The No. 11 debate for the Dallas Cowboys is the kind that can stir people up fast, especially with Micah Parsons on the list of names who’ve worn it. Plenty of fans probably assumed this spot would belong to him, and if Jerry Jones had paid him instead of trading him to the Green Bay Packers ahead of the 2025 season, that conversation might have gone a very different way. But with the way things played out, Parsons doesn’t get the nod here.
The Cowboys’ No. 11 history includes a pretty recognizable group: Cole Beasley, Drew Bledsoe, Parris Campbell, Don Heinrich, Buddy Humphrey, Akwasi Owusu-Ansah, Micah Parsons, Mac Percival, Mike Quinn, Danny Villanueva, Danny White, Roy Williams, Cedrick Wilson Jr. and Wade Wilson.
Beasley and Bledsoe are the other names that jump off the page, but the choice is Danny White, one of the franchise’s most accomplished players at two different positions.
White’s case starts with how rare his résumé is. He owns the fifth-most passing yards and the second-most punting yards in Cowboys history, and that dual impact is exactly why he stands out. At Arizona State, he played quarterback and punter and earned First-Team All-American honors in 1973.
Dallas selected the Mesa, Arizona, native in the third round of the 1974 NFL Draft with the No. 53 overall pick, but the Cowboys were after him mostly for his punting. Roger Staubach was already locked in as the starter at quarterback, so White didn’t sign and instead went to the World Football League, where he spent two seasons with the Memphis Southmen before the league folded.
He finally arrived in Dallas in 1976 and immediately filled two roles: starting punter and Staubach’s backup. After Staubach retired following the 1979 season, White moved into the starting quarterback job and still handled punting duties through the 1984 season, with one final kick coming in 1985.
His 24,509 punting yards still rank second in team history, just behind Mike Saxon’s 24,542 from 1985 to 1992.
White never gets grouped with the Cowboys’ biggest quarterback legends in the same way as Staubach and Aikman, largely because he didn’t win a Super Bowl as a starter. He did, however, earn a ring as QB2 in 1977.
Even without that title as the guy under center, White put together a strong run. He led Dallas to four straight postseason appearances to open the 1980s and guided the team to three consecutive NFC Championship Game trips from 1980 through 1982, though Dallas lost each one.
Injuries eventually wore him down, and he retired before the 1989 season.
Among Cowboys quarterbacks, White still ranks fifth in regular-season wins as a starter with 62, third in playoff wins as a starter with five, fifth in regular-season passing yards with 21,959, fourth in regular-season touchdown passes with 155, third in playoff passing yards with 2,284 and third in playoff touchdown passes with 15.
That’s a pretty strong answer for No. 11.
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