Dallas Cowboys

The Dallas Cowboys finished 2025 at seven and nine, missing the playoffs for the second straight year as the Philadelphia Eagles clinched the NFC East outright in Week 16. The season was defined before it started — seven days before the opener, Dallas traded All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons to Green Bay after a contract standoff, and the defense never recovered. First-year head coach Brian Schottenheimer inherited an offense that hummed in an Air Coryell scheme and cratered whenever the other team had the ball. There were real highs — a 21-point Thanksgiving comeback against the Eagles in Week 12, a Week 13 win over the defending champion Chiefs that made Dallas the first team ever to beat the previous year's Super Bowl combatants in the same week — and real lows, including the mid-season tragedy of defensive end Marshawn Kneeland's passing in November. The tone in one line: an explosive offense dragged under by a broken defense. Dallas smashed on one side of the ball and got absolutely muffed on the other.

Put numbers on that split. The offense generated plus 104.7 expected points added through the air — the cumulative measure of how much every passing snap improved Dallas's scoring chances, and a genuinely good number. The defense allowed plus 130.8 expected points added through the air and plus 41.1 on the ground, and on defense you want those numbers deeply negative — positive means you're bleeding. The Cowboys converted 42 percent of their third downs but allowed 48 percent, and the turnover math was brutal — just 11 takeaways against 21 giveaways. This was not a steady team. Dallas posted a 40-point week against the Giants and a 44-point week against the Commanders, then got blown out 44 to 24 in Denver and gave up 34 at home to the Chargers. Boom-or-bust, week to week, from the opening kickoff to Week 18.

Now let's talk about the passing offense. This was the engine — 4,735 passing yards, 278.5 per game, 31 passing touchdowns, and plus 104.7 in expected points added through the air, trending up late in the year. Dak Prescott threw for 4,552 yards and 30 touchdowns against just 10 interceptions, and in the Thanksgiving win over the Eagles he passed Tony Romo to become the Cowboys' all-time leading passer. The passing game was the consistent floor — Dallas threw for over 250 yards in most weeks and topped 300 multiple times — but it was also where the explosives lived, with 69 plays of 20 or more yards. The signature moment came in Week 7 against Washington: third and 11 from deep in their own territory, Prescott hit KaVontae Turpin over the middle and Turpin took it 86 yards to the house, a single play worth nearly eight expected points. George Pickens was the breakout target — 93 catches, 1,429 yards, 9 touchdowns, plus 88.7 in receiving expected points added — headlining the first Cowboys team since 2019 with a 4,000-yard passer, a 1,000-yard rusher, and two 1,000-yard receivers.

Now let's dig into the rushing offense. The ground game was the soft spot of the offense — 2,148 yards at 126.4 per game looks fine, but the per-carry expected points added was plus 0.01, essentially neutral. Dallas ran it 449 times for 18 rushing touchdowns, and the red-zone touchdown rate of 19 percent was a below-average finish for a unit with this much firepower. Steady floor, low ceiling — the run game rarely carried a game, but it rarely disappeared. Javonte Williams was the workhorse in his first year in Dallas, and he smashed: 1,201 rushing yards on 252 carries, 11 rushing touchdowns, plus 35 catches out of the backfield. The verdict — functional, not feared.

Next up, the pass defense. This is where the Parsons trade lived every single week. Dallas allowed 4,521 passing yards, 265.9 per game, and 35 passing touchdowns, with plus 130.8 in expected points added allowed — and on defense you want that deeply negative, so plus 130.8 is a disaster. The Cowboys generated 35 sacks, but the per-play passing expected points added allowed was plus 0.22, a bottom-of-the-league figure that showed up in giving up 30-plus points to the Giants, Bears, and Packers in a three-week stretch early in the year. Takeaways were nearly nonexistent, just 11 all season, 0.6 a game. Matt Eberflus moved to the coaches' booth late in the year with minimal impact; the Cowboys allowed points on the Chargers' first four drives in Week 16 and didn't sack Justin Herbert once. This unit got muffed, full stop — on pace to be the worst defense in franchise history.

And the run defense. Same story, different column — 2,153 yards allowed on 434 carries, 126.6 per game, 24 rushing touchdowns given up, and plus 41.1 in rushing expected points added allowed, a number you want well below zero. The per-carry expected points added allowed was plus 0.09, meaning every handoff against Dallas was a small positive for the opposing offense — boom-or-bust, mostly boom for the other guys. Dallas got gashed for big ground numbers in the losses to Denver, Detroit, and the Chargers, and rarely shut anyone down. No individual defender separated himself as a true anchor. The front seven needs a full rebuild, and the numbers scream it.