There was enough offensively in 2025 to suggest that the Cowboys in 2026 will be around the mark, but that alone isn't enough.
The Dallas Cowboys' 2025 season, for me, left one overriding thought as Brian Schottenheimer's team missed the playoffs with a 7-9-1 record.
And that thought was "what-if."
What if Micah Parsons wasn't traded a week before the season? Would Dallas' horrible defense be as bad?
What if the defense was just league-average? Would the Cowboys have won more games and be playoff bound?
I think we know the answer to that.
With the offense being one of the better units in football, in a sense, it was wasted by the defense.
The Cowboys scored 37 points in Week 2 against the New York Giants, yet needed overtime to win.
Dak Prescott played one of his best games against the Green Bay Packers, hanging 37 points in four quarters, yet Dallas was forced to settle for a tie.
Week 6 in Carolina, after a field goal got the Cowboys to 27-27 late in the fourth, yes, Dak and Co, then punted with a chance to win the game.
But the defense allowed the Panthers to eat all 6:07 off the clock to set up a game-winning field goal.
What if the defense got that one stop?
Now to the offensive what-ifs.
What if those second-half fade-outs didn't happen?
Just 10 points scored against the 3-5 Arizona Cardinals.
Then, in the last month of the season, the offense seemed allergic to the end zone.
Brian Schottenheimer's offense only scored one second-half touchdown, and that was Joe Milton against the New York Giants in Week 18.
Prescott and Co. failed against the Los Angeles Chargers, Minnesota Vikings, and the Washington Commanders, going 1-2 in that span.
What if.
There is no denying that this offense, for most of the season, was a top unit in the NFL, even with the second-half struggles.
They scored 17 points against the Chargers and Vikings, while managing 24 against Washington. But the second halves of those games were a serious struggle.
So if the Cowboys had an average defense, or the offense managed to maintain the rage for the entire season, maybe things would have ended a little differently for Schottenheimer in his first year as head coach.
Is there a sense of missed opportunity? Possibly. Even if Dallas had made the playoffs, I'm not sure how far it would have gone.
Still, the hard thing is knowing that offensively, this team is capable of making the playoffs, but defensively, they didn't deserve to be anywhere near the tournament.
Truth is, the "what-ifs'' from 2025 threaten to carry over.
Here's to finding a happy medium in 2026.