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The Cowboys, arguably the greatest marketing success story in team-sports history, finally might be underrated.
When I asked eight NFL executives to rank the NFC teams from 1-16, the Cowboys landed 13th. This seemed low, but when I checked preseason Vegas win totals at BetMGM, the Cowboys were 13th in the NFC by this measure as well (a dozen teams topped their 7.5 projected win total).
Here’s why that might be misleading: Although the top three AFC teams have higher average win totals than their NFC counterparts, the reverse is true in the eighth through 13th slots — teams just outside the playoff picture.
As one exec put it:
💬 “I think a team from the NFC is going to make the playoffs, that’s like, ‘Where the f— did that come from?’ But it’s going to be a team that just got super lucky. Whereas in the AFC, I don’t think I got all seven right, but I bet I got at least five right.”
Why not Dallas? The Cowboys have gone 36-15 (.706) in their last three full seasons when Dak Prescott started more than half of the games.
My sense is Dallas might bounce back after two circuses of their owner’s making left town. (Mike McCarthy playing out his contract in 2024 after three successive 12-5 seasons was one of them. Micah Parsons’ public battle with Jerry Jones was the other.) Even if those situations were handled poorly, they are no longer distractions.
There will be other distractions, for sure. Jones wouldn’t have it any other way. It’s just tougher to get much bigger than the head coach and star pass rusher.
GO FURTHER
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