Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players, Part IX: Deion, 'Too Tall' and Woodson
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.
We are presenting the Top 60 in groups of five, leading up to Nos. 1-5 on Sept. 12.
If you feel we've done a guy wrong (or right!) let us know on Twitter @PostinsPostcard and we'll barroom-brawl over it!
So, now we present Nos. 16-20. 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
➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 51-55
➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 46-50
➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 41-45
➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 36-40
➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 31-35
➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 26-30
➡️ Cowboys Top 60 Greatest Players: Nos. 21-25
20. DB Deion Sanders
Like a few other short-term Cowboys, some thought had to go into where Sanders fits into this list. He only played for the Cowboys for five years, and his free-agent signing was one of the most ballyhooed of the 1990s. Sanders doesn’t rank high on the Cowboys’ interception list (he had only 14 of his 53 career picks in Dallas). But opposing teams admitted many times that they threw away from Sanders, and his presence alone made teammates better. Sanders remains the Cowboys’ all-time leader in punt return average (13.3) and punt return touchdowns (4). In Dallas he was a four-time Pro Bowler, a four-time All-Pro (three times as a corner and one time as a returner) and was selected to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1990’s as both a cornerback and a returner. He’s a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the NFL’s 100th Anniversary team.
19. LB Lee Roy Jordan
Highly regarded coming out of college, Jordan was taken No. 9 overall by the Cowboys in 1963. He became an immediate starter and lasted 14 years. The five-time Pro Bowl selection is a Cowboys Ring of Honor member and a 25th Anniversary team member. He earned just two All-Pro nods (one first-team selection), but won a Super Bowl ring and was the 1973 NFC Defensive Player of the Year. Entering 2020 Jordan is still No. 2 in tackles (1,236) and tied for No. 7 in interceptions (32) with Terrence Newman.
18. OL Rayfield Wright
One of the best finds in Cowboys scouting history, honestly. No one scouted Historically Black Colleges and Universities better than the Cowboys did in the 1960s and 1970s and Wright was a result of that work. A seventh-round pick out of Fort Valley State in 1967, Wright won two Super Bowls as a Cowboy, reached six Pro Bowls, earned six All-Pro selections (three first-team nods) and selection to the NFL’s All-Decade Team of the 1970s. The Cowboys Ring of Honor member became a Pro Football Hall of Famer in 2006.
17. DE Ed “Too Tall” Jones
Another victim of the fact that sacks did not become an official NFL statistic until 1983, Jones ended his career with 106 official and unofficial sacks in a 15-year career that included a one-year retirement in 1979, which made him a great return on being the No. 1 overall pick of the 1974 NFL Draft. His best years came after the retirement, as he earned three straight Pro Bowl and All-Pro nods in 1981, 1982 and 1983. Jones won a ring with the Cowboys in Super Bowl XII.
16. S Darren Woodson
Woodson is the Cowboys’ all-time leading tackler (1,326), second-leading special teams tackler (134) and is 11th all-time in interceptions. It’s odd that some observers hold his consistency and longevity against him (in other words, he played a long time, therefore he has a lot of stats). But he’s in the Top 11 in the two categories you care about from a safety — tackles and interceptions. He probably should be in the Hall of Fame.
Tomorrow: Nos. 11-15.
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.
