The Cowboys remind me a lot of the Phillies. There are a lot of stars, a lot of hype, and a lot of expectations, but none of that matters unless the team gets into the playoffs and performs. For the last 30 years, that has not happened in Dallas. For the last 10 years of Dak Prescott, that has not happened for Dallas. Here we are now, doing the same Cowboys dance with their fans hoping this is their year.
NFC West
NFL Season Preview 2026
NFC North
NFC South
NFC East: Giants
NFC East: Commanders
NFC East: Cowboys
NFC East: Eagles
In
- Rashan Gary, Jalen Thompson, Von Miller, Caleb Downs, Christian Parker
The Cowboys defense last year was trash. Just total garbage. Out goes Matt Eberflus and in comes former Eagles Secondary Coach Christian Parker. Can he bring some Vic Fangio magic to Dallas? Well he has a ton to fix, most notably pressure and turnovers. By almost every statistical metric, Dallas had one of the worst defenses EVER last season. They were near the bottom of the league in sacks, INTs, and fumble recoveries. We are talking about a real shitbomb.
Quinnen Williams was the big addition last season, but he didn’t help much following the loss of Micah Parsons. Now they added Rashan Gary too. He is no Parsons, but should help. The real big add is Caleb Downs. He is seen as a special safety that can be the new leader of the new Cowboys defense. That’s a lot of pressure on a rookie.
This unit simply needs competence. I suppose that’s a lot easier said than done.
Out
- Osa Odighizuwa, Jadeveon Clowney, Dante Fowler, Kenneth Murray, Matt Eberflus
All of the names above are on the defensive side. You can infer that the Cowboys were happy with the offense. Not surprising considering they put up some of the best offensive numbers in the league. Of course, a lot of that has to do with the team constantly giving up points on the other side, but still. CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens are no joke. The problem here lies with Tyler Guyton being tasked with defending the best pass rushers in the league. He has not been great since entering the league and could be the difference in specific matchups during the season.
In the end, the problem will not be scoring during the regular season, but scoring during the playoffs. When the Cowboys hit good defenses when it counts, Dak Prescott tends to fold. They won’t know until the playoffs though.
Prediction
Dallas should be on the fringe of the playoffs. As much as I want to say they got a great coach in Christian Parker, I don’t know that. On one hand, he has been learning under Vic Fangio the last few years. On the other, he has never done this before. It could work out great, but Dallas may have been better off hiring someone with more experience if he starts struggling.
The Cowboys will win some games by looking like the best offense you’ve ever seen then get frustrated the next week by better coverages and playing against better offenses. That sounds like same old Dallas to me.
Photo: Michael Barera, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped)
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