Experts pick the Dallas Cowboys to finish second in the NFC East

Thursday night, the NFL kicked off its 100th season. But the Dallas Cowboys will wait until this Sunday to begin their quest for the Super Bowl.

The Dallas Cowboys have been front and center the entire offseason. team owner and general manager Jerry Jones is a master when it comes to attention grabbing for his team.

Jones bought the Cowboys in 1989 for $140 million and now owns the most valuable sports franchise in the world. Forbes announced this week that the Cowboys valuation is $5.5 billion dollars. The attention, or drama depending on your perspective, has certainly been good for business but Cowboys fans truly care about what happens on the field.

The offseason drama for the Cowboys started with the franchise tag for defensive lineman DeMarcus Lawrence. The star defender refused to have his shoulder surgery until a deal was in place forcing the Cowboys to sign a deal. That was in April – it seems so long ago now.

The media cycle picked up on quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver Amari Cooper’s contract situation. Both players enter 2019 on the last year of their rookie deals.

We heard everything from why super model Gisele Bundchen will be the reason Prescott does not give a hometown discount to outlandish $40 million per year contract requests. It seemed like not a day went by without some mention of the contracts, Prescott’s in particular, in the sports media.

Then came the holdout. As training camp approached, whispers of star running back Ezekiel Elliott not reporting to camp began circulating. We know now that the holdout would last up to this week when Zeke signed a landmark deal and the holdout would dominate the news cycle through 32 teams training camps.

The offseason is over and the regular season has finally arrived. The Cowboys have done a fine job building and preparing a roster they hope will compete for a Super Bowl.

Up until now, we could only speculate on how the Cowboys will do. Expectations for the team are sky-high with thoughts of coach Jason Garrett needing a deep and successful playoff run to secure a new contract at the end of the season.

But are these expectations realistic? There is uncertainty that the Cowboys can even win their division.

The SI.com MMQB staff announced their playoff predictions yesterday and only one of the thirteen analysts picked the Cowboys to win their division with the remaining twelve all in on the Eagles. Only six, less than half, picked the Cowboys to even make the playoffs while four picked the Eagles to win the Super Bowl.

Bleacher Report, NFL.com and ESPN.com also are picking the Eagles over the Cowboys to win the NFC East. The NFL Network Good Morning Football team feels the Eagles have advantages over the Cowboys on offensive line, tight end, defensive line, coaching, front office and most importantly quarterback.

Thankfully words don’t matter as much as actions between the white lines. The hype machine can finally be turned off as the reality machine is about to start.

The Dallas Cowboys can prove the doubters wrong. Sunday can’t come soon enough.