Two weeks before the season started, Jerry Jones decided to trade his best defensive player, so he had to start the year without Micah Parsons. I think he handled that really well.
The Jaguars have scored 410 points so far this season, tied for the highest total in the entire AFC. That's not a lucky stretch; it is a consistent offense with the tools to succeed. On defense, I see they have allowed 312 points, sitting comfortably among the other playoff-bound teams in the conference. Combine those numbers with a +98 point differential and a 6.5 average margin of victory, and you're looking at a team that doesn't just win, they're controlling games.
We have all watched Dak control pace, manipulate safeties, and take the completions the defense gives him. We've watched CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens turn leverage into separation, and we have witnessed Jake Ferguson become one of the most reliable middle-of-the-field tight ends in the NFC. Even the offensive line, needless to say, a patchwork offensive line, has given Dak just enough time to keep the gameplay intact.
The projected NFL salary cap for 2026 is $295,500,000. T he Cowboys currently sit at $34,906,087over the cap, with $330,406,087 in cap commitments already on the books. This means flexibility is not something Dallas will have, it's something they will need to create. The franchise tag becomes a timing mechanism. A tool that prevents emerging talent from touching the open-market while Dallas works backwards through extensions, restructures, and cuts.
It stands to reason that the Dallas Cowboys are going to make a change at defensive coordinator sometime soon. For the most part, the Cowboys defense has been objectively awful across the entire season. The team as a whole had the three-game winning streak where everything was sort of working together, but the defense has let the group down time after time after time after time.
I know the Cowboys defense has been a roller-coaster in 2025, but the interior defensive line has quietly become one of the most fascinating late-season storylines. For years, we have seen Dallas' defense be defined by pressure of the edge. This season, the middle of the line finally started forcing offenses to rethink how they attack the defense. Now two games remain, and the defensive tackles carry the weight of the defense in the final stretch.
Dallas did not do a good job in either area when they lost to the Chargers, but with a few extra days to find this motivation for their first Christmas Day game since 2010, the Cowboys did something they hadn't done since their last Super Bowl-winning season and earned a season-sweep of the Commanders in the process. The Cowboys won 30-23 at the Commanders on Christmas, their first regular season Christmas Day win since the season finale in 1995 against the Cardinals.
Santa Claus is coming to town and before we know it we will be ushering in a new year. And for teams like the Dallas Cowboys who have already been eliminated from the playoffs, the off-season preparation is starting earlier than many of us would like. Then again, maybe the timing isn't that bad after all. With the Cowboys early elimination from the postseason already confirmed, we still have time to get in our wish list for the organization to Santa. A little Christmas magic could be exactly what the Cowboys need after yet another disappointing season, which is why we decided to put our wish list out there for you to enjoy.
It's amazing to think about how exciting it was to watch Trevon Diggs pick off 11 passes during his second year in the league back in 2021. The guy was such an incredible ball-hawking corner who had a football magnet for hands. Sure, he had a little gamble in him, and sometimes that left him exposed, but more times than not, his decisions worked out favorably as he racked up the interceptions. With each additional pick, the excitement grew. It was fun to watch.
Tyler Guyton's second NFL season has come to an end. He has been placed on injured reserve, the Cowboys announced on Wednesday. Guyton last played in Week 12 and has been dealing with an ankle injury since. Having been eliminated from the playoffs, the Cowboys have only two games remaining in their season. IR stints at least four weeks, so today's move ensures Guyton will now turn his attention to 2026.
In case you were unaware the in-season version of Hard Knocks has been covering the NFC East (yes the entire division) for the last few weeks which means that the Cowboys have gotten some air time on HBO and HBO Max. It has been interesting to see some behind-the-scenes footage over the past few games, but obviously it would have been more fun had the team kept on winning.
Shemar James was the second rookie the Cowboys selected in the fifth round back in April. He's outplaying Kenneth Murray, who has started all but one of the Cowboys' 15 games this year. One could even argue that James looks a little better than Logan Wilson as well. In Sunday's loss to the Chargers, James had the most defensive snaps (50) out of all the linebackers. He was fifth out of all the defensive players in defensive snaps.
For the last two decades, the NFC East had not done something that all of the NFL's other seven divisions had. Have a team win consecutive division championships. The last time an NFC East team defended its crown had been all the way back to the 2004 season. The Philadelphia Eagles won four straight titles from 2001 through 2004. For the next two decades, none of the four teams could defend their title.
