Other than determining where the Dallas Cowboys will be ultimately slotted in the 2026 NFL Draft, this Week 18 matchup with the New York Giants is a meaningless game anyway you choose to try to break it down. And no matter how much Brian Schottenheimer and several of the Cowboys starters say they want to go out and win this game, it may be more beneficial as far as the future is concerned to sit several of their key starters.
2026 has officially arrived and here at Blogging The Boys we hope that it is off to a special start for you and yours. It is amazing to think that this site is over 20 years old and that so many people have been here through the entire ride. As we embark upon a new year and the subject of resolutions is all over the place, what should the Cowboys' resolutions be?
The Dallas Cowboys will close out their 2025 campaign against the New York Giants in an NFC East game that will be on the road for the good guys. There is really only one piece of "drama" left in the game, and that is Dallas getting to a non-losing record for the year. Currently at 7-8-1, they have the opportunity to end with an even record.
There are two former Dallas Cowboys who were named finalists for this year's Pro Football Hall of Fame Class: Jason Witten and Darren Woodson. The class was announced Tuesday morning and to no surprise featured both Witten and Woodson. We have all assumed for a long time now that Witten is a HOF lock, even if it takes him a few years to finally get through.
When the Cowboys hired Matt Eberflus to run the defense, the pitch was structure, discipline, and a system that could elevate the talent already in the building. Instead, we saw regression, and most of it landed exactly where the Cowboys fans didn't expect it to, at the feet of the secondary.
"Probably the one that I think was the most impactful is that we had a high expectation in our secondary, and I thought we would be good at all phases of it..." Jones said. "The secondary really had issues regarding personnel, time on the field, time at practice. We weren't ambitious, we knew some of those guys would be getting back [from injury]... I would say that's the area."
After starting four straight games earlier this year, Dallas Cowboys rookie linebacker Shemar James had been coming in off the bench for six weeks. In Thursday's game against Washington, Logan Wilson was benched and James got his fifth start of the year. He responded by tying for the team high in tackles with six in the Cowboys win. Maybe that was why calls were being made for him to start?
Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones has famously said he would cut a check for an embarrassing amount of money if it meant his team would end its now 30-year drought of reaching the Super Bowl. In the salary cap era, there are limitations for the NFL's most valuable franchise to buy its way into a Lombardi Trophy run. However, one area of team building that allows Jones to keep his piggy bank open is spending money on coaches.
Each year the NFL makes a big production about 'releasing the schedule' in April. But thanks to the NFL's scheduling formula, we already know 15 of the 17 opponents the Cowboys will face next year, just not when and in what sequence. And with that info, we can take a quick look at what the 2026 schedule will look like for the Cowboys.
A .500 lifestyle is on the line during the team's final game in this stretch and final on the season as a whole. The Cowboys are currently 7-8-1 and a win on the road against the New York Giants would put them at 8-8-1, perfectly even, something that sounds impossible given that there are currently 17 games in an NFL regular season.
Because here's the thing: Dallas doesn't play like the league's sprint offenses. They don't live on 70-yard swings and highlight reels. This team scores by stacking correct decisions. It is a drive-sustaining offense built on rhythm, timing, and efficiency. When Dak Prescott is in a groove, it looks like a surgeon working in progression, not a roulette wheel spinning. We have all watched Dak control pace, manipulate safeties, and take the completions the defense gives him.
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.
The Dallas Cowboys did one thing really well on Christmas, and it won them a ballgame. They ran the ball through the middle of the Washington Commanders defense. They trucked the middle of Washington's defense to the tune of 211 yards. Much of that number came from an unexpected source - Malik Davis. The running back who just keeps hanging around had a great game, running for 103 yards on 20 carries.
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.
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.
