Glory, glory, hallelujah! We made it. Despite temps still flirting with triple digits, the first real harbinger of fall is upon us. Football season is underway! College football is already one week in, and by the time many of you read this, the NFL will already have played a game (or two). America’s most dominant sports league continues inching toward its ultimate objective of having a game every night as Week 1 officially kicks off with a Super Bowl LX rematch between the defending champs, the Seattle Seahawks, and the scandal-mired Mike Vrable-led Patriots on … Wednesday? That just doesn’t feel right.
For the Dallas Cowboys, it’s as it is for all teams. A new season is a fresh start, full of hope and optimism. As of this moment, the possibilities remain infinite. The best teams and the worst alike are all 0-0. For fans of America’s Team (editor’s note: “the Cowboys”) particularly, the last nine months have seen a mountain of coal shoveled into the firebox of the Silver-and-Blue hype train. I’ve done my part in helping to stoke the engines.
Taking inventory, there’s plenty of reasons to do so. Last season, Dallas finished with the second-best offense in the league, topped only by the Los Angeles Rams (more on them later). Despite the lunacy of what the Joe Milton stans think — they, so easily lured by the fool’s gold of preseason play and actually calling for a player whom 31 other teams passed on in waivers a week ago to supplant a veteran signal-caller who just earned his fourth Pro Bowl — Dak Prescott is still playing at an elite level. He’ll enter his 11th season armed again with the best wide receiver duo in the NFC (the league?), CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, and supported by a surprisingly beastly ground game rejuvenated by run guru and second-year offensive coordinator Klayton Adams. There’s no reason to think No. 4 and co. won’t pick up right where they left off in January.
The biggest reason for hope, however, is in what’s happened on the opposite side of the ball. Hell, you literally can’t get any worse than the 32nd-ranked defense. The front office has completely overhauled the historically bad squad from a year ago. After decades of consistently getting shredded in the run game, the Joneses finally spent some resources on a few big ol’ boys to clog up the middle of the line to shore up the D’s most glaring weakness. This should help keep opposing offenses honest and perhaps even in ample third-and-long situations. That would go a long way in supporting a potentially mediocre post-Micah Parsons pass rush. While there likely isn’t a double-digit sack machine currently in the lineup, there’s young talent in Donovan Ezeiruaku and rookie Malachi Lawrence to mix with some trade-acquired veteran leadership in Rashan Gary and future first-balloter Vonn Miller on the edge. Combined with legit pressure from the middle, it could be enough.
Linebacker is certainly still a question mark, but rookie heat-seeking missile Jaishawn Barham and former 49er Dee Winters should be considered upgrades over the likes of Kenneth Murray and Jack Sanborn from last year by even the most pessimistic Cowboys fans’ standards. In the secondary, the exodus of Treyvon Diggs is addition by subtraction, and PFF graded his replacement, free agent Cobie Durant, in the top third of starting corners last year. Like what the additions of Kenny Clark and Quinnen Williams have done for the defensive tackle position, free agent addition Jalen Thompson and first-round rookie Caleb Downs should do for the safety spots. That is: turn a weakness into a strength. Both players display the range, diagnostic smarts, and athleticism necessary to be the last to beat.
Perhaps the biggest upgrade is in the man scheming the defensive plays. First-time DC Christian Parker is the antithesis of the route the Cowboys have routinely taken for the defensive coaching staff for several decades. He’s young, innovative, and intends to help a defensive personnel in development by using novel disguises, deception, and reads at the line to keep opposing offenses guessing. It’s a complete 180 from the failed show-them-exactly-what-we’re-doing-and-dare-them-to-beat-us approach of Parker’s several gray-haired predecessors.
With these improvements, Vegas currently has Dallas’ win total at 9.5 and the 11th best odds of making the playoffs. That’s not exactly pre-assigning them the franchise’s sixth Lombardi Trophy, but it’s a world away from the low 20s ranking they finished 2025 with.
My best guess is that Dallas finishes the regular season just hitting the over with a record of 10-8. Whether that’s enough to reclaim the NFC East crown from the Eagles, or simply enough to earn them a Wildcard berth, I fully expect the Cowboys to make the playoffs for the first time in three years. It’s what happens when they get there that is the problem.
The rich get richer as the LA Rams have added the scariest defensive line in football to their league-best offense. Not only did they land perennial DPOTY candidate defensive end Myles Garrett via trade but somehow managed to lure former perineal DPOTY candidate defensive tackle Aaron Donald out of retirement. Then of course, there’s still the defending champion Seahawks and Dallas’ hated rivals in the 49ers, Eagles, and Packers, none of whom have seemed to take too far a step back.
But, hey, right now we’re all still at even records and the possibilities are still infinite. The Cowboys open the season Sunday night in a headlining primetime game against the lowly New York Giants in the Meadowlands.
