FRISCO, Texas – Man, did this ever catch my eye.
Caught it since so many after the Cowboys' 7-10 season of last year – few ever giving credence to why this took place, plus the displeasure of failing to advance to at least an NFC Championship Game since 1995 – have assumed the Cowboys have lost their luster.
That fans are jumping ship, losing interest in their team. That the Cowboys' worldwide public image is declining after just their second losing season since 2015 and but the third since 2010. And get it, and so do the Cowboys. Nothing really matters unless wining a Super Bowl.
Well, saw this piece in the most recent issue of Sports Illustrated, July 2025. And, yes, SI still is being printed, though the typeface is decreasing. My guess is to print the same content on fewer pages.
Headline: It's A Date . . . Opportunity, Yes. Pressure, Too.
"When the NFL's scheduling team took its first look at the 2025 matchups, one thing stuck out: With the flagship NFC East playing a deep NFC North, and the NFC North paired with a similarly loaded AFC North, there was going to be a lot of inventory to work with" is the description.
In short, this was a deep dive into how the NFL crew in charge of mapping out the 2025 NFL schedule, utilizing 4,000 servers from Amazon Web Services and running hundreds of thousands of versions of the 272-game schedule, went about their lengthy business. Those were writer Albert Breer's words, not mine. He goes on that more than 7,000 combinations of the schedule got eyeballs on them and a total of 151 got the full deep-dive treatment.
Then we got to this from SI: "What came of the process was a schedule featuring big games in big spots, beginning with the Eagles-Cowboys kickoff game set for Thursday, Sept. 4, in prime-time."
But many of us – you, too, probably – wonder why the heck are the Cowboys, a 7-10 team from last season, opening up against the Super Bowl-champion Eagles? What about the possibility of a Super Bowl rematch of Eagles-Chiefs? Or an NFC title rematch of Eagles-Commanders? Or two of the four conference championship contenders, Eagles-Bills? All so sweet, right?
"And as we looked through the schedule, we wanted to push ourselves – Let's go big in big windows," Onnie Bose, NFL vice president of broadcasting is quoted as saying. "Any number of games would work in that window. But Dallas felt good, it felt right. It will be a charged environment, they're raising the banner, a rival is coming."
Yep, in their eyes, the Cowboys are still the Cowboys. The Chiefs and the Cowboys are the only two teams to have seven nationally televised games in 2025, including the Thanksgiving Day matchup between the two former Dallas rivals. The newly minted NFL's Cowboys vs. the newly minted AFL's Texans, who eventually became known as the Chiefs once moving to Kansas City three years later, both shared the Cotton Bowl for the first three years of their existence in warring leagues, beginning in 1960.
The Chiefs and Cowboys are the only two teams with eight stand-alone games, meaning playing in the only coveted 3:25 p.m. nationally televised time slot.
Bose later is quoted as saying, "Look, the Cowboys are always a draw. The fan base is there; the interest is there. Yes, they were 7-10 last year, but they had 12-5 seasons the three previous years, and Dak [Prescott] was hurt. They're in one of the most competitive divisions, they have a track record, you have CeeDee Lamb, Micah Parsons. This wasn't going to be the year the Cowboys were only going to get two prime-time games."
No, siree, the schedule makers still recognizing the Cowboys national allure, wid' 'em or agin' 'em.
'Nuff said.
- Other Schedule Oddities: Nothing is mentioned about the Cowboys having to play those six consecutive games against 2024 playoff teams, including both Super Bowl combatants (Eagles-Chiefs) the latter part of the season, but try these on for size. Commanders play the Eagles twice in the final three weeks of the season (start times TBD), with the Cowboys in between on Christmas Day. The Bengals play three consecutive home games heading into their bye, and the Titans, with rookie quarterback Cam Ward, play three consecutive homes games coming off a bye. And how 'bout them Chiefs becoming the first NFL team to play five prime-time games in the first eight weeks of the season.
- Eye-Catching II: Saw this a week or so ago, pointing out rookie Tyler Shough could become the New Orleans Saints' season-opening starting quarterback now that veteran Derek Carr has decided to retire, the second-round draft choice having a chance to earn the starting role. And if he does, Shough would become the Saints' first rookie quarterback to start Week 1 since, wait for it, Archie Manning in 1971. Seriously. So made me think about Cowboys rookie quarterback starts. As for Week 1 rookie quarterback starters, the Cowboys can boast three: Troy Aikman in 1989, Quincy Carter in 2001 and Dak Prescott in 2016. As for Cowboys starts by a rookie quarterback, Dak of course leads with 16. Next is Aikman with 11. Next Chad Hutchinson with nine in 2002, Carter with eight in 2001 and Steve Walsh with the five in 1989 when Troy missed time with a broken left index finger thought initially to be dislocated when Aikman summoned offensive lineman Kevin Gogan to yank it back in place in the huddle. And as for wins by a rookie quarterback, again Dak with 13, falling off to Carter with three and Hutchinson with two. And while the Cowboys total 11 rookie quarterbacks with at least one start, the only others to actually win at least one game would be Roger Staubach (1969), Walsh (1989), Hutchinson (2002) and Jason Garrett (1993). Indeed, the Cowboys have lived a charmed existence when it comes to quarterback play, able to go from Don Meredith to Staubach to Danny White to Aikman after a failed attempt from Steve Pelluer to eventually Tony Romo to Prescott.
- Off the Cuff: In the 2024 advent of the "dynamic kickoffs," Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey finished with the fourth lowest touchback percentage (46.6 percent), seventh in most kickoffs (88) and fourth in distance when less is more, opposing teams average start being at the 1-yad line, just one of five kickers whose average was less than the goal line (65 yards) at 64.0 … Also, Aubrey's 150-point season tied for second most in the NFL, but he has a high of 307 in the past two seasons … Prescott's 76 wins in his nine seasons rank fourth in the NFL from 2016-24, behind just Patrick Mahomes (89), Jared Goff (81) and Tom Brady (79) … And in Cowboys history, Dak's 76 wins rank fourth after nine seasons, just two behind Romo (76 in 14 seasons), nine behind Staubach (85 in 11 seasons) and 18 behind all-time leader Troy (94 in 12 seasons), meaning a 10-win season in 2025 vaults Dak to No. 2.
Since we usually go to the quarterback first, might as well go to Dak last, too, for this week's final words. The team is taking a break here for a couple of weeks, but once again Dak is planning a get-together trip with his skill players on offense. For some football for sure but also a lot of brotherhood, allowing guys to get to know one another better before the start of training camp.
Certainly helps with so many newcomers like almost the entire running back room, wide receivers like George Pickens and somewhat Jonathan Mingo and Parris Campbell, and likely tight end Brevyn Spann-Ford, who has made an impression this offseason. Plus, the two current backup quarterbacks with the addition of Joe Milton and Will Grier returning.
"Yeah, I mean it's just after we break here for a couple of weeks, and then before we get back together for a couple of weeks. Just when I can check in on guys, right?" Dak says of the trip he sponsors. "Just get 'em all there and make sure that they're in shape doing the things that they need to do. They're seeing the ball. That's one big part of it.
"I mean, you can catch a lot of jugs, you can catch passes, but you want to be catching them from you, catching them from the quarterbacks. And then lastly, there's that comradery, getting those guys together, like you said. Getting George here just in the last couple of months, knowing him, right? We're growing, but just getting to know him better, deeper, getting to know all the guys, especially with a new receiver's coach. These guys are coming in trying to change little things and little nuances that just gives them another time to work together.
"So super excited about the trip."
Sure sounds right.
