The Dallas Cowboys are always talked about like a championship-caliber team, but for more than 30 years now they have not played like one. Can this be the year the Cowboys get back to the Super Bowl for the first time since 1995? We checked in with RJ Ochoa of Blogging the Boys on the Cowboys\u2019 offseason.<\/p>\n
The full episode is in the player above. Some of the highlights of our discussion are below.<\/p>\n
Cowboys\u2019 best offseason move? Hiring DC Christian Parker<\/p>\n
Dallas\u2019s defense was last in the NFL in 2025, allowing 30.1 points per game. That followed a 2024 season in which Dallas was 31st on defense, giving up 27.5 points per game. The Cowboys fired coordinator Matt Eberflus and hired Christian Parker. A 34-year-old first-time coordinator, Parker spent the last two seasons as defensive backs coach and pass game coordinator for the Philadelphia Eagles.<\/p>\n
Worst thing that happened this offseason?<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had so many issues, so many things to fix, and that\u2019s why they were sort of aggressive in free agency. That\u2019s why they were aggressive in the NFL draft. Obviously they moved up one spot for Caleb [Downs]. That being said, when you have to replace almost an entire defense, there\u2019s a finite number of resources, and so you kind of have to pick and choose. And I would say that they left linebacker a little shy \u2026 I would offer similarly at corner \u2026 they\u2019ve left themselves shy there, and they\u2019re paying that price, like I said, for just being so indifferent, for being so toxic the last two years that they just had too many holes to fill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Are the Giants a real challenger to the Eagles in the NFC East?<\/a>LB Tremaine Edmunds \u2018could really be beneficial\u2019 to Giants\u2019 defense<\/a><\/p>\n Caleb Downs \u2018as advertised\u2019<\/p>\n The Giants passed twice in the 2026 NFL Draft on the Ohio State safety, selecting Arvell Reese and Francis Mauigoa at Nos. 5 and 10. The Cowboys then moved up to No. 11 to select Downs.<\/p>\n \u201cTo steal a line from Christian Parker from minicamp this week, he has been as advertised. He is a perfect prospect, Ochoa said. \u201dTo me, he has all of the same sort of qualities that Zeke Elliott and Micah Parsons had for the Cowboys. And I bring them up because they were franchise changers. They really just kind of were catalysts for runs that the Cowboys had obviously across their rookie contracts.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd so Caleb Downs is that, but he seems more polished. He seems less willing to absorb the Cowboys of it all. He\u2019s well accustomed to the stage, obviously having played at Alabama and at Ohio State, having won a national championship. He\u2019s maybe the smartest player in their building, the most naturally instinctive from a football perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n Why can this year be different for Dallas?<\/p>\n The Cowboys have not been to a Conference Championship Game since winning the Super Bowl in 1995. Perennially, they seem to underachieve expectations. Can the 2026 season be different?<\/p>\n \u201dThis offseason has been different \u2026 There has been no point of drama. There\u2019s been no attention seeking. And so, that\u2019s why there is some optimism here,\u201d Ochoa said. \u201cI think the Cowboys are in a position to probably win the NFC East. I\u2019m going to pick them to win the division. I think the Giants are on the rise, maybe not there yet. The Commanders kind of on the fall. The Eagles have earned the benefit of the doubt, but they can combust at any moment as we well know.\u201d<\/p>\n The Giants\u2019 hiring of John Harbaugh<\/p>\n \u201cI was very upset when the Giants hired John Harbaugh. I mean, I wasn\u2019t like morose, but it was not ideal. There\u2019s a lot that has to be proven, but I\u2019m still not afraid of the Giants, but it is by far the most alert I have been of the Giants. I don\u2019t mean to be disrespectful, but I never really feared Tom Coughlin. You know what I mean? It\u2019s, I would say the first time in like 20 years that I have been awake at the wheel regarding the Giants.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Cowboys are always talked about like a championship-caliber team, but for more than 30 years now…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":344081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,104,103,48592,122785],"class_list":["post-344080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-new-york-giants-discussion","tag-new-york-giants-podcasts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344080","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=344080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/344081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}