Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players, Part II: Novacek To Coakley
Continuing today, in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Dallas Cowboys, we present our CowboysSI.com Top 60 All-Time Greatest Players in Franchise History.
For the next 12 days, we will present the Top 60 in groups of five, leading up to Nos. 1-5 on Sept. 12.
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So, now we present Nos. 51-55. Note the criteria for selection at the bottom of the article. And if you missed any of our other pieces, check them out below.
➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 56-60
55. TE Jay Novacek
Rescued from purgatory (also known as the Cardinals) through Plan B free agency, Novacek played seven years for the Cowboys, catching 339 passes for 3,576 yards and 49 touchdowns. He was more than just Troy Aikman’s security blanket.
He was also a talented blocker who made gritty third-down catches on a regular basis. Novacek made five Pro Bowls, earned one All-Pro nod and won three Super Bowl rings in four seasons. He is third all-time in receptions among Cowboys tight ends.
54. Herb Scott
Part of the famed ‘Dirty Dozen’ draft of 1975 (he was a 13th-round selection) it took Scott a year to become a starter and his rise allowed the Cowboys to trade a player you’ll meet later in this Top 60. Scott was a starter for nearly a decade in the late 1970s and early 1980s, making three Pro Bowls, earning two All-Pro selections and winning a Super Bowl ring with the Cowboys. In an odd twist, Scott caught Roger Staubach’s final professional pass.
53. LB Dexter Coakley
A transitional player from the 1990s dynasty years to the Bill Parcells era, Coakley earned a starting job immediately upon joining the team in 1997 and finished his Cowboys career with 1,046 tackles in eight seasons, earning three Pro Bowl selections and inclusion on the 1997 All-Rookie team. He had the misfortune of playing on Cowboys teams that just weren’t very good, but his play would have been a great fit with those 1990s Cowboys teams in their prime.
52. OL Flozell Adams
“The Hotel” played a decade for the Cowboys, nearing five Pro Bowl nods and one All-Pro selection (second team). Adams joined the Cowboys in 1998 when the offensive line was in transition and became an immediate starter. Adams wasn’t elite, but reliable and played tackle for most of his career. Only a handful of Cowboys offensive linemen have more Pro Bowl selections than Adams.
51. WR Frank Clarke
Clarke came to the Cowboys in 1960 after three years with Cleveland. During eight seasons in Dallas he became its first true deep threat, completing his Cowboys career with 5,214 receiving yards and 281 receptions. He’s one of six Cowboys with at least 50 career touchdown receptions. He led the NFL in touchdown receptions in 1962 with 14 and earned an All-Pro nod in 1964. Clarke’s 14 touchdown receptions stood as the franchise’s single-season record until Terrell Owens broke it in 2007.
Tomorrow: Nos. 46-50.
Top 60 criteria:
Player honors — Pro Football Hall of Fame, Cowboys Ring of Honor, All-Pro selections, Pro Bowl selections, MVP awards, etc… That has to be a big part of the process.
Team success — Pro football is a team game, and as such every player on the list played a part in a successful era in Cowboys history (though success is, to some degree, in the eyes of the beholder).
Time with Cowboys — This is important. As part of this process I only took into account a player’s time WITH the Cowboys. There have been some great players that have come through Dallas, but some of them only spent a few years with the team. Depending upon how successful they and the team were during their time, that influenced whether they made the list or not. That also includes their impact and role in that success, whether there are statistics associated with that or not.
Feedback from experts — Throughout the process I consulted with two writers that have been around the Cowboys since the 1990s — Mike Fisher and Richie Whitt. Their feedback, along with the bios that I wrote on each player, played a role in where players were ranked.
