{"id":294190,"date":"2026-05-15T07:36:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:36:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/294190\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T07:36:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T07:36:14","slug":"dallas-cowboys-2026-schedule-nfl-made-a-tough-situation-better-among-instant-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/294190\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys 2026 Schedule: NFL made a tough situation better, among instant takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Cowboys announced their 2026 NFL regular season schedule, and here are our immediate takeaways off of it. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\"Sep
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSep 28, 2025; Arlington, Texas, USA; Dallas Cowboys quarterback Dak Prescott (4) motions to his team during the game between the Dallas Cowboys and the Green Bay Packers at AT&T Stadium.
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJerome Miron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

The Dallas Cowboys\u2019 2026 NFL schedule is finally out, so get ready to make plans! <\/p>\n

Below is the full rundown of the schedule, a recap of primetime games, and my initial takeaways to the 17 games that hopefully culminate in a winning record for America\u2019s Team. <\/p>\n

Full 2026 Cowboys schedule<\/p>\n

*all times Eastern<\/p>\n

Week 1: at New York Giants, Sunday Night Football (Sunday, Sept. 13, 8:20 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Week 2: vs Washington Commanders (Sunday, Sept. 20, 4:25 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Week 3: vs Baltimore Ravens, Rio de Janeiro Game (Sunday, Sept. 27, 4:25 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Week 4: at Houston Texas (Sunday, Oct. 4, noon)<\/p>\n

Week 5: vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Thursday Night Football (Thursday, Oct. 8, 8:15 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Week 6: at Green Bay Packers, Sunday Night Football (Sunday, Oct. 18, 8:20 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Week 7: at Philadelphia Eagles, Monday Night Football (Monday, Oct. 25, 8:15 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Week 8: vs Arizona Cardinals (Sunday, Nov. 1, noon)<\/p>\n

Week 9: at Indianapolis Colts (Sunday, Nov. 8, noon)<\/p>\n

Week 10: vs San Francisco 49ers (Sunday, Nov. 15, 4:25 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Week 11: vs Tennessee Titans (Sunday, Nov. 22, noon)<\/p>\n

Week 12: vs Philadelphia Eagles, Thanksgiving Day (Thursday Nov. 26, 4:30 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Week 13: at Seattle Seahawks, Monday Night Football (Monday, Dec. 7, 8:15 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Week 14: BYE WEEK<\/p>\n

Week 15: at Los Angeles Rams (Sunday, Dec. 20, 4:25 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Week 16: vs Jacksonville Jaguars, Sunday Night Football (Sunday, Dec. 27, 8:20 p.m.)<\/p>\n

Week 17: vs New York Giants (Sunday, Jan. 3, noon)<\/p>\n

Week 18: at Washington Commanders (TBD) <\/p>\n

Primetime showdown recap<\/p>\n

Make that six primetime games for the Cowboys ahead of the 2026 season not including their international game in Brazil and their usual Thanksgiving slot. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a recap of the games you\u2019ll be watching at night: <\/p>\n

Week 1 vs Giants (SNF)<\/p>\n

Week 5 vs Bucs (TNF)<\/p>\n

Week 6 at Packers (SNF) <\/p>\n

Week 7 at Eagles (MNF)<\/p>\n

Week 13 at Seahawks (MNF)<\/p>\n

Week 16 vs Jaguars (SNF)<\/p>\n

Instant takeaways<\/p>\n

We knew going into Thursday that the Cowboys had the fourth-toughest schedule of the 2026 season<\/a>. There\u2019s nothing the NFL nor the Cowboys can do about that. But truth be told, I think it\u2019s spread out pretty evenly. <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think the Cowboys got any favors from the NFL following their international trip with a road game and a short week, but overall I think the tough opponents are well spread out. There are some tough windows, but no stretch of impossible games. <\/p>\n

If I had to pick what was the six-game gauntlet of their season, I\u2019d probably go with the early run made up of: <\/p>\n

Week vs Commanders<\/p>\n

Week 3 vs Ravens (Brazil)<\/p>\n

Week 4 at Houston<\/p>\n

Week 5 vs Bucs (short week)<\/p>\n

Week 6 at Packers<\/p>\n

Week 7 at Eagles<\/p>\n

It looks like we\u2019ll know a lot about the Cowboys before Week 8, as that\u2019s a tough stretch to go through early in the season. <\/p>\n

The Cowboys getting a Week 14 bye in between road matchups to the Seahawks and the Rams feels like a massive win, especially as the former will be preceded by a long week. Those are the teams to beat in the NFC, Dallas should have rest advantages in both. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\"Jul\t\t<\/p>\n

Dallas Cowboys News<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThe George Pickens Paradox: Why him missing Dallas Cowboys workouts matters despite them being voluntary\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

Dallas Cowboys workouts are well underway ahead of OTAs but George Pickens isn\u2019t a part of them, raising more questions about why he chose to sign his franchise tag following the 2026 NFL Draft. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys announced their 2026 NFL regular season schedule, and here are our immediate takeaways off of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[80668,104777,102,113,104,103],"class_list":["post-294190","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-2026-nfl-schedule","tag-2026-nfl-schedule-release","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-cowboys","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}