Ranking the Cowboys’ head coaches in franchise history

Up until the mid-1990s and early 2000s, the Dallas Cowboys were one of those teams where you could count the franchise’s head coaches on one hand.

At the time, the only coaches to ever coach the team were the legendary Tom Landry and the fiery Jimmy Johnson. After 34 years of only two head coaches, Johnson’s decision to leave the team opened the flood gates.

Since Johnson, the Cowboys have had six head coaches walk the sideline with a headset: Barry Switzer, Chan Gailey, Dave Campo, Bill Parcells, Wade Phillips, Jason Garrett, and the current head coach, Mike McCarthy.

Each one of these coaches has their own stories of successes and failures and scrutiny is never in short supply. Being the head coach of the Dallas Cowboys is not for the faint of heart.

Coaches who decide to carry that burden usually find that out very quickly at the first sign of any turmoil within the team. Immediately the coach sees how he needs to steer the ship through shark-infested waters.

Listing the head coaches in the history of the franchise makes me think they need to be ranked, and that’s what we are going to do today. Let’s rank the top-3 head coaches in Cowboys franchise history.

3. Mike McCarthy

Let’s start with the current head coach, Mike McCarthy. McCarthy is currently under a cloud of scrutiny after the embarrassing playoff loss to the Green Bay Packers in January.

However, that shouldn’t take away from the fact that the Dallas Cowboys won 12 games in a season three consecutive years, yet no one wants to give McCarthy credit.

Not only is McCarthy leading the way to those three consecutive 12-win seasons, but he is doing so by changing the culture in Dallas to one of toughness.

So often over the past few seasons the Cowboys have been said to lack toughness. The team might not match the toughness of the Ravens or 49ers, but they are much closer than they were before McCarthy arrived.

He has also brought out the best in QB Dak Prescott. Prescott has had two of his best seasons under McCarthy, and he can thank him for the absurd amount of money he is about to earn with his new contract.

Even though McCarthy has bad playoff losses under his belt, he has proven to be one of the best coaches in franchise history solely based on regular season success.

2. Jimmy Johnson

You can make a case for Jimmy at #1 but his short tenure of just five years disqualifies him from the top spot in my eyes.

Johnson, a long-time friend of Jerry Jones, was given the keys to the franchise without ever serving as a coach in the NFL in any capacity. It was a risky move for Jerry but it’s safe to say it worked out.

Johnson’s team went 1-15 in his first year coaching, but they would improve drastically in year two and three, eventually winning a playoff game at Soldier Field over the Bears in his third season coaching.

It was the franchise’s first playoff win since the 1982 season and it sparked an incredible run of three Super Bowl victories in four years.

Johnson engineered one of the greatest trades in NFL history by sending RB Herschel Walker to the Vikings in exchange for several players and picks. He then released those players and collected the draft picks from Minnesota in return.

He finessed the Vikings’ front office, and it led to one of the most well known dynasties in the history of the NFL.

1. Tom Landry

Number one should come as no surprise. Not only did Landry steer the ship for the Cowboys from their inaugural season in 1960 until 1989, but he was an innovator for the entire game of football.

Landry is credited with several schemes still used today, primarily for the 4-3 Cover 2 scheme that so many teams run today.

His teams always played tough, and even though there were offensive superstars like Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett, defense was always the number one priority.

He always made sure to have stars on defense as well, such as Randy White, Ed “Too Tall” Jones, and Harvey Martin.

The 1980s rolled around and by the end of the decade, it was obvious the game had caught up to Landry. His usual savvy was not the same as the game began to evolve and soon push him out.

New owner and GM Jerry Jones wasted no time getting Landry on the phone to fire him in favor of Jimmy Johnson, but that doesn’t detract from what he did for the Dallas Cowboys.

It wasn’t relevant at the time of his firing, but 250 career wins and two Super Bowl trophies is nothing to scoff at, and that’s why Tom Landry is still the best coach the Dallas Cowboys have ever had.