"Off To Oxnard", Cowboys Camp 2023

10,000 days and counting as the mountain continues to grow.

If you look hard on the internet you can find this “Off to Oxnard” piece from seasons past. I want to say I started this tradition at least a decade ago, but the specifics are fuzzy.

I am a creature of habit and I fear change. The change to my new writing home is off to a fine start, but I better tell you where I am right now.

14F.

That is my seat and my flight is about to take off to Santa Barbara. When we land, we will definitely take a side-trip to Sandpiper (Pebble Beach South, some say), but before long we will be right back where we have been almost every year since 2004. There have been some years where we didn’t get to go to the land of 70-degree summer days, but let’s not talk fondly of them. I never quite understood the concept of having training camp in Wichita Falls where it is seemingly hotter than Dallas — they clearly didn’t ask me. As for San Antonio and the COVID year, I missed my fish tacos dearly.

But, we gather here today to break the seal on another Dallas Cowboys season. From here until they finish their work, I will spend my days closely following and analyzing their path and hopefully documenting a season that we all remember fondly as the year the Cowboys broke through the low ceiling that has been produced from the last 10,000 days.

Yes. 10,000 days. In fact, 10,046 (and counting) if you are reading this on the day it is published, July 31, 2023, since the Cowboys last won a Super Bowl. Also, since they last played in a Super Bowl or even got out of the Divisional Round and were able to play in a game that might have punched their ticket to a Super Bowl.

There are other ways to say this, but it gets no less depressing:

-       27 years, 6 months, and 3 days.

-       330 months, 3 days.

-       1435 weeks, 1 day

I’ll spare you breakdown of the 241,104 hours, because I assume you get the point.

Some folks get annoyed that I continue to find curiosity in how long this trip through the championship desert has been, but call it a weakness of mine. It is too amazing that arguably the winningest franchise in the sport’s history, when I first arrived in Dallas in 1998, has pretty much ceased winning in the post-season since. I am positive it isn’t my fault, but I guess I can understand why people look at me with a suspicious stare.

This franchise has many things that keep us captivated, but the unexpected dinner guest is actually one of the very most captivating. How long, exactly, are we looking at before the team that had the most Lombardi trophies 10,000 days ago wins one again?

And what will the world do when that happens? And will we all still be alive to see it?

The following is also part of my annual tradition that causes some to avert their eyes; the cold, hard facts about the Dallas Cowboys and what they have become since things shifted dramatically for this franchise more than 10,000 days ago:

-       This is the 28th season since the Cowboys last won a Super Bowl. They have won five Super Bowls, which ties them with San Francisco and is one behind Pittsburgh and New England for the most Super Bowl titles. But the last 27 years have been bleak. Given that this proud group’s last parade came during the first term of President Clinton — and we had another term of his, two with George W. Bush, two with Barack Obama, one with Donald Trump and are more than halfway through the term of Joe Biden — well … we are all getting significantly older. Let’s just say anyone who is younger than the minimum age to run for president yourself (35) is unlikely to remember a single thing about Super Bowl 30. Talk about losing the younger generation.

-       During this stretch, 13 different teams have won a Super Bowl, and nine teams have won multiple Super Bowls, now including the Chiefs after their win last February. Two teams have won more than two Super Bowls, and one team has won. All those teams, and the Cowboys are not one of them.

-       Twenty-one NFL franchises have won a conference championship game to go to a Super Bowl since 1995. The latest to break on through to the other side was the Cincinnati Bengals in 2022. So 21 of 32 teams have won at least a conference title. Dallas is not one of them.

-       This one really hurts. Twenty-six NFL franchises have won at least a divisional playoff game to advance and play for a conference championship during this stretch. We have even welcomed Buffalo to the group after it reached the AFC Championship Game in 2020 and the Bengals in 2021. Some key rivals of Dallas have been there over and over again. Green Bay has been there eight times, San Francisco and Philadelphia have seven each. Dallas is not one of the 26 teams who have at least done it once. The list of those who have not made it continues to grow shorter.

-       Only three NFC franchises have not played in an NFC Championship Game since 1995. They are Washington, Detroit and Dallas. If you are curious, only three AFC franchises have also not played in an AFC Championship Game since 1995. Houston, Cleveland and Miami round out the six teams that haven’t made it.

-       Two franchises (New England and Green Bay) have won more playoff games during this stretch than the Cowboys have played (17).

-       Dallas, thanks to the demolishing of Tampa Bay last January, has now won five playoff games in 27 seasons. That road win in Tampa is the first away playoff victory in the stretch. This is the same number of playoff wins as the Bengals and Chargers. Eight teams have fewer wins during that stretch: Chicago, Miami, Washington, Houston, Las Vegas, Buffalo, Cleveland and Detroit.

-       Dallas is 5-12 in the playoffs during this stretch, for a win percentage of .294. Only, Miami (.273), Washington (.250), and Detroit (.000) have a worse success rate in the postseason during these 10,000 days. Furthermore, their 12 playoff losses during this stretch ties them for the eighth-most losses, but only the 22nd-most wins.

All of what I have listed here is factual. It is not an opinion. It is admittedly a somewhat arbitrary sample sizing of years (why start on January 28, 1996?), but I think when you consider the Cowboys’ exit time of the freshly inducted-into-Canton Jimmy Johnson, the introduction of the salary cap and the aging process of Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin, it is not coincidental. That day is the line in the sand. What needed to be recycled was never done and the quest to bust through the ceiling is a real issue that remains to this day.

Hopefully, that list of cold, hard facts about this franchise was not enough to make you slam your laptop and go do something else. It is simply there to demonstrate that the Cowboys are what people say they are right now, and it is their job to change the narrative. The burden carried by Tony Romo and his mates is now being carried by Dak Prescott and his. And each year, it gets heavier. If Dak and friends cannot shoulder that load and ultimately shed it with a parade, then their successors will be asked to do so. But, it will be even heavier.

Until they bring home Lombardi Trophy No. 6, it is absolutely fair for people like us to wonder when and if it will ever happen again and whether the people that own and run this franchise have any idea how to actually do it. Surely, if they knew how to win big, they would have stumbled into a “final four” in the last 10,000 days.

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So, why do some of us retain hope that as we sit here right now in training camp 2023, “they aren’t that far away from slaying this enormous dragon?”

Well, first, I have been known to spend some time being intentionally optimistic. I am a sports optimist, by nature, and doggone proud of it.

I believe that sports are here for our enjoyment and to help us forget about the realities of death and disease, so what would be the point in my dedication in covering these teams if I just thought it was something else to be miserable about? What is weird is that I feel that has gone counter to society and the general direction that permeates our world where everyone seems to battle to become screaming leaders in the “Fellowship of the Miserable” (remind me to explain the origin of that phrase in a future mailbag). If you want to be one of those people who find a dozen things to be mad about after a win, despite knowing that there are usually more months in a year than wins in a season, we just won’t see eye-to-eye on how this is best consumed.

Somehow that has often earned me a label of being a DFW homer, despite neither being from here nor being a fan of the Cowboys. Most of you know my backstory and have been willing to explain to people that “Bob is not actually a Cowboys fan,” but people cannot believe that I think they are in the mix to break through here sooner rather than later. But, the longer I maintain the stance that these local teams are generally inching towards their goals and not all a hot and steaming pile of refuse, I find that I am morphing into some sort of sports therapist where we talk people off the ledge by offering perspective about how hard it is to ultimately get parades and that we should enjoy the journey and not obsess completely on the destination.

So, here is your perspective of positivity as we enter this camp here in 2023 – and I promise I will elaborate more as we go through the preseason.

-       Dallas is in Year 4 with a coach who is always in the playoffs. If you follow Mike McCarthy’s last 13 years, you see 10 years of playoff football. That alone is 77% and requires no further justification. You can probably find others who have done that well, but the list is pretty short. Then, you add in that one of the missing years he lost his QB1 to a broken collarbone and another one to a worldwide pandemic and a broken leg to his QB1. So, basically, if you allow him understanding on those, there is only that 2018 where he went head to head with one of the most headstrong QBs in NFL history and lost a power struggle, because of course you lose a power struggle with Aaron Rodgers. He wins them all – just not his playoff games (zing). But, make no mistake, Mike McCarthy teams go to the playoffs.

-       Then you add in that this franchise has won 24 games in the last two years. One team has won more since the start of 2021 and that is the Kansas City Chiefs (26). Many would not believe that Dallas has the same number of regular season wins as Buffalo and more than San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, but they do. I realize regular season wins are not playoff victories. But try to find the Cowboys franchise with 24 wins in any two year span without going back to Troy Aikman and Emmitt Smith. It cannot be done. 1994 and 1995 was the last time they did that and that, as you know by now, was 10,000 days ago.

-       In a league where we talk about premium positions, the Cowboys have premium players at many of them. You need an elite edge rusher? You might have the best in a Cowboys uniform. Shutdown corner? You have two very good ones. Franchise tackle? Do the Cowboys have one? If Tyron Smith is healthy or if Tyler Smith progresses. And their right tackle is one of the more underrated players in the league. Wide Receiver? Well, you can do significantly worse than the two guys the Cowboys have assembled with CeeDee Lamb and Brandin Cooks. Neither are top 5 guys, but both are problems for opponents. And what about QB? Well, I am not going to write that column today, but if you follow my work over the years, you know I believe Dak Prescott is good enough to win it all, but like Romo, he just needs to actually do it so he doesn’t have to hear he isn’t that guy for the rest of his life.

-       The NFC has never been more winnable. Even if we concede the Eagles are on another level, we would still find – at most – two teams that appear to stand in their way in the NFC and the days of worrying about running into Aaron Rodgers or Tom Brady or Russell Wilson in the playoffs are long gone. Now, you might need to roll through Brock Purdy, Kirk Cousins, or Jalen Hurts, but that, my friends, is not an impossible task.

-       Dallas has good depth and good talent almost everywhere. When I look for the biggest issues on the team right now, it is hard to call any of them a critical red alert. Knock on wood, if they can avoid catastrophic injury, they seem like a ready-made roster with few clear weaknesses.

It's been quite some time since this team found itself in such a strong position, especially with the conference appearing vulnerable. Finally, they seem to boast a coaching staff capable of navigating rough waters, led by a head coach and defensive coordinator with Super Bowl experience. With McCarthy having gone through four drafts, his players and style are now well assembled, and the team's weaknesses appear to have been addressed.

Is it a flawless team? Of course not, but what excites me is their ability to perform exceptionally well while flying under the radar. Many seem to underestimate them, believing the Eagles and 49ers are too formidable to slip up. Flying under the radar with such a talented team sounds like the perfect scenario to gain an advantage before anyone fully realizes that the Cowboys pose a significant threat to the NFC this year.

Now, of course, there is always self-sabotage to consider. Just this weekend, we witnessed Jerry Jones, once again, opting for a hardball approach with one of his most loyal soldiers. The rhetoric directed at Zack Martin on Saturday was unnecessarily harsh and failed to demonstrate Jones' grasp of the situation. Martin's position as the 33rd-highest (edited and corrected as I originally said 31st) paid offensive lineman in the league this year, despite being a 1st team All-Pro at right guard, does not appear unreasonable.

What do these 10,000 days have most obviously in common? The consistent idiocy of its owner and general manager in understanding their own roster building. Another plausible explanation could be Jones' tone-deafness when he talks about Martin, saying he has "got a lot of money over the years." It's rare to witness such an ironic display of the world's biggest pot calling a kettle black.

Yes, Jerry can and will cause issues simply by being himself. However, aside from that, there is a lot to admire around here – which might be sufficient to overcome his flaws.

That's all I'm willing to reveal for now, as I'm not prepared to speculate on potential matchups against the Chiefs, Bills, or Bengals in Las Vegas in early February. But I am confident in projecting that they are strong contenders for an NFC Championship Game spot, and that's enough to fill me with excitement about Cowboys Training Camp this week.

Once I start observing all the players and situations closely, we'll have plenty more to discuss very soon. But rest assured, this season is officially underway, and football season is finally here.

It’s a great day.