Where to even start...
Jerry Jones is the GM but lately his son, Stephen, and football minds such as ?Will Mcclay? have been much more involved with draft picks and football operations. Jerry is the BESt marketing exec in sports in my opinion, the man knows business but is not the football genius he believes himself to be. Whats important here is that When Jerry bought the team he had to fire Tom Landry(our franchise coach at the time and a damn good one at that, read his wikipedia page for more info because it is definitely worth it). After which he took a college coach named Jimmy Johnson and dubbed him the head coach, things did not go great at first so Jimmy just started making trades, he drafted an extremely high number of eventual hall of famers and made a number of (what were deemed ridiculous) trades which netted them a team that went on to win 3 Superbowls in 5 years and be THE team of the 90's. Despite the success Jones and Jimmy id not get along and Jones felt he did not have the credit for the wins he deserved so they parted ways and the cowboys slowly slid into mediocrity.
A bunch of years later a man named Parcells came in and drafted a strong core and ended the cowboys streak of bad drafting an horrible qb's with the Tony Romo acquisition. Unfortunately Jerry had another Clash about giving up his power over the team so they split ways again.
Fast forward through Wade who was a 'Players Coach' (jerry's Bitch) the team started winning and Romo displayed Favre esk magic as he led the team to some great seasons and some high playoff seeds that were all squandered. Tony was blamed for everything despite being a statistically great quarterback(the fumbled field goal).
Wade's run eventually ended in a mid season firing after an awful first 8 games. After that Jason Garrett, whom Jerry saw as the head coach in waiting (remember jerry always wants to have his hands on everything since he craves credit), took the cowboys to a 5-3 run and won the head coaching job at the end of the season. Despite the promise we saw from garrett then we really only saw an offensive coordinator try to be head coach and it really seemed like he had too much on his plate. The Cowboys endured three 8-8 seasons in a row, all culminating in a final game to get into the playoffs squandered. During the 8-8 years Romo led a team and piggybacked them to 8-8 while being dragged down by the weight of one of the worst statistical defenses of all time throughout those years and a virtually nonexistent running game due to offensive play calling.
Last year the cowboys, who had been drafting well in recent years(there had been talk about more influence from stephen jones and the scouts on draft picks and f/a acquisition), had put together a team that looked awful on paper. There were a lot of pieces there but no one could see how they could fit together. -Tony, an extremely tough QB, was old and coming off yet another back surgery to start the season and had not been able to practice regularly even leading into week one. -The offensive line which looked to finally be rebuilt after a tear down looked young an talented but was still a question mark. -Demarco Murray was entering a contract year and had struggled to stay on the field due to injuries in previous years. it was obvious that the talent was there due to a good yard per carry average and an eyeball test but he still had a lot of question marks. -The Defense had lost arguably it's three best starters due to age, cuts, salary cap issues, and injury. A defence which was one of the worst all time looked like it was set up to be even worse as the second round pick that looked like it could help out the line got injured and was projected to miss the first half of the season. -The wide receiver core and tight end group looked like the only shining spot on the team but with everyone expecting romo to receive a season ending injury to his back within four games it looked like it wouldnt matter.
Things looked dim with question marks everywhere including if head coach jason garrett could keep his job until the end of the season. Even local cowboy sports hosts were predicting a terrible season and people were looking at the upcoming schedule trying to find 4 wins. The season started and things were made worse by Tony and the cowboys laying an egg against the 49ers to start the season and just getting destroyed. Tony looked like he was running for his life every play, throwing terrible passes and was just uncomfortable looking. the 49ers looked like they were toying with us.
After that the Cowboys rattled of an unbelievable season.
Tony had one of the Best seasons for a quarterback all time. Demarco Murray broke NFL rushing records and led the entire NFL in rushing by over 500 yards. Dez Bryant, our lead receiver, became an absolute animal. he became a hazard for other teams and was seemingly impossible to cover 1 on 1. The defence... wasn't that bad.
The cowboys went into the playoffs and won against detroit, with controversy, then lost to the packers(with even more controversy).
It seems the cowboys have been able to keep our Offensive line together(the key to the season they just had) and we were able to keep our star wide receiver and resign other pieces that made the offense not just dangerous but efficient.
With the impending Draft and Free agency we are now looking forward to seeing whether the cowboys will cut ties with murray and look for cheaper options either in F/A or the draft for Rb and what they will do to fix their defense in a reasonable manner with what doesnt look like a ton of cap space.
Welcome to the heart break and pain that is being a Dallas Cowboys fan. Hold on tight, grab some heart medication, and enjoy THE most entertaining team in American sports.