One of many Dallas Cowboys-centered social media accounts worth following is @LambsofGlory88. Even if he’s way too much of a Dak Prescott homer.
I’m kidding.
Nick comes up with some solid content over on X.
He even drops some pretty interesting questions that make you think. Like this banger here (I would have linked to the post, but it has been deleted):
What would have happened in 1998 if the Dallas Cowboys had drafted Randy Moss with the eighth pick of the 1998 NFL Draft instead of Greg Ellis?
My answer was pretty straightforward.
The Dallas Cowboys, coached by Chan Gailey, would have won Super Bowl XXXIII. An added bonus, the Dave Campo years never would have happened.
The 1998 Season Unfolds
The Cowboys still managed to win the NFC East in 1998 with a 10-6 record. They were five games behind the Minnesota Vikings, the team that drafted Moss, for the NFC’s top seed in the playoffs.
Imagine a starting lineup of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, Daryl Johnston, Michael Irvin, and Randy Moss to contend with.
Defensive coordinators around the league would have bought up every bottle of Pepto-Bismol on the planet that fall.
The losses that year to the Raiders (1 point), Bears (1 point), Vikings (10 points), Saints (22-3 loss), and a three-point loss to the Chiefs, don’t happen with Moss on the roster.
The Cowboys would have been the 15-1 team instead of Minnesota. They would have plowed through the NFC playoff bracket with ease.
Their rematch in the Super Bowl in Atlanta against the Broncos – which should have been their lone loss in 1998— would have been Dallas’ elusive sixth championship.
Did One Missed Pick Doom Dallas?
After thinking about it a little more, there’s more to the what if than just that 1998 season.
Skipping over Moss may have cemented the Cowboys’ fate regarding their current, nearly-three-decade-long championship drought.
While Dallas did get a solid career out of Ellis, he wasn’t the game-changer Moss was. In fact, with Moss on the team, Aikman’s career might last another couple of years too.
And again, the Dave Campo years never happen. That 15-33 nightmare could have been avoided with one pick in 1998.
The fact that Dallas misfired on this one so badly, especially for the reason why Jerry Jones fumbled it, should make this the worst draft decision in team history.
And that does include the Taco Charlton fiasco of 2017.
When the final chapter is written on Jerry Jones run as Owner/GM most sports historians will hold up the 1998 draft as the prime example of why Jones was dumb to run of Jimmy Johnson.
