it's of an outlier to me and people widely misunderstand what made that trade work. your idea that they got "legitimate HOF players" out of it, while kinda true, helps illustrate why.

first off, a big issue was that the vikings attached conditional picks to the roster players they sent to dallas. they figured dallas needed players and would keep most if not all of the five roster players they sent to them. in one case, a player refused to report and they traded him to san diego for another pick. the other four guys i don't think ever played a down for minnesota and the cowboys cashed in those picks. that replaced the picks they sent out and then some.

from there, the cowboys had to finesse a number of things, coupling the assets they acquired with other assets to move up in the draft to select emmitt smit--who was really the key to them winning the trade--with pittsburgh's first rounder (they sent one of minnie's picks plus assets to move up). that was the first first rounder. the second one they also packaged in a big package that was kinda risky in its own right, their deal to move up for russell maryland (he was supposed to be the cornerstone to their rebuild).

they made another deal with the pats that got them darren woodson in the second round and indirectly (yet another trade) kevin smith who started for them for a while at corner.

those were the significant guys they got in the trade, and as you can see none of them were directly obtained in the deal. they had to maneuver well beyond the additional deal to get the best out of it, and you'd never see a team make that type of deal today.