{"id":962102,"date":"2026-07-27T08:32:47","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T08:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/962102\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T08:32:47","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T08:32:47","slug":"what-is-the-ceiling-and-floor-for-the-dallas-cowboys-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/962102\/","title":{"rendered":"What is the ceiling (and floor) for the Dallas Cowboys in 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>July 26, 2026, 9:55 a.m. ET<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">For a while during the early 2020s, it seemed that the <a data-autotag=\"7af2161d-a8dd-41a5-87e2-32eb5b028473\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/dallas-cowboys\/331\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Dallas Cowboys<\/a> might be set to return to the glory days of the franchise, as they reeled off three consecutive 12-win seasons and became an established postseason contender.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">But then a downturn in 2024 cost Mike McCarthy, the architect of those teams, a chance to return as the head coach. Brian Schottenheimer took over the reins of the program, but his first season saw the Cowboys post a losing record and miss the playoffs for a second straight year. As the Schottenheimer experiment continues, what is the ceiling (and the floor) for the Cowboys in 2026?<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><strong>Ceiling: 10-7<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">There were opportunities for a few more wins last year for the Cowboys, and Dak Prescott has proven in the past that he&#8217;s a quarterback who is capable of leading a team to double-digit wins and a playoff run. Expectations should be lower than a return to 12-win territory. Still, with what should be an improved defense under new defensive coordinator Christian Parker, there&#8217;s no reason the Cowboys can&#8217;t win a few more games and get back to the postseason.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><strong>Floor: 7-10<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While things likely won&#8217;t get worse than last year, there is a possibility that they don&#8217;t get better, either. Schottenheimer is unproven as a head coach, and Prescott has struggled with consistency at different points in his career. If the team&#8217;s abysmal defense doesn&#8217;t take the step forward they&#8217;re hoping for under Parker, they could be back in the same spot this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"July 26, 2026, 9:55 a.m. ET For a while during the early 2020s, it seemed that the Dallas&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":962103,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5135],"tags":[216235,5229,1596,386837,386838,386839,216450,225567,221795,216456,216457,216318,358,3187,216238,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-962102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-accessfree","tag-america","tag-dallas","tag-sourcetouchdown-wire","tag-sstssportsnfltouchdown","tag-sstsntouchdown","tag-tagamerican-football","tag-tagdak-prescott","tag-tagdallas-cowboys","tag-tagnfl-hub","tag-tagoverall-negative","tag-tagsports-news","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-typestory","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116991016786934171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=962102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/962102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/962103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=962102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=962102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=962102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}