Since I'm now pushing the concept on here that McCarthy may open up the QB camp competition, for the purposes of job survival... ;^) let's have a look at the 1984 camp.

Danny was a regular season winner and playing in the shadow of Staubach. He gets you to the NFC Title Game in 1980, 1981 and 1982. But for reasons that were mostly not on him, no Super Bowl berths.

That does not mean that Danny did not have deficient physicality. He did. He could read defenses and was an accurate passer, but not a strong arm and not at all athletic in the pocket. Slow release, not good darting out of trouble. When Dexter Manley sacked him in the 1983 NFC title game, he had a clear lane and was visibly in front of Danny five steps away, and he still got there. Manley bends Danny's head and then it hits the turf, and Danny was done in that game. That would have been roughing today.

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Watching Purdy last week reminded me of Danny's limitations. Gary Hogeboom took over in that 1983 title game and did not get the W of course. But by 1984 Landry had had enough and opened up the camp competition. Hogeboom had a strong arm and quick release. He outplayed White in preseason and won the starting job that year. He lost it later on that year, but that is beside the point... ;^)

The point is that Landry knew he had an issue at QB, and he needed to get better to get back to the Super Bowl. And he tried to do something about it.

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Russ_Te is the Cowboys screen name for Roy Greenfield / site author of the mid-2000's board "Cowboy Saloon"

- where the bar fights were legendary...