FRISCO, Texas – So this time of year, naturally we tend to concentrate on what the Dallas Cowboys don’t have. What they need.
Well, heck, that’s pretty obvious. When you finish a 17-game season with the 32nd-ranked defense, one giving up the most points total and per game in franchise history, when five of your eight Pro Bowlers reside on offense and two more on special teams, then chances are your defense needs a whole lot of help.
And more so than just hiring a brand-new defensive coaching staff, including the new defensive coordinator Christian Parker, who is a 34-year-old coach, not a magician.
But let’s say we do this. How ’bout we point out what the Cowboys do have? And the biggest have is quarterback Dak Prescott, the one position you can’t fake, outcoach or put mascara on to cover up blemishes.
Plus, Prescott this offseason is as good as new physically, not having to spend six months rehabbing from surgery. And should you be accusing me of dealing in hyperbole when referring to this year’s Pro Bowl quarterback, consider this from one NFL.com observer ranking the 63 quarterbacks who started games during the 2025 season.
And about time one of these rankers opens eyes to actually see what this Dak has done in two of the past three seasons when finishing completely healthy in both. And this means a lot, considering there are as many as 10 or 11 teams this offseason, like a third in this 32-team league, either wondering just who their starting quarterback is or are unwilling to commit to a contender without a full NFL season of proof. This means the Cowboys have Dak Prescott, and 29 other teams do not.
And when it comes to the rest of the sure haves, we know all about receivers CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens (unrestricted but can secure his rights with a franchise tag between Feb. 17-March 3), Tyler Smith and Jake Ferguson, plus kicker Brandon Aubrey and return specialist /receiver KaVontae Turpin – every one of them 2025 Pro Bowlers.
Plus, add All-Rookie Team guard Tyler Booker.
Not bad on a unit scoring 471 points in 2025, the second most in franchise history, seventh most in the NFL. The Cowboys also gained 6,623 yards, the third most in franchise history, No. 2 in the NFL, and averaged 266.3 net yards passing a game, second in the NFL.
Can certainly work with this bunch.
Now then, the defense. And this may surprise but the Cowboys are not totally void of talent.
Let’s start with the defensive tackles. Got two bona fide starters, traded for four-time Pro Bowler Quinnen Williams and traded for three-time Pro Bowler Kenny Clark. Got two more-than-capable rotational players, Osa Odighizuwa and Solomon Thomas.
That’s a good start up front.
Plus, knowing they would like to re-sign veteran defensive end Jadeveon Clowney – we’ll see – they do have up-and-comer Donovan Ezeiruaku, who was seventh on the team with 45 tackles and a couple of sacks, but look, third on the teams with 42 QB pressures, just one behind Clark’s 43. Not bad for a rookie. And there’s defensive end James Houston, second on the team with 5½ sacks, a potential rotational player.
Let’s not forget linebacker DeMarvion Overshown, having spent all of last offseason rehabbing a torn ACL and only able to play in six games. Don’t forget his 13-game second season in 2024 when he had 95 tackles, five sacks, four PBUs and 16 QB pressures before suffering the torn ACL. Now he has a real offseason ahead of him, concentrating on football, strength and conditioning instead of rehab. He’s a starter at outside linebacker and a potential three-downer.
This might have gone unnoticed, but the 21-year-old rookie linebacker Shemar James, highly athletic with only three years of college ball, finished second on the team with 85 tackles.
And now the problem area for sure: defensive back. And maybe no coincidence Parker’s history is coaching defensive backs, having served as the Philadelphia Eagles defensive backs coach/pass game coordinator after three seasons as the defensive backs coach in Denver. And the Cowboys already have hired two more secondary coaches, starting with Derrick Ansley, who has 21 years of experience coaching defensive backs, including one season as the Chargers defensive coordinator and two seasons as the Packers pass game coordinator. He’s now the Cowboys defensive backs coach/pass game coordinator. The team has also added Ryan Smith as defensive backs coach, the former Arizona Cardinals cornerbacks coach the past three seasons who spent seven seasons coaching DBs in college, including safeties in 2019 at James Madison for now Indiana national championship head coach Curt Cignetti.
Now then, the Cowboys certainly are hoping 2023 Pro Bowl corner DaRon Bland returns good as new after a second surgery to repair the fractured fifth metatarsal that limited his 2024 season to just seven games and then again this past year when he tried to play through the persistent problematic foot injury to 12 games. What a boost that would be.
And after that, well, there also is hope for last year’s third-round draft choice Shavon Revel, whose continued rehab on the torn ACL he suffered after three games at East Carolina in 2024 limited him to just seven games (five starts). Now he’ll finally spend an offseason doing football instead of the required rehabbing consuming last year’s entire offseason, training camp and the first nine weeks of the season. And we’ll see how much Reddy Steward playing 25 percent of the snaps in the slot last year better prepares for his second NFL season.
The cupboard isn’t as bare as the 7-9-1 record would suggest. Or the defense isn’t as rife with personnel deficiencies as that 32nd ranking surely would suggest.
In fact, this is not just me. In an ESPN ranking of the 18 NFL teams missing the playoffs, the Cowboys were placed in the second category behind “No Need To Panic,” classified as “A Few Moves Away,” and of course we know those in need well.
And also, let’s not panic about the salary cap. First, the cap will jump a skosh more than $300 million, an increase over last year’s $279 million. The Cowboys also will have like $20 million rolling over from 2025 and will nearly cut in half the $54 million of dead money they carried last year. And once again they will dip under the cap by the March 11 start of the league year by paying restructure bonuses to a few players, prorating that money over the life of the contract.
Now it’s a matter of spending wisely in free agency and drafting well come April 23-25, especially hitting on starters with those two first-round picks.
So stay tuned. It’s only Valentine’s Day Saturday and Presidents Day Monday. Got a long way to go.