Dallas Cowboys 2025 Profile

Coaching Staff

Head Coach: Brian Schottenheimer
Offensive Coordinator: Klayton Adams
Defensive Coordinator: Matt Eberflus
Special Teams Coordinator: Nick Sorensen

2024 Summary (W-L Record: 7-10)

The Cowboys’ 2024 season seemed destined for failure before it even began. After an embarrassing home loss in the Wild Card round as the #2 seed the year before, head coach Mike McCarthy was sure to be fired. Until he wasn’t. He got to play out the final year of his contract in 2024, but that left the Cowboys somewhat in between.

They said they were going “all in,” but their moves in free agency didn’t reflect that. Defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who had been instrumental in shaping that defense into a top unit during each of his 3 seasons in Dallas, moved on to become the Commanders Head Coach. 2024 felt like a stop-gap year for the franchise.

Then Dak Prescott suffered a season-ending injury just 8 game in, which all but confirmed that 2024 would not be the Cowboys’ year. They finished with a 7-10 record, which their team stats largely reflected:

Aside from the injury to Prescott, the key issue for the Cowboys was their inability to run the ball or stop the run. They finished 30th in yards per rush and yards per rush allowed. In a year where the importance of the run game seemed to return to the NFL (whispers - it never really left), being at the bottom of the league in this department was a recipe for failure.

Maybe that also explains one of the weirdest defensive seasons in recent memory. Dallas had arguably the best pass rush in the NFL, finishing 1st in pressure percentage and 3rd in sacks. A great pass rush generally drives overall defensive effectiveness. With this team, it did not.

The Cowboys finished 28th in total yards allowed and 31st in scoring defense. In the passing game, opposing quarterbacks had a 99.5 passer rating against them, which was the 5th highest in the league.

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Perhaps opponents’ success in the passing game was due to their new defensive approach under Mike Zimmer. Dallas went from playing single-high 70% of the time in 2023 to just 58% of the time last season according to

Cody Alexander

of MatchQuarters.

They also played less man coverage, which they used often (and effectively) under Dan Quinn previously. Dallas ranked 3rd in the NFL in 2023 in frequency of cover-1, for instance, playing it 31.3% of the time. Last year, that dropped to 22.9% (13th in the NFL). On top of that, they were dead last in frequency of disguise used.

Maybe the scheme just wasn’t the best fit for this team.

Or perhaps their terrible run D is what ultimately did them in. Opposing offenses could do whatever they wanted to do on the ground against the Cowboys. They gained yards consistently. They gained yards in big chunks. Dallas also couldn’t create any impact plays on the ground, finishing dead last in percentage of negative runs forced.

Any offense going into a game against Dallas that wanted to neutralize their pass rush had to look no further than their own run game.

Key Additions

RB Javonte Williams
RB Miles Sanders
RB Jaydon Blue (5th Rd, 149th Overall)
WR George Pickens
RG Tyler Booker (1st Rd, 12th Overall)
G Robert Jones

DT Solomon Thomas
EDGE Dante Fowler
EDGE Payton Turner
EDGE Donovan Ezeiruaku (2nd Rd, 44th Overall)
LB Kenneth Murray Jr.
LB Jack Sanborn
CB Kaiir Elam
CB Shavon Revel Jr. (3rd Rd, 76th Overall)

Key Losses

RB Rico Dowdle
WR Brandin Cooks
RG Zack Martin

DT Linval Joseph
DT Carlos Watkins
EDGE Chauncey Golston
EDGE Carl Lawson
EDGE Demarcus Lawrence
LB Eric Kendricks
CB Jourdan Lewis
CB Amani Oruwariye

Did They Address Their Holes?

Offensively, it seems like Brian Schottenheimer is going to want to run the ball. I know this because of analytics, which tell me that if your last name is Schottenheimer, you’re going to run the ball.

I know, I know, Dallas didn’t really do this last year when he was the offensive coordinator. But now that he’s calling the shots, there’s a far greater likelihood that they will.

The Cowboys didn’t quite have the pieces to do that entering this offseason, though. So they brought in Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders and then drafted Jaydon Blue in that effort. Williams conceivably has the qualities of a feature back, although he hasn’t quite been able to display them since a serious knee injury derailed his career 3 years ago. We’re likely to see a heavy running-back-by-committee situation this season.

But perhaps the biggest indicator that the Cowboys will try to emphasize the run this year is their decision to select Tyler Booker with the 12th overall pick in this year’s draft. Booker not only replaces the retired Zack Martin at right guard, but he brings a physical presence to this O-line.

On the other side of the ball, I can’t really say the Cowboys addressed their biggest hole (the aforementioned ability to stop the run). Everyone they brought in on the defensive line seems to be much better at rushing the passer than defending the run.

Maybe new defensive coordinator Matt Eberflus will have some answers? He has had some seasons, both as the Colts DC and as the Bears head coach, where his run D has been superb. We’ll see if he can replicate that in Dallas.

Biggest Questions Entering 2025

It’s the Cowboys, so there are always a bunch of questions. Before training camp started, my biggest question was about how quarterback Dak Prescott would respond from his 2nd season-ending injury in 5 years. He seems to have gone under the radar as a story this offseason, but his ability to get back to the MVP form he played with two years ago is paramount to the Cowboys’ success this year.

It seems like he’ll have all the pieces around him to be able to do that. The 1-2 punch of CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens is as good as any in the league. And the added emphasis on the run game should be able to take some pressure off of him.

But now we get into the stories that cropped up in the last couple of weeks. The first was the injury to left tackle Tyler Guyton. Dallas dodged a bullet that he isn’t out for the entire year, but he will miss some time. And it’s likely that this will be something he has to manage and deal with all season.

Guyton struggled at left tackle last year and Dallas was counting on him bouncing back in his second season. That will be even tougher with his recent injury.

The other story that’s on everyone’s mind is Micah Parsons. He is the engine that makes this defense go. He might be the most impactful defensive player in the game. The Cowboys wouldn’t actually let it get to a point where Parsons was not on the field Week 1 would they?

Would they?!

Admittedly, I’m not an expert on anything contract related, from the player or the front office’s perspective. I very well might be wrong here, but I don’t see how we end up with anything other than Parsons on the Cowboys and ready to go opening night against the defending-champion Eagles.

2025 Outlook

Similar to what I wrote about the 49ers the other day, I think it would be foolish to count the Cowboys out this year. They have too much talent on both sides of the ball to be dismissed.

They’re due for a bounce-back season on offense, assuming Dak can stay healthy. And they figure to be more well-rounded than in years past for the reasons mentioned above.

Defensively, I’m curious to see how Eberflus plays things this year. His preference traditionally has been to lean more on zone coverage, particularly cover-2 and cover-3. But the Cowboys have clearly been better as a man coverage team in recent years. Not to mention, they signed cornerback Kaiir Elam and drafted cornerback Shavon Revel in the 3rd round. Both are man-coverage defenders, particularly press-man. You’re not wasting important team-building capital on players like those only to play zone.

Overall, I like their chances of being in the playoff mix in general, assuming they don’t completely botch the Micah Parsons situation.

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