This keeps being said but the Cowboys were not one of the most talented teams. Media overrated their talent every year because of their owner. Their best players were Dak, Lamb, the O-Linemen, aging DL DeMarcus Lawrence and Micah Parsons. Those are the only players having notable statistical seasons. The CBs Diggs and Bland can get INTs but constantly give up a ton of yards. Everyone else were system role players developed by McCarthy and playing above their talent level thanks to McCarthy’s offense. McCarthy led 8-9–9-8 skill talent to 12-5 seasons. Dallas wasn’t getting double digit wins without McCarthy. The lack of playmakers outside of Lamb showed when he couldn’t win with them in the playoffs. He overachieved with having just Dak, Lamb and great blocking as his nucleus.
Running game was great thanks to McCarthy providing a blocking scheme for ground and pound RBs to be in sync with elite OL. Elliott and Pollard weren’t explosive passcatching backs. The WRs after Lamb were average at best. The success of Cooks and Gallup depended on having a legit WR1 on the field with them. Neither were having dominant games when Lamb missed games.