Dallas Cowboys

Dallas Cowboys

It was reported on Friday afternoon that the NFL salary cap for 2026 is projected to be north of $300M for the first time ever. To say this is significant is putting it mildly. As it has often been said for the last few years, the salary cap is rising at an exponential rate. This year's cap is projected to be ~$20M more than last year's, all of that television money has to go somewhere.

The NFL is no stranger to innovation. Over the years, teams have adopted new strategies, technologies, and data-driven approaches to stay ahead of the competition. One of the most significant advancements in recent years is the rise of sophisticated analytics and modeling. These tools have become essential for teams seeking to improve player performance, game strategy, and overall team development.

Shortly after his playing career ended, former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo followed Troy Aikman into the television booth in 2017. At first, Romo drew high praise for his work alongside Jim Nantz. Especially when he started accurately calling what the offenses were going to run. As good as his playing career was, even though his postseason record was less than great, Romo seemed to have found his calling.

Now that the Dallas Cowboys have their defensive coordinator hired and he has started cleaning house with his staff, it is time for Jerry Jones to move to the next few things that should be on his agenda. The 2026 NFL free agency signing period officially begins on March 11, 2026, at 4:00 p.m. ET. While legal tampering and negotiations with

Somehow, Shedeur Sanders actually got named to the Pro Bowl.... He started 7 games where the Browns went 3-4, averaged less than 200 yards passing per game, threw for 10 interceptions and 7 touchdowns and his QBR was a solid 18.9! I mean come on guys, what are we doing here? There is nothing you can do to justify trying to make the case for Sanders to make the Pro Bowl.

Year Review: After dealing away star edge rusher Micah Parsons less than a week before the start of the 2025 regular season, the Cowboys were scrambling to find some pass rush help. Dallas knew their pass rush group, minus Parsons, was not good enough to be a consistent threat, so they went outside the organization to get a much-needed upgrade.

Offense is always where draft hype gets out of control first. Arm strength, body type, and "tools" start carrying more weight than what actually happened on Saturdays. Before long, we're projecting guys into stardom they haven't earned yet.

ESPN's Adam Schefter reports Pittsburgh is expected to interview Cowboys tight ends coach Lunda Wells this week. Wells has been in his current position since 2020, the year McCarthy arrived as Dallas' head coach. The two worked together for five years on the Cowboys' staff. Wells began his NFL coaching career in 2012 with the Giants. The 47-year-old remained in New York for eight years before joining McCarthy in Dallas.

The first step in getting this thing right is doing exactly what Jerry Jones did. Do the process like everyone else, get young names in the building, stop using old head coaches as your DC. That doesn't work as we have seen. Now, with getting Parker in the building, this could be great for their backend and maybe bring some guys in through free agency.

Trevon Diggs is no longer on the roster and DaRon Bland is rehabbing from a serious foot injury. What was once viewed as a massive strength just 12 months ago, is now a serious concern. The Cowboys hope they found a long-term solution in 2025 third-round pick Shavon Revel, but he had a tough rookie season that inspires more doubt than confidence.

I found that Murdock wins with instincts, angles, and physicality. He reads plays quickly, stays square, and finishes tackles. One thing I noticed is he doesn't overrun the ball or guess his way into trouble, he plays within the structure of the defense and does his job snap after snap. What really stood out to me is how he creates turnovers. Murdock finished his college career as the all-time FBS leader in forced fumbles, and that's not just luck.

The nickel now has become a premium position, a defensive-defining position. So having that length and strength is a big advantage, you know, to be able to reroute and disrupt releases of routes. Foot speed to be able to match routes when you're talking about being able to play true single-high coverage. And then your vision to be able to identify route concepts.

Super Bowl LX is set. The Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots will do battle once more, a Super Bowl rematch that we saw 11 years ago reborn. The AFC Championship Game was a bit of a snoozer on Sunday, although the weather obviously had a lot to do with that. On the NFC side of things we had a thriller all the way to the end that Seattle simply outlasted.

KaVontae Turpin is headed back to the Pro Bowl. He is replacing Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Rashid Shaheed who is set to play in the Super Bowl instead. Originally there were five members of the Cowboys named to the Pro Bowl: Dak Prescott, Tyler Smith, George Pickens, Quinnen Williams, and Brandon Aubrey.

The Cowboys haven't lacked talent on defense, but they have lacked unpredictability. Everything in 2025 looked the same before the snap, and offenses have known exactly where to go with the ball. Parker's background suggests that's not how he wants to run a defense. His approach leans toward more movement, disguise, and putting more on the safeties to read what's developing instead of just sitting. That alone could put the safety position front and center in this reset.

The Brian Schottenheimer era kicked off in 2025, and although it didn't end how we would have wanted to, the future looks bright. Dallas took an unorthodox (for them) approach to fill the offensive coordinator position, and it paid off well. Usually known to hire ex-head coaches as coordinators, the Cowboys instead hired Arizona Cardinals OL Coach Klayton Adams as offensive coordinator, and the results were more than pleasant.

Toia's rookie season in Dallas was almost entirely a redshirt year. He appeared in only five games, recording one solo tackle and two assists, with no sacks, no forced fumbles and no other stats on the box score. PFF graded him at 29.9 overall on those limited snaps and explicitly tagged him as having not enough snaps, which tells you both how little he played and how little weight you should put on the grade at this stage.

The most likely aspect that'll come over for Parker from a schematic standpoint is the two-high safety look. It's a versatile approach that doesn't tip the secondary's plan pre-snap and forces the QB to make post-snap reads as defenders can rotate into all sorts of different coverage looks after the snap in both man and zone. From a coverage standpoint, their most utilized coverage was Cover 3 over the two years Parker coached the Eagles (32.1% on average).

For Diggs, an offseason dispute over another rehab away from The Star was just the first step in what was to become a messy divorce. The Micah Parsons trade seemed to be the last straw, even though Diggs would play in eight games for the Cowboys, with six starts. He would finish with 25 tackles in those eight games. But he wouldn't record a single interception. He was finally released late in the year.