The entire NFC East has an extremely difficult schedule this season, so Dallas Cowboys waited with anxiousness for Wednesday's official release.
Despite being a huge draw, only a handful of Dallas' games were leaked before the big reveal. We knew ahead of time that the Cowboys would open against the Eagles and play on Thanksgiving and Christmas Day (!) against the Chiefs and Commanders, respectively.
That set the stage for an absolute gauntlet and that, unfortunately, has been confirmed. While Brian Schottenheimer and Co. have a reasonably soft middle-of-the-season slate, the end of the season is a bear.
NFL royally screws Cowboys with brutal end-of-season guantlet in 2025 schedule
From Weeks 12-17, the Cowboys will play teams that all fall under the "contender" umbrella. In order, they face the Eagles (at home), Chiefs on Thanksgiving, Lions (away), Vikings (home), Chargers (home) and Commanders on Christmas Day.
No, folks, that is not a typo.
If it is any silver lining, Dallas closes with the Giants, a team they have utterly dominated since Dak Prescott took over as the starting quarterback, in Week 18. It is very possible they will need to win that game to clinch a playoff berth. At the same time, though, their fate may have already been decided before then.
Must-Read: DeMarvion Overshown stuns Cowboys fans with injury return bombshell
The Eagles and Chiefs in consecutive weeks is straight out of a nightmare. Of course, those teams just met in the Super Bowl and have tremendous odds to get back there again.
If you believe in Super Bowl hangovers, the Lions might be your pick to represent the NFC in the Super Bowl. Detroit is still waiting to get over the hump in the postseason, but they have been among the best teams in football three years running.
That brings us to the Vikings, who crashed out of the playoffs in round one, but won 14 games last season. From there, the Cowboys host the Chargers, who were much improved in Jim Harbaugh's first year at the helm and are widely expected to make the playoffs this year.
The date against Washington on Christmas could go either way, but they deserve mention as one of the league's upper-echelon squads.
Long story short, the Cowboys better stack wins early in the schedule. If they don't it could be another long season in North Texas.