#1. They had the luckiest trade of the century. 1985 5th round pick Herschel walker had ran for 737 & 891 yards his first two years and has a big year in 88 and gains over 2000 all purpose yards.

Vikings gave up 6 draft picks and FIVE SOLID PLAYERS (1 RB and 4 new defensive players)!

Possibly the beneficial trade in NFL history, and also why its hard to use this model today unless you can get a trade like this to go your way (Walker ran over 1000 yards after this once btw so Vikings got really screwed on the deal)

Cowboys also had the best three year stretch of first round draft picks in history, again making it highly unlikely for anyone to duplicate unless they can draft Hall of Famers in three consecutive drafts.

88 – Michael Irvin
89 – Troy Aikman
90 – Emmitt Smith

You beat me to the punch on all the Jerry Jones data.

However, the “Cowboys” didn’t clean house. Jerry Jones himself, did. He came in and cleaned house and used a ton of his own money to clean up the big D. Their organization had become stagnant under Bum Bright. Jones started axing people was in coaching and execs FIRST. He got to the players eventually. This is what needs to go down in KC. Carl, Herm, all the assistant coaches (except Krumrie IMHO) all need to bizz-ounce. That’s the only way we will keep from running this team further into the ground and more under the cap.

The Herschel Walker trade is what made that Dallas dynasty, and is also why you have never seen such a blockbuster trade since. Teams learned they cannot mortgage their future for 1 player, no matter how many pushups he does a day.