There is no more dangerous time in the life of a Dallas Cowboys fan than the beginning of a new season.
Everything is possible. Hope is anew. The dreams that have so often been crushed have somehow been revived in the offseason. The national media has spent the last eight months hyping up the entire operation, declaring that this is finally the year where the Dallas Cowboys do it again! The ‘90s are now! Tom Landry has returned! What is old is new again!
Yeah, we’ve all heard that same song and dance over and over again.
Yet here we are, standing at the beginning of another Cowboys season an staring directly at the bait once again. Maybe that’s the beauty of sports fandom, or maybe Dallas has simply spent the last three decades conducting the world’s longest experiment to determine exactly how many times one fan base can convince itself that everything will be different. What’s the definition of insanity again?
Either way, 2026 has arrived, and the slate is clean. The Cowboys once again have an entire season ahead of them to either make good on all that hope or find a brand new and increasingly creative way to crush it.
So, what are we supposed to make of the 2026 Cowboys?
For that, The Football Corner enlisted the help of Brett Bender, a friend of the site, Cowboys aficionado and someone who probably knows more about this team than Jerry Jones does. Brett watches the Cowboys with the sort of attention normally reserved for FBI surveillance operations, which makes him the perfect person to explain whether Dallas is actually different this time or whether we’re all about to fall for the oldest trick in the NFL book.
Seth: Let’s start as broadly as possible: What are we supposed to make of the Dallas Cowboys entering 2026?
Brett: The phrase “moving different” has been floated around plenty of news cycles for this season already. While we hear some version of that every year, I think there is plenty of evidence that the Cowboys have done things differently without sounding too much like a homer.
In 2025, the Cowboys had one of the better offenses in the NFL while carrying a historically bad defense. This offseason, they threw out their normal blueprint and made changes in ways fans haven’t been accustomed to.
Specifically, the defensive coordinator interview process felt different. In recent years, the Cowboys have interviewed only a few candidates before ultimately turning to familiar faces like Mike Zimmer and Matt Eberflus. This time, Dallas cast a much wider net, interviewing nine candidates before hiring Christian Parker, a first-time defensive coordinator who also became the youngest coordinator in franchise history.
Seth: I’ve spent most of the offseason arguing that Dak Prescott is absolutely good enough to win with. As someone who watches every snap of this team with the same amount of diligence that Mike McCarthy studies a Cheesecake Factory menu, are you still a Dak believer?
Brett: My long answer would require chapters, but my short answer is simple: Absolutely.
I could spend this entire answer selling you on the highly productive numbers Dak routinely finishes seasons with, but my biggest reason for still believing in him is much simpler: Finding a good quarterback in the NFL is really hard to do. Teams throw away season after season searching for a quarterback who can even sniff the top 10 at the position. Dallas has one.
Dak has his flaws, and the lack of postseason success is always going to be attached to him until he changes it, but I think we sometimes lose perspective on just how difficult it is to find a quarterback capable of consistently playing at his level.
I think Dak deserves to be talked about more in MVP races; he really should have won it in 2023. I think the No. 1 thing that hurts Dak Prescott is that he has to wear a star on his helmet. Being the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys makes you one of the most criticized athletes in sports.
Dak is now in his 11th season, and one guy I keep comparing his career to is Matthew Stafford. Now, Stafford is celebrated because he’s a Super Bowl winner and a league MVP; he’s doing all of the great things. Before Stafford was traded, who was he? He didn’t win in Detroit. In his first 10 years, he was a one-time Pro Bowler with an 0-3 playoff record. I’m not attacking Stafford here. I am happy with how his career turned around late, but Stafford was allowed to spend most of those years in Detroit without facing anything close to the level of national scrutiny Dak has faced in Dallas.
Dak’s story doesn’t have to be finished, either. Dak is on the back half of his career, but there is still an opportunity to change the national narrative about him. 4,500 yards and 30 touchdowns show that he still has the arm talent to produce. For me, the faith in Dak Prescott never left, and I believe he can absolutely win in Dallas.
Seth: The offense was legitimately good for stretches last season, but the defense was an absolute disaster. How much faith do you have in Christian Parker fixing this thing, and what specifically has to change for the Cowboys to become a contender?
Brett: Dallas allowed over 500 points, 30 per game, and 51.4% of offenses led a successful scoring drive against them. Surely, the defense can’t get any worse?
I think all we can do is have faith, but luckily, Parker has given us plenty of reasons to believe in his message. I’ll start with the defensive staff he hired. They went with a similar strategy they used in 2025 when it came to building the offensive staff. Schottenheimer did not add a bunch of old friends around the league. He instead hired some guys out of college, some with NFL experience, young and old. This yielded great results for the offense from 2024 to 2025, and implementing that now on the defensive side could perhaps produce a similar result.
As for Parker himself, I’m really intrigued by what this defense can look like. He comes from the Vic Fangio coaching tree, and the Cowboys are going from the relatively straightforward base 4-3 defense we saw last season to something a little more complex. Parker said in his opening press conference that the defense will be 3-4 by nature, but we’re going to see multiple fronts, coverages and personnel groupings that are designed to make things much less predictable for opposing offenses.
Obviously, adding complexity only works if you have the personnel capable of handling it, and that might be the biggest reason I’m optimistic. It starts up front with Quinnen Williams, who is the centerpiece of this defense, and they’ve added players around him like Rashan Gary. Jalen Thompson gives them a veteran safety who can play deep, come down into the box or cover in the slot, and then they drafted Caleb Downs, whose versatility and football IQ could make him the perfect guy to run this defense on the field.
The best part for Christian Parker is that, supported by a strong offense, this defensive group does not have to be the 2015 Denver Broncos. They just need to be good enough to be a top-18 defense in the NFL. The offense makes this team a Super Bowl contender; the defense just needs to give them a break here and there.
Seth: Which player — outside of Dak, CeeDee or Pickens — do you think could completely change the ceiling of this team in 2026?
Brett: Can I cheat and say the defensive line? If I have to pick one guy, though, it’s the captain of that group, Quinnen Williams.
I think we’re going to see a lot of creativity from this Cowboys defense. Christian Parker specializes in the secondary, and I think he has some incredible ideas for disguising coverages, moving players around and making things difficult for opposing quarterbacks. But none of that matters if the Cowboys can’t stop the run or generate pressure up front. None of it.
That’s why Quinnen can completely change the ceiling of this team. The Cowboys need the defensive line to be physical and allow Parker to actually get to all of the creative things he wants to do on the back end. If teams can consistently run the ball on Dallas, Parker isn’t going to have the freedom to play with personnel and coverages. If quarterbacks can sit comfortably in the pocket or kill them with quick routes, disguising what’s happening in the secondary only gets you so far.
Quinnen Williams is the foundation of the defensive house. If he can command double-teams, disrupt the run and create pressure from the interior, it makes life easier for Rashan Gary and Donovan Ezeiruaku to work the edge, which cleans up the front for the linebackers and ultimately makes coverage easier for the defense.
Seth: The NFC East has the Eagles coming off a strange season, Washington trying to get back to where it was in Jayden Daniels’ rookie year and the Giants beginning the John Harbaugh era. Where does Dallas actually fit in this division?
Brett: The most fun division in the NFL, if you like chaos.
I remember the years when a team would fall backward and win the division with seven wins, and years when 12 wins might only get you a wild-card spot. The teams in the NFC East have all taken turns being the best and worst teams in the division, all within the last seven years. Without getting too far into the weeds of each team, I think Dallas can win the division just as easily as it could finish third.
Philadelphia had some weird things going on, sure. They had weird things going on in 2023, when they lost the division lead to Dallas in the final weeks of the season, but they still managed to get back into the Super Bowl picture. I don’t think their time as the division favorite is up yet.
Washington probably has the toughest uphill battle to work through and, honestly, probably has the highest odds of finishing last in the East. As for New York, that is the wild card. These are definitely not the Giants of years past; there are things to be excited about. But, for me, I need to see the proof of concept to believe anything about the Giants. I guess we’ll find out Sunday soon enough.
Seth: Give me the scenario where this season goes completely off the rails. What has to happen for us to be sitting here in December talking about another seven-win Cowboys season — or something even worse?
Brett: What a question to deflate the mood.
The easy answer is injuries, particularly to Dak Prescott, but that’s boring. If we’re talking about a truly disastrous season where the Cowboys somehow finish worse than they did a year ago, I think it requires more than Christian Parker’s defense struggling to put everything together. It probably means the offense goes from being one of the best in football to taking a massive step backward.
And while I loved a lot of what Brian Schottenheimer did offensively in 2025, I don’t think that side of the ball was without its concerns. His red-zone play-calling, particularly inside the 10-yard line, left me wanting more at times, and there were several end-of-half time-management situations that I didn’t love. Those are areas where Schottenheimer has to improve in Year 2.
My bigger concern, though, would be Dallas becoming complacent with what worked last season. One of the things I loved about the 2025 offense was its creativity and how they used their weapons with Lamb and Pickens. But you have to anticipate teams learning your tendencies now.
Seth: Now give me the opposite: What would have to happen for Dallas to legitimately contend? And how far do the Cowboys need to go for you to consider 2026 a successful season?
Brett: I think Dallas has to put together the pieces for this team to contend. I believe with a top-five offense, your defense only needs to be, what, 15th?
It’s hard to really rank it; the rest of the NFC is going to change this season as well. What I will say is the expectations will be high, but that’s because you are the Dallas Cowboys. This team needs to get to an NFC Championship Game, at minimum. That’s how Cowboys fans feel.
Now, in a fair society, it’s extremely unfair to expect that from a second-year head coach who just missed the playoffs last year and a first-year defensive coordinator. A realistic goal should be to improve, which means making the postseason. I dislike making everyone carry around the “30-year drought,” but it’s the reality with this team. Schottenheimer is not responsible for the 30 years, but I will say there’s pressure on Dak because he’s been here for 10.
Is making the postseason good enough? Is getting a wild-card win good enough? We’ve accepted it a few times in the past but then never taken the next step. Maybe that’s why the NFC title game needs to be the goal.
Seth: Who has more riding on the 2026 season: Dak Prescott, Brian Schottenheimer or Jerry Jones?
Brett: This is a fun question because I’ve seen this debate floating around a lot this offseason. Pressure can be hard to define, so I look at it this way: Fast-forward to September 2027. I doubt Jerry Jones is getting fired as general manager, and I fully expect Dak Prescott to still be the quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys. Can I say the same thing with complete confidence about Brian Schottenheimer? Probably not.
Unfortunately, in Dallas, the head coach has always been the easiest scapegoat. Plenty will be said about Dak if this season goes poorly, and there will be another round of criticism directed at Jerry. But at the end of the day, the head coach is the one who winds up getting fired. That’s why I think Schottenheimer has the most riding on 2026.
And I say that as someone who really likes what Schottenheimer has done since taking over. Having had the opportunity to meet Brian and his family, I can tell you the person you see publicly is genuine. He believes wholeheartedly in the culture he’s trying to build. “Compete Every Day” isn’t just something printed on a wall at The Star. He sells it to his players, he talks about it publicly and I think you saw pieces of that culture begin to take shape during his first season with the fun postgame videos and offseason segments.
When Schottenheimer was hired, one of the biggest questions I had was whether you could actually win with culture. I wrote an entire piece about it because we’ve seen coaches like Dan Campbell help transform organizations by establishing an identity players genuinely buy into. But there’s a shelf life on selling culture without results.
If Schottenheimer goes through two seasons with losing records and no playoff appearances, the conversation changes quickly. The media stops talking about the refreshing culture and starts asking whether the nice guy can actually win football games. More importantly, eventually it becomes harder to ask players to keep buying into a message when there aren’t wins validating it.
Seth: Finally, give me one Cowboys prediction you believe right now that you might be completely embarrassed to have read back to you in January.
Brett: Surely this won’t come back to haunt me.
Dak Prescott will finally get his flowers and win the league’s MVP. He has done everything in his power to will this Cowboys team to successful results. Unfortunately, wins are a QB stat, so the defense will have to improve to get Dallas back to a winning record.
But with an improved defense and a second consecutive top-performing offense, Dak Prescott, at age 33, is the NFL’s Most Valuable Player.
