FRISCO, Texas – Gosh darn it, and wish didn't feel this way, but judging from the tea leaves and past disappointments, preparing to be mad as hell – again – Thursday night during the 12th annual NFL Honors presentation from New Orleans during this Super Bowl LIX week if . . . .
Cowboys Ring of Honor and five-time Pro Bowl safety Darren Woodson is not among the five Modern Day Pro Football Hall of Fame selections into the Class of 2025.
Here are my worries, and hoping this is not indicative of what the 50 voting members of the selection committee are thinking. On NFL.com the predictions from this finalist group of 15 did not include Woodson among the top five picks: Adam Vinatieri, Torry Holt, Antonio Gates, Luke Kuechly and Eli Manning, not that writer Adam Rank has a vote. USA Today predicted the same five. ESPN.com listed these nominees among the final 15 as "strong candidates": Eli Manning, Antonio Gates, Jared Allen, Willie Anderson and Reggie Wayne.
One betting site listed the Top 12 favorites of the 15 fionalists. Woody was not one of them.
What's the deal?
Why if it's me making the presentation for Woody's candidacy, would start right here. The Dallas Cowboys have eight defensive players in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Eight now! And Darren Woodson is the franchise's all-time leading tackler with 1,350 of those suckers. That's more than the likes of Bob Lilly, Randy White, DeMarcus Ware, Charles Haley, Chuck Howley and Cliff Harris. How good do you have to be to accomplish that?
He also in the franchise's leader with 787 solo tackles and 563 assisted tackles. And get this, Woody is second all-time in special teams tackles, too, 134, only Bill Bates with more. That's got to mean something. And on top of all that, Woody led the Cowboys in tackles for eight seasons.
Now, always hear this argument, and being made for Eli Manning, that he's won two Super Bowls after if that's the crowning stat. Well, Woodson has won three Super Bowls with the Cowboys. Only Charles Haley among the defensive Cowboys in the Pro Football Hall of Fame has won as many with Dallas (two more with San Francisco).
But it's not just about the numbers. Woody was the heart and soul of a Cowboys defense that limited opponents during the three Super Bowl wins in four seasons to 17 points, 13 and 17. This is also a defense that ranked No. 1 in the NFL three times and Top 10 nine times during his 12-year career, and actually isn't getting credit for a 13th season since he spent the entire 2004 season until he retired in December on injured reserve. And the last of those No. 1 rankings occurred in 2003, when the Cowboys under Bill Parcells finished 10-6 with a wildcard playoff berth despite Quincy Carter at QB, Troy Hambrick at RB and FB Richie Anderson the team's leader in receptions. Woody had a whole lot to do with that defense, so much so Parcells after his first season as Cowboys head coach basically was begging Woody to return for one more season, which he tried, hanging out on IR before realizing his career had expired.
One more thing, if John Lynch and Brian Dawkins are in the Hall of Fame, these guys couldn't hold a candle to what Woody did as a safety, who on the Cowboys nickel defense manned the slot position, actually covering wide receivers like Jerry Rice. No safety does that but a Hall of Fame one.
The guy redefined the safety position by his ability to cover wide receivers yet play like a linebacker against the run from the slot. For your purposes, Woody was doing what Jourdan Lewis has been doing in the slot all these years while still a tackling machine.
So, when looking at all these predictions, just hoping the selection committee is smarter than all these others. Be a shame if these guys are not.
- Will Remains: Hopefully not overlooked during the hiring of Brian Schottenheimer as head coach and all these new assistants is the five-year contract extension for Will McClay, vice president of player personnel. Will is more than that. He might as well be the GM without the title. In fact, that he participated in the head coach search this time around should not be minimized. "That to me is huge," McClay said from the Senior Bowl last week. "I think I've been part of the whole process. They allowed me to be a part of it and so to visit with the different candidates and whatnot and hearing what people brought, were going to bring to the table and what we were trying to do, so that was very important to be a part of and hear the vision of different people and then seeing and believing in the vision of Schotty and Shotty believing in the vision of what we do on our side and getting good players in. So, it was a very interesting time and I'm very excited about working with Shotty and the staff." Hears is even becoming more involved the player personnel and draft part.
- Family Affair: For those watching the Senior Bowl when TCU wide receiver Jack Bech caught the winning, walk-off touchdown pass, quite the emotional scene, having worn the No. 7 uniform in honor of his brother Tiger Bech, who was one of those killed when the terrorist drove the truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans a few weeks back. Not only did we see the loving embrace from his parents after his postgame TV interview, but that was his uncle Brett Bech hugging him in the end zone after the catch, the Cowboys former assistant strength and conditioning coach from 2011-19.
- Tough Decisions: That Zack Martin is part of the Super Bowl celebration, one of the 32 Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year nominees in New Orleans this week, reminds us how he's sort of in NFL no-man's land after having finished the final year of his contract on IR, needing ankle surgery. Martin still seems undecided if he wants to continue to play or retire after his 11-year NFL career with the Cowboys, saying, "Still trying to figure out what the next chapter in my life looks like," knowing he struggled during the 2024 season trying to play through the balky ankle injury laced with ligament damage and bone spurs. Remember, too, 11-year veteran DE DeMarcus Lawrence is in the same boat, having finished out 2024 on IR with the foot injury limiting him to just the first four games of the season. No matter if those two guys play for the Cowboys or not, because of repeated restructure bonuses to reduce their yearly salary cap hits, combined they will count $24.4 million in dead money against the 2025 cap. Sobering isn't it.
- Super Shorts: While Kansas City led the NFL with a 15-2 record, team owner Clark Hunt did mention his Chiefs gunning for an unprecedented third consecutive Super Bowl title won 11 of those 15 games by one score and five of those by no more than three points . . . Also about all this Washington domination to reach 12-5, the Commanders won half of those games on their final possession, three of those in walk-off fashion that included the tipped Hail Mary pass for the touchdown to beat Chicago, one in the only possession of overtime and also scoring the winning points over the Cowboys with :03 left in the game and the winning points over the Eagles with :06 remaining, not to mention the walk-off field goal in the first-round playoff win over Tampa Bay . . . Just sayin' . . . And finally, the Dallas Mavericks trade of Luka Doncic to the Lakers has moved the Cowboys off front page criticism and the media chilling on the constant knocking of Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, at least for the time being, and this sure didn't help the Mavericks cause taking a public thrashing when Lakers GM Rob Pelinka during Luka's introductory media conference in LA called Luka "one of the top three players in the universe."
Just watching Dak Prescott continue his offseason rehab today from surgery to reattach his partially torn hamstring tendon to the pelvic bone, reminded me of what new head coach Brian Schottenheimer had to say about the Cowboys franchise quarterback now that he is not only the head coach but really the offensive coordinator and play caller, so Brian gets the final word this week, as he did have the final word last week during his press conference.
"I think when you talk about Dak, No. 1, I've had the best seat in the house for the past couple of years in terms of the first year, year one as a consultant watching, literally," Brian said. "I remember the first day I was in the building, he came up and introduced himself, said hello, and we were just talking and people that we mutually respected and we talked about that. But being around the last couple years, my vision for him is he's one of the best. And through the coaching that he's going to get through the hours and hours and hours of time that he and I will spend together, he's going to play elite level football and he's going to lead us to championships.
"And that's because of the way he works. The way he prepares. This guy prepares different, and he does, he prepares different, this guy. I'll be coming down late at night and trying to get something to drink and I just have to move around because my eyes are bugging out from watching video and he's still in the building doing his, I guess it's hot, cold therapy, whatever that is. I don't do that, but we got the right guy and working closely with him and these other players, we're going to win and we're going to win a championship.
"Otherwise, why are we doing it?"
A good ender to the 1-hour, 5-minute presser.
