FRISCO, Texas - Football season is getting closer and closer.
The Cowboys are set to depart for training camp in less a month. That's when we'll get the first up-close look at Brian Schottenheimer's first season with this revised roster and coaching staff. When we get to Oxnard, that's when we'll start to get some real answers about this 2025 Cowboys team.
But what are the questions? We've compiled our annual list of pressing questions that need answers heading into the regular season. The staff writers, consisting of Patrik Walker, Tommy Yarrish, Nick Eatman, Mickey Spagnola, Kyle Youmans and Kurt Daniels, weigh in on some of the pressing issues.
Today, we'll continue the series by dissecting the NFC East, which not only had to the Super Bowl champions, but the other NFC Championship Game participant. How do the Cowboys stack up against the Eagles, Commanders and even the Giants, who had added some key pieces on both sides of the ball.
16) How do the Cowboys stack up against NFC East
Tommy: Without question, Philadelphia is still the best team in the division to me. They lost a lot from a numbers perspective in free agency, but I don't think there will be much of a noticeable drop off considering they kept all of their elite players in the boat and did really well in the draft. I see the Cowboys competing with the Commanders for the second place spot in the division. You may say: "But Tommy, the Commanders went to the NFC title game last year, how could the Cowboys be even close to that after going 7-10 last year?" Well, remember that Dallas beat the Commanders in D.C. in a thriller back in Week 12 and lost on a game-winning touchdown in the final week of the season last year, and relative to the other teams they faced, played pretty well defensively against Jayden Daniels in his electric rookie season. Can they do it again in 2025? Who knows, but I think that's who they'll have to get past for the second place spot. The Giants got better this offseason, but I don't think they've done enough yet to climb up from last place in the division.
Mickey: Well, think about it this way. Two seasons ago they stacked up mighty well, finishing 12-5 and winning the East for the second time in three years while finishing 5-1 in division games. In 2024, not so much, but do you factor into the equation in missing Dak Prescott, MVP runner-up in 2023, for nine-plus games last season while going 7-10. How nice unlike last season to play those four games against NFC East opponents Eagles and Commanders with Prescott under center. How nice to add George Pickens to the fray, CeeDee Lamb, too, having missed two of those four games and playing through that shoulder injury in the other two, with Zack Martin missing three of those four games, DeMarcus Lawrence missing all four and Trevon Diggs three of the four. A lot of your question will be answered by this defense, having given up 124 points in those four NFC East games against Philadelphia and Washington, averaging 31 a game.
Kyle: The NFC East is stacking up to be one of the best in football. Two teams coming off an appearance in the NFC Championship game a year ago and a team with the expectations to make a return to double-digit wins. Right now, the Cowboys are still a sliver behind both Philadelphia and Washington, but that doesn't mean they can't catch up.
All three teams have a solidified franchise quarterback, elite weapons on offense, and playmakers at every level of the defense. The biggest question for me, is depth. Philadelphia showed their depth when making the run for their second Lombardi trophy, despite injuries and big-time competition. Dallas had more injuries to deal with last season, but the depth just wasn't up to the necessary level to sustain success. I believe the Cowboys have added more quality depth this offseason than they did last year. Hopefully that helps them stack up.
Patrik: On paper, quite well. Now here's the bad news: games aren't played on stationery, so the Cowboys can be anything but stationary. They've gotta get off to a hot start by hopefully downing both the defending champion Eagles and the new-look Giants in back-to-back weeks to start the season with a 2-0 record with wins made more meaningful by the fact it'll give Dallas early tiebreakers against both of those teams. But until further notice, the Eagles are the standard of the conference (and the league) and then there's the Commanders, a team that made it to the playoffs and then walked into Detroit and beat the Lions to within an inch of their lives before making an appearance in the NFC Championship — all in the first year of the Dan Quinn and Jayden Daniels era — defeated only by the eventual champion Eagles.
The good news is the Cowboys didn't sit idly by this offseason, instead adding a lot of talent at all levels of their depth chart, headlined by the trade for George Pickens, but there are still questions in the secondary and linebackers' corps due to injury rehab (e.g., Trevon Diggs, DeMarvion Overshown) and can they stop the run in 2025? I see the effort. I see the improvement ... on paper ... but show me when the cleats touch the grass. That said, they have enough talent and firepower to make some noise in the NFC East, I do believe. How loud that noise will be, however, is to-be-determined.
