The Greatest Trade For Every NFL Team In History

Dallas Cowboys:  The Herschel Walker trade

The most famous trade in the history of the NFL, and maybe all of professional sports. In 1989, the Dallas Cowboys were at rock bottom. Their roster was depleted of almost any reasonable talent, Tom Landry was gone and ownership had changed. A poor start to the season convinced head coach Jimmy Johnson it was time to start thinking about the future. He hoped to collect as many draft picks as possible in order to start building a team he wanted. The only way he could do it though was by sacrificing the best player he had.

That was running back Herschel Walker, who’d gone to two-straight Pro Bowls with a combined 3,600 yards from scrimmage over those seasons. Five games into that year, the Cowboys put him on the block and the Minnesota Vikings came calling. By the time negotiations were over, Dallas had given up Walker, two 3rd round picks, a 5th round pick and 10th round pick in exchange for a bounty of conditional picks and veteran players in return.

This included:

• LB Jesse Solomon
• LB David Howard
• CB Issiac Holt
• RB Darrin Nelson (traded to San Diego after he refused to report to Dallas)
• DE Alex Stewart
• Minnesota’s 1st round pick in 1990 (21) (traded this pick along with pick (81) for pick (17) from Pittsburgh to draft Emmitt Smith)
• Minnesota’s 2nd round pick in 1990 (47) (Alexander Wright)
• Minnesota’s 6th round pick in 1990 (158) (traded to New Orleans, who drafted James Williams)
• Minnesota’s 1st round pick in 1991 (conditional) – (12) (Alvin Harper)
• Minnesota’s 2nd round pick in 1991 (conditional) – (38) (Dixon Edwards)
• Minnesota’s 2nd round pick in 1992 (conditional) – (37) (Darren Woodson)
• Minnesota’s 3rd round pick in 1992 (conditional) – (71) (traded to New England, who drafted Kevin Turner)
• Minnesota’s 1st round pick in 1993 (conditional) – (13) (traded to Philadelphia Eagles, and then to the Houston Oilers, who drafted Brad Hopkins)

Most of the players didn’t stay very long, but the Cowboys ended up using the draft picks to build the foundation of their dynasty team that won three Super Bowls in four years during the 1990s. This trade, more than any other was what began the massive shift of teams towards stockpiling draft picks to build their rosters as many try to do today.

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