Bill Parcells 64 34 30 0 0.531 898 512 380 6 0.573 0.577 -0.3% 498 Dave Campo 48 15 33 0 0.313 898 512 380 6 0.573 0.588 -1.5%

Troy Aikman went 94-71 (57.0%) as quarterback of the Cowboys. That means that that — as hard as this may be to believe — the Cowboys have a lower winning percentage in games started by Aikman than in games started by all other quarterbacks. Roger Staubach, of course, is the man who has helped the team’s winning percentage the most. I recommend sorting the table by games started, even though by default it is sorted by the final column. As for the worst quarterback? That honor goes to the first one, Eddie LeBaron.

When it comes to running backs, you are not going to be surprised with the results here. Emmitt Smith led the Cowboys in rushing in 195 games, which you won’t be surprised to learn that that is by far the most of any player for any team.

When it comes to wide receivers, the Cowboys have had a number of strong receivers: Drew Pearson, Tony Hill, Jason Witten, Bob Hayes, and Dez Bryant, among others. But Michael Irvin stands alone in this regard, leading the team in receiving yards in a whopping 102 of 175 games. He is one of just 8 players who led their teams in receiving yards on 55% of their games or more while playing in at least 100 games (Calvin Johnson, Julio Jones, Sterling Sharpe, Andre Johnson, Michael Irvin, Jerry Rice, A.J. Green, and Antonio Brown being the others.

That’s it for the Dallas version of this series. Please leave your thoughts in the comments.