How important do you think this season is for the Cowboys in the grand scheme of things?
It has been 29 years since the Cowboys reached a NFC Championship game. The longest drought in the NFL. The good news for the Cowboys? A new season is just around the corner for them to do something with it. The bad news? This may be the best chance for the Cowboys to make the conference championship game in the foreseeable future.
Dak Prescott is not getting any younger, and outside of his MVP-caliber 2023 season, injuries have started to pile up for the almost 32-year old quarterback. Along with Prescott’s age and injury concern, Micah Parsons, Tyler Smith, DaRon Bland, and George Pickens are all nearing the end of their contracts. Combined that with a front office that has showed little aggressiveness to get deals done early to save money, and you could see a very different team after 2025.
The 2025 Cowboys might not be the best roster they have constructed over the last decade or two, but it feels like they have just as much fire power heading into 2025 as they have had since the prime Amari Cooper, CeeDee Lamb, Dez Bryant, and Terrence Williams years. With the offense looking set, the major questions for the Cowboys come on the defensive side of the ball, which is why Matt Eberflus was brought back to help maximize the defensive unit while lacking top-end talent and depth at some key positions on defense.
Along with some of the defensive concerns, the Cowboys are bringing in a fresh new coaching staff, which is one of the reasons there should be some optimism around the team heading into the season. After Mike McCarthy failed to get them to the ultimate goal, the Cowboys elected to give Brian Schottenheimer his first head coaching job, which was met with plenty of criticism. It is still to be seen if Schottenheimer is capable of being a quality head coach in the NFL, but the fresh start at head coach has worked for teams in the past in going deeper in the playoffs.
Since being announced as head coach, Schottenheimer has assembled one of the more exciting coaching staffs we have seen in Dallas in quite some time, bringing in a lot of new faces and fresh ideas, something the franchise has lacked for many years.
In order to make the jump, the first order of business is for quarterback Dak Prescott to stay healthy. When Prescott is healthy, the Cowboys have competed for the playoffs in practically every season and have led the league in many offensive categories when Prescott plays the entire season. If Prescott is healthy and the new coaching staff can do a better job of maximizing the talent on the roster, the Cowboys likely have their best chance of making a deeper run in the playoffs than we have seen in the last 10-15 years.
If it does not happen in 2025, it is tough to envision it happening any time soon given the age of the starting quarterback and some key pieces potentially leaving town with very few answers on the roster to step in and fill their voids.
