Sometimes we don’t want to hear the hard truths. Stuff like our kids turned out to be bad people or our wives don’t love us.
Or, even worse, the NFL team we root for has zero chance at winning the Super Bowl this season.
That’s the message ESPN’s Kevin Clark sent to Dallas Cowboys fans during an appearance on “First Take” on August 1.
“The Cowboys are the third best team in their division and that’s only if things go right,” Clark said. “The Cowboys are not competing for anything this year. They’re just trying to keep their heads above water.”
That’s a brutal, dismissive take … but is it wrong?
Vegas Oddsmakers Don’t Think Much of Cowboys
The people who know the most about football — Vegas oddsmakers — seem to agree with Clark.
BetMGM has the Cowboys over/under win total set at 7.5 wins in 2025, while Bally Sports has it at 8.5 wins, according to Vegas Insider. This is where we point out the Cowboys not only have a first year, first time head coach in Brian Schottenheimer but are also coming off an 8-9 season in which their starting quarterback, Dak Prescott, missed 9 games due a hamstring injury.
Consider the NFC East now includes the 2 teams in last season’s NFC Championship Game with the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders, and it’s looking pretty grim for the Cowboys in 2025.
The Ringer’s Bill Simmons laid out a scenario in which the Cowboys actually finish dead last in the NFC East in 2025 — and it doesn’t seem entirely far fetched.
“So you’re just going into a season knowing (the Cowboys) are number three, and maybe even worse if the Giants are a little bit better right away than people think,” Simmons said on the May 29 episode of “The Bill Simmons Podcast” in a conversation with Sports Illustrated’s Albert Breer. “So I do not feel good if I’m in Dallas.”
Everything Starts and Ends With Prescott
The biggest storyline of the offseason for the Cowboys has been the messy contract negotiations between team owner Jerry Jones and NFL All-Pro edge rusher Micah Parsons, who remains unsigned as of August 1.
All that’s done is create cover for what should have been the biggest storyline, which is Prescott’s return from his second season-ending injury in 5 seasons — he missed 12 games in 2020 after suffering a gruesome lower leg injury.
For the highest paid player in NFL history — Prescott signed a 4-year, $240 million contract before the 2024 season. Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio put Prescott firmly on the hot seat headed into 2025.
” … His $60 million per year contract would wreak havoc on the salary cap if the Cowboys were to cut or trade him (yes, he has a no-trade clause, but he can waive it) in 2026,” Florio wrote on July 5. “The complication for the Cowboys is that his $45 million salary for 2027 becomes fully guaranteed on the fifth day of the 2026 league year. They’re basically stuck — all because they waited too long to give him his second contract, and then waited too long to give him his third contract.”
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