If you flip on ESPN during the dog days of summer, odds are their lead segment will center on the Dallas Cowboys' Super Bowl chances. We all know how this works. No team in the NFL moves the needle more than the Cowboys, so those debates are often more about television than football.
After all, any mention of "Cowboys" and "Super Bowl" in the same breath over the last two years was impossible to take seriously. From keeping Mike McCarthy in a lame-duck year in 2024 to saddling Brian Schottenheimer with Matt Eberflus and trading Micah Parsons, Dallas projected unseriousness.
Incredibly, though, the tone surrounding Jerry Jones' team has turned on its head. And every bit of it is deserved.
In a recent column, FanSided insider Jason La Canfora spoke to former NFL general manager Marty Hurney and several personnel executives who all think Dallas should be taken seriously in Super Bowl conversations.
“I think the Chargers and the Cowboys are the two most improved teams in the league, for me, as far as moving up to a position where they could really win the whole thing," Hurney told La Canfora. "They both have the QB and they have that QB-head coach combination and they have had a great offseason and the Cowboys have really built up that defense extremely well. I think Jerry has done a heck of a job this year.”
The Dallas Cowboys have legitimate Super Bowl believers across the NFL
Jerry Jones has his flaws -- Lord knows he has plenty of them -- but can we take a moment to appreciate the job he's done this offseason? So often the face of dysfunction, Jones has overseen a drama-free, transformative offseason in Dallas.
Brian Schottenheimer deserves most of the credit for landing Christian Parker, but Jones deserves credit for resisting his usual instincts. He admitted the Matt Eberflus experiment flopped, stepped aside, and let Schottenheimer handpick the youngest defensive coordinator in franchise history, whom the league widely regards as a future head coach.
Speaking of head coaches, one longtime personnel exec believes the Cowboys have the right one.
“The head coach answered a lot of questions last year," the exec told La Canfora "He had to deal with all of bullshit going back to last summer [Micah Parsons dealt and more contract unrest], and he shut a lot of people up. Including me.”
Beyond Parker, the Cowboys didn't drag out George Pickens' franchise tag, and they were quick to announce that they wouldn't be negotiating an extension this offseason. Old Jerry would have left that open-ended, fueling an endless cycle of rumors and manufactured drama. At long last, the 83-year-old picked clarity and normalcy over chaos.
La Canfora is a believer, too.
Like a lot of Cowboys fans, he's loving that Dallas has "gone deep under the radar all spring and summer. When was the last time you could say that about this team?
"Maybe Jerry is just distracted from counting all that FIFA money that is pouring into his stadium, but I find myself compelled to actually buy into the Cowboys being truly, potentially, relevant more than I have in a long, long time," La Canfora wrote.
A lot has to go right for the Cowboys to end up in the Super Bowl, but they can get into the dance behind their offense. If Christian Parker's group hits its stride late in the year, Dallas will be as tough an out as any team in the NFC.
They may fall short of reaching the Super Bowl, but for the first time in a long time, the Cowboys feel like a team worth believing in.
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