Nothing like a good old fashion dead-season debate on a Sunday morning, right?
Bleacher Report’s Gary Davenport named the biggest mistake of the decade for each NFL team, with the Cowboys’ signing of Greg Hardy earning that “honor.” Gary made the point that while the last decade in Dallas has been a disappointment in total, the debacle which was Greg Hardy was too messy to ignore.
“Hardy’s time in Dallas was a mess from the get-go. The Dallas Morning News‘ Brandon George reported he was regularly late for meetings, and he made odd comments about Gisele Bundchen (Tom Brady’s wife) and had a confrontation with Dez Bryant on the sideline after shoving a Cowboys assistant.”
Now, there’s a few mistakes that come to mind which could be considered as America’s Team biggest blunder of the 2010’s. For one – you could argue they held onto Jason Garrett for far too long, potentially costing some talented rosters chances at Super Bowl runs.
The Cowboys also traded up for Morris Claiborne in the 2012 NFL Draft, who despite becoming a solid pro later on, never lived up to his first round hype. Speaking of draft day mistakes, the Cowboys also passed on TJ Watt for Taco Charlton back in 2017, a move which they may never live down in the eyes of this fanbase.
But despite all of those mistakes, it’s hard to argue with Gary’s points about Greg Hardy here. The Dallas Cowboys thought they had found a market inefficiency, signing a premier pass rusher on the cheap due to his off the field issues and domestic violence case. But it turned out (as they should’ve guessed beforehand) that Hardy was not in the right mind frame to be on an NFL roster.
Prior to joining the Cowboys, Hardy missed the entire 2014 season due to that domestic violence case. His time in Dallas did not turn criminal like it did in Carolina, but there were plenty of tumultuous moments.
Looking back, he should’ve never been signed in the first place.
Drafting Taco Charlton over TJWatt was the biggest error of the decade.
Watt is now ranked in the top 3 edge players in the league and of course he has great family character. Taco was thought of questionable character and got outright cut twice now.
The second worse action of the decade was giving Elliott a huge extension of money when he still had two years left under contract . This contract warped the cap and tied the Boys to a deteriorating running back of poor character for an absurd 6 years.
Collin kapenick loves foot ball what’s up cowboys do something
No…that clown isnt interested in football…time to move on
Taco was a mistake, whether it was passing on Watt or any other reason. Though I actually don’t fault the reasoning, it played out horribly. But this is a failure that is easily overcome and doesn’t necessarily have to set the franchise back. As bad a miss a Taco was, they’ve had more than their share of hits both late in the draft and in the undrafted free-agent pool.
I don’t think the Elliott “contract” is as big a mistake as Jerry allowing the team to let Elliott handcuff him and show the rest of the roster that EIlliott was the key to this team’s success. He failed them all in that regard. The money being paid isn’t going to kill this team, and despite the (unwarranted) hate, Elliott is indeed a top-3 RB in this league and therefore is in-line with the market.
In retrospect, the 9 biggest mistakes made by this franchise in the last decade were all 9 off-seasons of allowing Jason Garrett back as the head coach. I like Jason as a person and I’ll even credit him with eventually putting together a pretty darn good locker room, but he isn’t a developer of talent and failed to elevate players. Most every mistake I can think of having been made in the last 10 years are one in which Garrett is ultimately accountable for.
We aren’t tied to Zeke for 6 yrs cuz he won’t be on the roster that long. The only money he is guaranteed is the huge signing bonus he got . Zeke will be out of the league before his contract is up if not sooner. Agreed Jason G was kept around too long and it was obvious even to the untrained eye that he was in over his head. His in game decision making was atrocious and he was outcoached nearly every game.
Holding onto Jason Garrett for so long. He should have been let go MUCH earlier!
Not giving Tony Romo the starting job back after his injury
Jerry Jones being gm.
Passing on TJ Watt was huge.
But, when Garrett went 8-8 3 years in a row, he should have been let go then. To keep him that many more years, and still end up 8-8 at the end, speaks volumes for the biggest mistake if the decade, without a doubt.
Letting Ware go.
Letting Jimmy Johnson Go Biggest Mistake ever
Garrett was my choice. He wasted a lot of talented teams.
Michael Castillo, that’s the best answer dog
Except that it doesn’t apply to the actual question being posed …