You’re not often sitting at .500 after Week 5, but that’s where Dallas’ tie has them with a 2-2-1 record. Still early in this 2025 season, there’s plenty of potential for it to go in either direction. That’s why our Week 6 rooting guide looks at things from two perspectives: what would help the Cowboys make the playoffs, and what might be better for improving their position in the 2026 NFL Draft.
Dallas’ own Week 6 game against the Carolina Panthers is an important contest for that first goal. It’s a critical opportunity to pick up a conference win against one of the weakest teams left on the schedule. It also gets the Cowboys above .500 and builds on last week’s win over the Jets. Dallas will want that momentum going into Week 7 and a big divisional matchup with Washington.
Speaking of our rivals:
NFC East
- Giants d. Eagles
- Bears d. Commanders
There’s no doubt what we want to happen tonight between New York and Philadelphia. A second-straight loss would create some real angst for the Eagles, and makes them quite catchable in the division. And for the Giants, who don’t appear to be moving out of the NFC East basement this year, the win would hurt their potential draft position. So that’s a win-win for our current dual perspective. It’s not likely, of course, but it’s definitely what we should hope for.
Instead of a win-win for the Bears and Commanders, a Chicago victory is just the lesser of evils. While we don’t want to deal with the Bears in the wild card race, given their head-to-head tiebreaker over Dallas, beating Washington in the division is still far more important. Winning the NFC East negates a lot of concerns, including that loss to Chicago.
NFC vs. NFC
- Buccaneers d. 49ers
This is almost a toss up. Both teams are 4-1 and currently leading their divisions. Neither is on Dallas’ regular season schedule, so there’s no opportunity to pick up a tiebreaker that way. So we’ll go with Tampa Bay, because the Niners don’t ever deserve nice things.
NFC vs. AFC
- Colts d. Cardinals
- Saints d. Patriots
- Jaguars d. Seahawks
- Ravens d. Rams
- Bengals d. Packers
- Chiefs d. Lions
- Bills d. Falcons
There’s a huge slate of interconference games this week. Generally, we root for the AFC teams to help Dallas’ road to the playoffs. But we’re making an exception with Saints-Patriots, given that New Orleans likely won’t be a postseason factor but could be an issue in draft order.
AFC vs. AFC
- Jets d. Broncos
- Dolphins d. Chargers
- Browns d. Steelers
- Raiders d. Titans
The Jets, Dolphins, and Browns are all the losing teams in these games, so we want their records to improve and draft position to weaken. Las Vegas and Tennessee are both 1-4, so that can really go either way. We’ll give a slight edge to the Raiders as the home team, with a look to shaping their overall record. If they can’t even beat the Titans in their own house, they might not win another game all year.
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