The Dallas Cowboys head into the 2026 NFL season with sky-high expectations, as is always the case with America’s Team. Despite coming off a mediocre season in 2025, finishing 7-9-1, the Cowboys are a popular pick to rebound after their offseason improvements.
The Cowboys have not missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons since 2019 and 2020, so there’s some pressure on head coach Brian Schottenheimer entering Year 2. Schottenheimer recently spoke about the team’s expectations, and he has one goal in mind.
Brian Schottenheimer Expecting More Wins From Cowboys
One of the biggest changes the Cowboys made this offseason was hiring a new defensive coordinator in Christian Parker. He takes over for Matt Eberflus, who was a disaster last season, leading a Cowboys defense that ranked last in the NFL in PFN’s Defense Impact metric. Dallas needed to revamp its personnel and coaching, and it did. Schotteheimer was asked what he needs to improve in his second year as head coach, and he had a blunt answer.
“I mean, it’s obviously going to start with more wins…” he said, according to ESPN. “Getting the culture to continue to grow. Like I said, I think one of the deals this year [is] the culture has been really fun to create because you’ve got a lot of new faces.”
Schottenheimer is big on building a winner culture, and the only way for that to happen is by winning games. There was no question the Cowboys needed to upgrade their defense, and they feel they did that with moves like trading for Rashan Gary from the Green Bay Packers and drafting Caleb Downs and Malachi Lawrence in the first round of the 2026 NFL Draft.
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As for the offense, we know they are explosive and will score plenty of points. The Cowboys had an Offense Impact Score of 84.8, which ranked sixth in the NFL. As long as Dak Prescott is under center, the Cowboys have had one of the best offenses in the NFL. Also, George Pickens (who plans to play on the franchise tag and not hold out) and CeeDee Lamb are one of the best wide receiver tandems in football, raising the team’s ceiling.
While the Cowboys may not be in the top tier of Super Bowl contenders entering the season, they should be much improved and a team certainly capable of improving on their seven wins from a season ago.
