There are a lot of ways to look at the last 25 years of Dallas Cowboys football, but unfortunately, the most common theme throughout this era is that it represents the vast majority of the franchise’s drought of not appearing in the NFC Championship game since 1996. Every fan and follower of the team may have a slightly different take on what part of this drought hits home the most, but one of them is undeniable. Over this time, the Cowboys have not gone without their share of great players and even coaches, but have seen entire Hall of Fame level careers come and go without the ultimate prize of playoff success.
This look back through recent Cowboys history was brought up again thanks to the work of ESPN’s Aaron Schatz and Seth Walder, who collectively put together their take on the NFL’s “All Quarter Century Team”. What makes their list stand out over the multitude of other similar ones that come and go without any fanfare is the level of detail involved. Distinctions were made for each offensive and defensive line position instead of lumping things together, special teams has its own category all the way down to long snappers. Coaches and coordinators are included, and even the ground rules on what constitutes an all quarter century player is laid out clearly.
Players are still eligible if they began their career in the 1990s, but only production beginning in the 2000 season was considered.
These decisions were made mostly on statistical output, focusing on peak seasons while still rewarding longevity. We relied heavily on FTN’s DYAR metric (defense-adjusted yards above replacement), which calculates a player’s value over the course of the season compared to a replacement-level baseline. Other advanced statistics were also taken into account.
This team includes 25 offensive players, 23 defensive players and five special teams players. For another wrinkle, we filled out a full “practice squad” with the players who just missed the cut and listed them in their respective position groups. We followed current NFL practice squad rules, which includes 17 players if one was brought in from the International Player Pathway Program. Finally, we also needed an elite coaching staff to get the most out of this quarter-century team, so we picked a head coach and three coordinators.
The Cowboys are represented in all facets of the team- offense, defense, and the coaching staff. Let’s take a closer look at who made the quarter century cut, as well as a few other interesting notes.
Offense: Wide Receiver Terrell Owens
Teams: 49ers (1996-2003), Eagles (2004-05), Cowboys (2006-08), Bills (2009), Bengals (2010)
Résumé since 2000: 12,627 receiving yards, 123 receiving TDs, five-time All-Pro
In the 11 seasons Owens played in this quarter century, he recorded three second-place finishes in DYAR and one infamous driveway news conference. He led the league in receiving touchdowns three times, and his 80.3 receiving yards per game ranks sixth among WRs with at least 50 games played since 2000.
Owens would play through any injury for this team, as evidenced by his miraculous 122-yard performance in Super Bowl XXXIX after breaking his leg seven weeks earlier. — Walder
The fact that stats and accolades from 2000 onward were all that were considered for the making of this list does not hurt Owens one bit compared to players who may have been more dominant in the late 90s. In fact, it helps him perhaps more than most. The start of the 2000s was the first time Owens eclipsed 1,100 yards in his fifth season with the San Francisco 49ers. He followed this up in 2001 with a career high 1,451 yards, 13 touchdowns, and took his yards per game up to 103.6 from a previous high water mark of 64.4 in 1998.
His streak of having at least 1,100 yards that started in 2000, again his first year of eligibility stats wise for this quarter century team, would last until his last season in Philadelphia. Owens only played in seven games and amassed 763 yards for the Eagles in 2005. The following season, Owens was healthy again and began a new streak of having at least 1,100 yards in his first for the Dallas Cowboys. Owens caught 13 touchdowns in 15 games, and had plenty of popcorn for an encore in 2007 when he became a Pro Bowler and first team All-Pro again for the first time since 2003. That season, Owens had 15 touchdowns and 1,355 yards, his most since 2000.
The vast majority of Owens’ eligible production for this list from 2000 until his final year with the Bengals in 2010 came with the Cowboys, and he was a part of some big play offenses that were always exciting. However, in his only two playoff games for the Cowboys, Owens was held to two catches for 26 yards in that fateful 2007 Wild Card loss at the Seahawks, and four catches for 49 yards (and a touchdown) the following year in another infamous playoff loss to the rival New York Giants. Compared to his time with the Eagles, where Owens only appeared in one playoff game, at least it was a Super Bowl which – even in a loss – has aided Owens legacy as he battled through injury to be in that game after not playing since week eight.
The consensus on Owens post playing career, if it is possible for such a polarizing player to have such a thing, has been that despite any opinions on his antics, the talent will always make him among the best receivers of his generation. So much of this production came for the Cowboys, but as we already know is a theme here, the playoff success did not follow.
Offense: Right Guard Zack Martin
Teams: Cowboys (2014-24)
Résumé since 2000: 162 starts,
Martin’s number of first-team All-Pro selections (seven) is the highest total for any guard since 2000. Former Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo once said Martin didn’t have a weakness and had everything required of an offensive lineman at an elite level: footwork, base, punch, athleticism, strength and mind. — Schatz
The absolute most recent example of the Cowboys wasting an exemplary career of a player that will walk into both Canton and the Cowboys Ring of Honor is Zack Martin. The 2024 season proved to be Martin’s last, as Father Time clearly caught up to him in the ten games he was healthy for. Some of these games came in protection of Cooper Rush, not franchise quarterback Dak Prescott, and with turnstile changes elsewhere along the line as well as at running back. For a player as proud as Martin, all signs involving the dysfunction on offense led to the retirement of a nine-time Pro Bowler and seven-time All-Pro protector.
It may also be Martin’s absence going into year one of a new regime under Brian Schottenheimer that serves as one of the best reasons to buy into – at least a little bit – the direction the team is currently heading. Drafting Martin as a plug-and-play, blue-chip, instant starter in 2014 had a more profound effect than could ever be imagined for the Cowboys. Sliding Martin in at right guard was the missing piece for the entire offensive line to gel and become one of the best in the league, paving the way for both DeMarco Murray to have a career year on the ground and Tony Romo to lead the team to the NFC Divisional Round, playing with precision from a clean pocket on a snap-to-snap basis.
Upon Martin’s retirement, the Cowboys immediately looked to the first round again to replace the irreplaceable franchise legend. The team took Tyler Booker out of Alabama 12th overall, a player they hope is yet another plug-and-play right guard that comes from a top notch college program and possesses the leadership qualities they desire up front. Whether or not the Cowboys have a running back ready to take full advantage like they did over Martin’s peak years, or a healthy quarterback, or a scheme that makes it all fit together remains to be seen, but the point stands that Martin’s legacy will still be felt in 2025 and beyond for Dallas.
If that doesn’t make Martin, a player with more career Pro Bowl appearances than accepted holding penalties over a ten-year career, a lock for the all quarter century team, what does?
Defense: Defensive End DeMarcus Ware
Teams: Cowboys (2005-13), Broncos (2014-16)
Résumé since 2000: 138.5 sacks, 35 forced fumbles, one-time Super Bowl Champion, seven-time All-Pro
There are so many great edge rushers to choose from, but they generally come in two categories: great career totals or great peaks with a high ratio of sacks to games played. Ware had the best balance between the two. He had the third-most sacks out of all players since 2000, while his 0.78 sacks per game rank fourth among edge rushers. — Schatz
When it comes to the descriptions as to why each player is on this list, statistics and even analytics play a much larger role than the tired and constantly rehashed arguments about individual championships in what is always a team sport. When it comes to DeMarcus Ware’s legacy and how he is remembered by Cowboys fans though, both are absolutely needed to paint the full picture.
Ware was so dominant over his nine year career with the Cowboys, he became one of the few players fans were at least somewhat cheerful to see find greener pastures elsewhere. Instead of using Ware as just another prop to point out how the Cowboys front office was failing franchise legacy players by not fielding better overall teams, the former first-round pick out of Troy was celebrated by all fans, including those in Dallas, when he rode off into the sunset with Peyton Manning and the 2016 Super Bowl winning Broncos. Ware would have been a Hall of Fame pass rusher without ever winning a Super Bowl, as he made seven straight Pro Bowls, had three straight AP first-team nominations, and seven straight double-digit sack seasons for the Cowboys. He was able to keep this production going in Denver for a while, making the Pro Bowl his first two seasons there from 2014-15 as well, doing so with ten sacks in 2014.
Ware, along with Terrell Owens, represent Hall of Fame players for the Cowboys on this list, and it is only a matter of time for retirement eligibility reasons until Martin can join them. Ware has remained a vocal supporter of all things football, both for the Cowboys and Broncos, in his post playing days, joined by Jared Allen, Julius Peppers, and Myles Garrett on the all quarter century team.
Garrett being the only active player of this group provides some fun perspective on Ware’s dominant career too. The Browns star pass rusher has averaged just shy of 13 sacks a season since coming on the scene in 2017. He’s had 14 in back-to-back seasons. Garrett would still need three more seasons of maintaining this pace, until he is 32 years old, to surpass Ware’s career total of 138.5 sacks.
Coaching Staff: Defensive Coordinator Wade Phillips
Wade Phillips, defensive coordinator
Phillips not only has a record of coordinating strong defenses at multiple stops; he also has a great record of improving those defenses. He took the Falcons’ defense from 24th in DVOA in 2001 to 10th in 2002. He took the Chargers’ defense from 28th in 2003 to ninth in 2004. He took the Texans’ defense — with some help from rookie J.J. Watt, of course — from 30th in 2010 to eighth in 2011. Then he took the Broncos to No. 1 in defensive DVOA in both 2015 and 2016, with a Super Bowl championship.
Including Phillips’ stops as a head coach (Bills and Cowboys), his defenses have ranked in the top half of the league in 15 of 18 seasons since 2000. — Schatz
Former Cowboys head coach Wade Phillips joins HC Bill Belichick and OC Kyle Shanahan on the all quarter century team coaching staff. His time as Dallas’ head coach from 2007-10 is just a small blip on the 2000s career for Phillips, which remarkably in total is even a smaller blip in the full prospectus for a true football lifer that began coaching as a graduate assistant in 1969, and still is today for the UFL’s San Antonio Brahmas.
Phillips was the defensive coordinator for DeMarcus Ware’s final two seasons in the NFL in Denver. Prior to becoming head coach in Dallas, he had previous stops as either a DC or HC in New Orleans, Philly, Denver, Buffalo, Atlanta, and San Diego. At most of these stops, Phillips was able to parlay his mastery of defensive football into becoming at least an interim head coach. With the Cowboys, this script eventually flipped when he became – still to this day – the last coach Jerry Jones has fired midseason, replaced by an interim offensive coordinator named Jason Garrett. The Cowboys have not broken this streak of favoring offensive-minded head coaches ever since Garrett either.
Both times Phillips won the NFC East, the Cowboys were bounced in the Divisional playoffs, by the Giants in 2007 and Vikings in 2009. Phillips may be one of the best definitions pro football has ever seen of a football lifer, the son of Bum Phillips, also a former NFL defensive coordinator and head coach. His personality and demeanor did not always fit the “desired” backdrop the Cowboys covet when it comes to their need for constant attention around all facets of the team. Like the franchise is still grappling with today though, Phillips has found more success elsewhere outside of Dallas, the same way former players still talk about how it can be refreshing to leave and play for other teams that are more about ball and less about the theater of it all.
Coaching defensive linemen was Phillips specialty, and when it comes to this list of players who make up the absolute cream of the crop over the last two and a half decades, what better accolade could there be for a coach than to say he worked with multiple players on the all quarter century defense? This is the case for Phillips and his ties to Ware, Aaron Donald, and J.J. Watt.
Other Interesting Notes
- When it comes to “snubs” on a list this comprehensive, the only one that comes to mind is former Cowboys left tackle Tyron Smith. The explanation for why Joe Thomas and Trent Williams got the nod over the rest of the field is solid though. In the absence of advanced stats to measure offensive line performance, things like All-Pro and Pro Bowl appearances were weighted heavier here.
Thomas was a ten-time Pro Bowler and six-time All Pro, more than any other tackle since 2000. Williams has the nod on Thomas with 11 Pro Bowls, and is a four-time All Pro.
Tyron Smith was an eight-time Pro Bowl player and twice an All Pro.
- Lists like these often have some selections that are merely fodder for debate, but having Tom Brady at quarterback is not one of them. It is the slam dunk of the quarter century, it will be the slam dunk of the half century, and a slam dunk until the heat death of the universe. He is the G.O.A.T quarterback in every way. With that said, it may be slightly amusing for Cowboys fans to know that Brady’s perfect regular-season record against the Cowboys at 7-0 all happened within the window of 2000 onward, but the Cowboys are also the team responsible for his last ever game, knocking him out of the playoffs in his final season for the Buccaneers.
- The extensiveness of this list even included a “practice squad” which served as an honorable mention for position groups that are deep. Jalen Ramsey was a modern practice squad selection at cornerback, perhaps bringing back memories of the month long draft debate between him and Ezekiel Elliott for the fourth overall pick by Dallas back in 2016. There was also some distant rumblings that Ramsey could be on the trade block earlier this offseason, and the Cowboys would be one of the teams interested, but as it turned out there was very little fire where all that smoke was around a now declining player in Ramsey.
