Photo by Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images Few quarterbacks have the grit of Baker Mayfield The Cowboys will face the Buccaneers in Dallas on Sunday night, with both teams looking very different from the last time they met. That game came in the Wild Card round of the playoffs following the 2022 season, and the Cowboys won it 31-14 in what turned out to be Tom Brady’s final game ever. A few months afterward, Tampa Bay set out to find a new quarterback after Brady had taken them to the Super Bowl not long ago. Reports suggested that head coach Todd Bowles and general manager Jason Licht felt confident in Kyle Trask, a third-round pick in 2021 who had been sitting behind Brady, but the Buccaneers still wanted to find a more experienced option to compete with Trask. At the same time, Tampa Bay was looking for a new direction on offense after parting ways with offensive coordinator Byron Leftwich. Bowles ultimately hired Dave Canales, who had worked in Seattle for the entirety of Pete Carroll’s tenure and most recently served as the quarterbacks coach for Geno Smith’s Comeback Player of the Year season. Canales was brought in to run the offense and, not long after, the Buccaneers signed Baker Mayfield to a one-year deal. The former first overall pick in 2018, Mayfield had been dumped by the Browns in favor of Deshaun Watson and then had short stints with both the Panthers and Rams in 2022, with very mixed results. After beating out Trask in the preseason competition, Mayfield was named the starter for 2023. He went on to set career high’s in passing yards, completion rate, and touchdown passes while leading the Buccaneers to the playoffs. As a result, Mayfield was given a three-year extension and Canales landed the Panthers head coaching gig. Once again looking for a new offensive coordinator, Bowles landed this time on Liam Coen. A staunch disciple of Sean McVay, Coen had just completed his second season as the offensive coordinator for the Kentucky Wildcats, with a break in between those college stints to serve as McVay’s offensive coordinator. Coen was also an assistant on McVay’s staff from 2018 to 2020. Needless to say, Coen’s offense is very much forged from the foundation’s of McVay’s offense, itself an offshoot of the Shanahan tree. That offered some philosophical continuity, as much of Canales’ scheme in 2023 was also influenced by McVay. What that means for the Buccaneers is a heavy use of 11 personnel, tons of pre-snap motion, and a diverse run game. Coen also opted to lean into Mayfield’s vast experience and has given the quarterback freedom to adjust plays at the line of scrimmage. Coen was the Rams’ offensive coordinator when Mayfield briefly played there, though McVay continued to call plays, and that has served a foundation for the relationship between these two. With three weeks left to go in the regular season, it’s working beautifully. Mayfield is third in both completion rate and touchdown passes, fourth in passing yards, and ninth in EPA/play. The Buccaneers as a whole are sixth in EPA/play and seventh in offensive DVOA. They’ve been effective in both the pass and run game, where the tandem of Rachaad White and fourth-round rookie Bucky Irving have already combined for 1,425 rushing yards and nine touchdowns with a 4.97 average per carry. This is all despite the offense suffering a rash of injuries throughout the year. Mike Evans, who is in danger of falling short of 1,000 receiving yards for the first time in his 11-year career, missed some time with an injury. At the same time, Chris Godwin – who Coen began to utilize heavily in the slot – suffered a season-ending injury in Week 7 that’s pushed rookie Jalen McMillan into a larger role. The Buccaneers have adapted, though, and Mayfield is thriving as the facilitator of this offense. Coen does a great job of scheming guys open, as Mayfield has the fifth-lowest tight window throw rate in the league. That said, Mayfield’s gunslinger tendencies still take over at times: only Kirk Cousins, who was just benched in Atlanta, has thrown more interceptions. Mayfield also has the fifth-highest turnover worthy play rate. What’s odd, though, is when his gunslinger tendencies take over: 11 of Mayfield’s 14 picks have come in a clean pocket, and he’s third in the league in turnover worthy play rate when throwing without pressure. It seems that the key to forcing mistakes from Mayfield is simply sitting back and flooding the passing lanes rather than trying to speed him up, which is when Mayfield is at his best. That doesn’t seem like the best matchup for this Cowboys defense, which has been thriving on blitzes and pressures that confuse quarterbacks and make them get rid of the ball quickly. This game also figures to be the toughest test of the Dallas run defense in quite some time, as Coen has relied on his rushing duo more and more as the season has gone on. Only the Ravens are averaging more yards per carry than Tampa Bay, and that could be a problem for the Cowboys come Sunday night.

Photo by Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images Cowboys fans make a surprising decision The future of the Dallas Cowboys has been under discussion a lot lately considering that they are basically just playing out the final games in anticipation of the 2025 offseason. The team does have an miniscule chance of securing a playoff berth for 2024, but an unbelievable number of things would have to go in the Cowboys’ favor for that to happen. It ain’t happening. So as we look at the 2025 offseason, the biggest issue is a contract extension for Micah Parsons. Everyone knows the fiasco that was getting CeeDee Lamb and Dak Prescott signed, so the conversation naturally became how would the Cowboys handle Micah Parsons’ contract extension? Somewhere along the way, the idea of a Parsons’ trade entered the conversation. Then, when Stephen Jones was asked about it, he gave a squishy answer. “Obviously we’re totally all in on Dak and CeeDee,” Jones told NFL.com, “but after that, then you still shape things, including Micah. But Micah’s a great player. You don’t do well in this league letting guys like Micah, usually, leave the house.” That word “usually” is what sent out shockwaves. Jerry Jones quickly stepped in and said they have not been contemplating trading Parsons. Still, the idea of restocking the roster with young draft picks acquired in a Parsons’ trade had a bit of viability. So we asked you if you would even consider the idea. And a 59% majority said they would. Full disclosure. this was a surprising result to me. I am in the camp of never trading a generational talent, and Parsons can safely be considered in the argument of best defender in the league, and could even stack up in the best overall players in the NFL list. I would not let that kind of talent leave. Now, the question wasn’t do you want to trade Parsons, but would you consider it. Given the bounty of picks that would come along with any type of trade, the idea of considering it does have its own merits. We’ll just have to see how the offseason plays out. As for the right now, confidence in the direction of the franchise is still very low. Only 11% have the belief. As for this week against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers? Well, Dallas heads into the game as 3.5-point underdogs at home according to FanDuel. Most NFL fans believe in the Bucs to cover that line.

Photo by Grant Halverson/Getty Images Which Week 16 games are relevant to the Cowboys and what outcomes should you be rooting for? We’re down to just three weeks left in the 2024 regular season and find the Cowboys winning three of their last four. It’s almost certainly too little, too late in terms of the playoffs, and the recent wins aren’t helping Dallas in terms of next year’s draft pick, either. Technically, and perhaps a little torturously, the Cowboys are still on a ventilator in the NFC playoff picture. As we’ve discussed many times already, Dallas needs to win out and have every team between them and the seventh seed start losing a lot of games. If the Commanders upset the Eagles in one of the early games on Sunday, the Cowboys will be officially eliminated before they kick off against Tampa Bay that night. And even if Washington goes down, Dallas can still get eliminated if it loses to the Bucs. Like last week, we won’t dwell much on playoff possibilities because they border on impossible. Instead, let’s look at the Cowboys’ 2025 draft pick and how this week’s action could help or hurt their positioning next April. If the season had ended last week, here would be the 2025 draft order for the top 15: New York Giants (2-12) Las Vegas Raiders (2-12) New England Patriots (3-11) Carolina Panthers (3-11) Tennessee Titans (3-11) Jacksonville Jaguars (3-11) Cleveland Browns (3-11) New York Jets (4-10) Chicago Bears (4-10) New Orleans Saints (5-9) Miami Dolphins (6-8) Cincinnati Bengals (6-8) Dallas Cowboys (6-8) Indianapolis Colts (6-8) San Francisco 49ers (6-8) Dallas dropped a spot from 12th to 13th after beating Carolina and having Miami slide into the mix. The Cowboys currently have a stronger strength-of-schedule rating than the Bengals or Dolphins but lower than the Colts and 49ers, which is why they’re slotted in the middle of the 6-8 teams. But strength of schedule will change as the regular season plays out, so it won’t be until after Week 18 that we know for sure how the tiebreakers play out. With a tough matchup against the Buccaneers, Dallas could soon be 6-9 and pushing its way into the top 10 of the draft. What other Week 16 games should we be following for potential impact to the Cowboys? Jaguars over Raiders Dallas can’t get above the two-win Raiders at this point but can still tie the three-win Jaguars if they lose out and Jacksonville wins out. So with the focus on improving our draft spot, this is the outcome that at least has a chance of contributing to that goal. Bengals over BrownsColts over Titans As we just mentioned with the Jags, Dallas could still match records with Cleveland and Tennessee in a lose-out/win-out scenario. But with both Indy and Cincy currently tied with the Cowboys in the 6-8 pack, their winning is far more likely the benefit Dallas when the draft order is finalized. Dolphins over 49ers Neither team winning would be bad for Dallas, but Miami is currently above us in the draft order with a lower strength of schedule. So that gives them a slight edge for rooting interest. Giants over Falcons Dallas can’t have a worse record than New York at this point, so this one is mostly meaningless. But the Giants not getting the top-overall pick is still something to root for, right? Jets over RamsBears over LionsPanthers over CardinalsPatriots over BillsSaints over Packers All easy picks; teams currently ahead of Dallas in the draft order looking to hang a surprising loss on playoff contenders. If teams like Buffalo start letting off the gas after clinching their division, maybe some of these upsets become a little more possible.

Photo by Cooper Neill/Getty Images The latest and greatest news surrounding the Dallas Cowboys is here. What Jerry, Stephen Jones said about Micah Parsons’ interest in completing new deal early – SportsDay Staff, Dallas Morning News The bosses were pleased with what the All-Pro said. Jerry and Stephen Jones liked what they heard this week as Micah Parsons discussed his playing future. The Cowboys pass rusher told reporters Thursday that he’s interested in completing a new deal sooner rather than later. According to Parsons, he would like to help the team “attack free agency” in 2025. Jerry Jones seemed to approve of Parsons’ thinking, calling the bounds of Parsons’ intellect limitless Friday. “I’ve had his coaches call him brilliant and that manifests other than the physical brilliance that’s there,” the Cowboys owner told 105.3 The Fan (KRLD-FM). “So, he gets it. Really does understand what we’re trying to do here and what we’re trying to put together.” Parsons’ future came up early in the week after an NFL Network report questioned whether the team would trade its do-it-all defender. Jerry Jones quickly shut down any notion of a Parsons trade, calling the scenario “ridiculous” Friday. Stephen Jones later told The Fan that Dallas’ front office is on the same page as Parsons. “If you get ahead of them, you want to get ahead of them,” Stephen Jones said. “Hat’s off to Micah and I’ve seen, like you guys have, some of the comments that he’s made. He’s certainly had conversations with Jerry and I, and that’s what we want. We want guys who want to be here.” Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs expected to undergo bone graft surgery in knee – David Moore, Dallas Morning News The severity of the injury to Trevon Diggs is now known. Dallas Cowboys cornerback Trevon Diggs is expected to undergo bone graft surgery to repair his injured left knee, two people with knowledge of the injury told The Dallas Morning News. No date for the procedure has been set. But the injury, as chief operating officer Stephen Jones has stated publicly, is significant and the timeframe of his rehabilitation will bump up against the start of next season. The Pro Bowl corner suffered articular damage to the knee coming out of the team’s loss to Cincinnati on Dec. 9. The damage is severe enough that a bone graft, while taking longer for the player to recover than other options, appears to be the best course to stimulate growth and strengthen the area. This is where a new piece of bone is inserted into the damaged area in the same way a pothole is repaired or a gap in a joint is caulked. Stargazing: Cowboys to watch against the Buccaneers – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com Dallas needs these players to step up in Week 16. Rico Dowdle, RB The hat trick achievement has been unlocked by Dowdle. His 100-yard outing against the Panthers marked the third in a row for the veteran running back and the first for the organization since Ezekiel Elliott did it in 2019. And as he enters Week 16 against the Buccaneers, he does so with the once unthinkable in reach: Dowdle needs just 120 rushing yards to hit the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his career. The Bucs’ defense has allowed an average of 4.5 yards per carry this season and given up nine run plays of more than 20 yards, and three of more than 40 yards, so you might want to keep an eye on Dowdle in this one. Micah Parsons, EDGE Yeah, admit it. This is a safe place. You didn’t believe Parsons would claw his way to a 10-sack season when factoring in how many games he missed due to the high ankle sprain and, overall, how the Cowboys’ defense was struggling to rush the passer before he was injured. I thought the same, and yet here we are with Parsons needing only 1.5 sacks to hit that mark for the fourth consecutive season; and his smile tells you he’s ready to hit everybody with the “I told you so” once he does. Baker Mayfield better keep his head on a swivel, because the Lion is hunting. Why Cowboys should resist inclination to bring back Mike McCarthy for a sixth season in Dallas – Jared Dubin, CBS Sports It might behoove the Cowboys to not jump the gun on bringing Mike McCarthy back. Given that McCarthy is a play-calling offensive head coach, his major selling point should be an ability to get more than expected out of the talent on hand. For the most part, he hasn’t done that — and especially not in big games. The offense has disappointed in a major way in crucial moments, including earlier this season in losses to the Ravens, Lions, 49ers and Falcons, prior to Prescott’s season-ending injury. And that’s before we get to the three playoff losses to the 49ers and Packers, which were characterized by tremendous offensive failings. (The pre-garbage time offensive ineptitude in last year’s loss to Green Bay was overshadowed by the abominable defensive performance.) Before taking over play-calling himself, McCarthy was a CEO-style head coach, which meant that his main responsibilities were in preparation, overall philosophy and game management. Given the aforementioned issues in big games, which often came complete with incredibly slow starts on both sides of the ball that the Cowboys then had to overcome, it’s hard to say that he was giving the team a leg up in the preparation department. The fast-paced, pass-heavy philosophy they had during the first three years of his tenure was seemingly more a function of Moore than McCarthy, considering the changes McCarthy made once he fully took over. So it’s tough to give him credit for that, either. And on the game management front, McCarthy has been a negative going back to his time in Green Bay. Fourth-down decision-making, timeout usage, pre-snap penalties … all of those have been consistent issues since he took

Bob Donnan-Imagn Images Rico Dowdle and CeeDee Lamb figure to have big days against the Buccaneers. The Dallas Cowboys took care of the Carolina Panthers last week with relative ease. In many ways it was arguably their most dominant performance of the season. From an offensive standpoint, a big reason for this was how both CeeDee Lamb and Rico Dowdle showed up. Both Lamb and Dowdle had big contributions that helped lift Dallas on top. You will likely not be shocked to learn that both Lamb and Dowdle over-delivered on their projected statistics from NFL Pro that we talked about last week. Projected Cooper Rush at Carolina: 232.3 pass yards, 1.1 pass TD, 0.7 INT, 5.1 rush yards, 0.1 rush TDActual: 214 yards, 3 TDs, 5 rush yards Projected Rico Dowdle at Carolina: 62.5 rush yards, 0.4 rush TD, 2.6 rec, 18.5 rec TD, 0.1 rec TDActual: 149 rush yards Projected CeeDee Lamb at Carolina: 6.4 rec, 69 yards, 0.4 TDActual: 9 rec, 116 yards, 1 TD Projected Jalen Tolbert at Carolina: 2.6 rec, 31 yards, 0.2 TDActual: 1 rec, 11 yards, 1 TD Projected Jake Ferguson at Carolina: 4.2 rec, 43.8 yards, 0.3 TDActual: 2 rec, 23 yards Cooper Rush also delivered well over his projected numbers from a passing touchdown standpoint and in that sense Jalen Tolbert also came up strong. However, there is no question that the strong over-deliveries came by way of Lamb and Dowdle. What is NFL Pro calling for this week from Cowboys players, though? Could it possible be more? Here is how NFL Pro sees Sunday night against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers going. As noted things have become a bit beefier for both Lamb and Dowdle. Interestingly, Dowdle is even getting some more love as a receiver. On the other side of things the projections for Tampa’s ground game are a bit more modest than we may have initially assumed, but to be fair they are based around Bucky Irving specifically and not account for Rachaad White and the work that he will ultimately do. It stands to reason that Tampa will control things on the ground across the game as a whole. In fact, the NFL Pro model has given the Bucs the advantage in way more ways than not. The Cowboys are underdogs, and even though they have won three out of their last four, the Buccaneers team that they are facing is undefeated in that same stretch. It will hardly be the most difficult game that they have ever played, but it certainly will not be easy.

Madden is calling for the Dallas Cowboys to lose on Sunday night. The Dallas Cowboys are returning home to AT&T Stadium on Sunday night and still looking for their second win in the building this season. At least they have already found the first. If the Cowboys do want to win their fourth overall game in their last five, then they are going to have to go through a rather tough and resilient Tampa Bay Buccaneers team. While the Cowboys have won three of their last four, the Bucs have won all of their last four. Tampa is riding high and looking to win yet another NFC South title while the Cowboys could have their playoff hopes doomed before the game even kicks off. Needless to say there is a lot going into the game and therefore impacting what could come out of it. In an effort to try and figure out what the results could be we did what we always do, we ran a simulation in Madden 25. You can watch the entire simulation below. The simulation is calling for a rather intense ending as the Cowboys drove down the field while trailing 21-13 for the potential game-tying touchdown. Amazingly, they wind up getting it in the final moments, but they are unable to add on the necessary two-point conversion. For what it’s worth, Madden also predicted the Cowboys to lose last week and we saw how that went. Here is the game’s track record to date: Week 1 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys lose to Cleveland Browns, 18-17 Week 1 In Actuality: Dallas Cowboys beat Cleveland Browns, 33-17 Week 2 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys lose to New Orleans Saints, 36-29 Week 2 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys lose to New Orleans Saints, 44-10 Week 3 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys lose to Baltimore Ravens, 21-14 Week 3 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys lose to Baltimore Ravens, 28-25 Week 4 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys lose to New York Giants, 28-21 Week 4 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys beat New York Giants, 20-15 Week 5 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys beat Pittsburgh Steelers, 28-14 Week 5 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys beat Pittsburgh Steelers, 20-17 Week 6 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys lose to Detroit Lions, 38-31” Week 6 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys lose to Detroit Lions, 47-9 Week 8 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys beat San Francisco 49ers, 22-7 Week 8 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys lose to San Francisco 49ers, 30-24 Week 9 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys beat Atlanta Falcons, 13-10 Week 9 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys lose to Atlanta Falcons, 27-21 Week 10 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys lose to Philadelphia Eagles, 21-17 Week 10 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys lose to Philadelphia Eagles, 34-6 Week 11 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys beat Houston Texans, 24-17 Week 11 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys lose to Houston Texans, 34-10 Week 12 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys beat Washington Commanders, 24-21 Week 12 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys beat Washington Commanders, 34-26 Week 13 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys beat New York Giants, 48-14 Week 13 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys beat New York Giants, 27-20 Week 14 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys lose to Cincinnati Bengals, 36-33 Week 14 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys lose to Cincinnati Bengals, 27-20 Week 15 Madden Prediction: Dallas Cowboys lose to Carolina Panthers, 31-17 Week 15 in Actuality: Dallas Cowboys beat Carolina Panthers, 30-14 The score from last week’s prediction was pretty close to actually coming true, but obviously the other way around. Madden was not alone in thinking that Dallas would lose as oddsmakers also believed the Panthers would win. Perhaps the Cowboys can shock everyone once again on Sunday night by taking out the Buccaneers. We will see!