The Cowboys have done a mountain of work over the offseason to improve the roster, but where does it rank among the NFL's best?
FRISCO - The Dallas Cowboys have gone "all-in" - relatively speaking, anyway - to fix their woeful 2025 defense this offseason, to the point where over 10 new players are set to either start or be rotational players for rookie coordinator Christian Parker.
Meanwhile, the offense? We know what we are going to get from that group. Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, Javonte Williams and Jake Ferguson are the prime movers, and are supplemented by Brevyn Spann-Ford, Ryan Flournoy and potentially KaVonate Turpin, with an offensive line that represents big investments across the board.
So is this level of "all-in'' enough to rank Dallas prominently when it comes to NFL rosters?
That depends on the aforementioned defense - from Parker on down.
Caleb Downs, Kenny Clark, Quinnen Williams, Rashan Gary, DeMarvion Overshown, Dee Winters and Jalen Thompson will be tasked with leading the defense out of the NFL doldrums.
And for the most part, the defense, on paper at least, looks improved ... though maybe that modest goal wasn't too hard to accomplish.
So along comes a familiar exercise, one ESPN has executed.
After an offseason that has seen the winds of change blow through The Star, where does the Cowboys' roster rank on the NFL scene?
ESPN has them at No. 14.
Middle of the pack? We suppose that is about right.
The offense is one of the best in football (top-five, maybe?) and shows no signs of slowing down, but what drags Dallas into the chasing pack is its defense, and the unknown of it all.
We think we have an idea of how Parker will fare in his first coordinator role. We think we know how good Downs, Gary, Thompson and other newcomers will be.
But we don't truly know. We are projecting.
There is no magic statistical formula here, but ...
Maybe the Cowboys' defense just has to be average for this to be a playoff team in coach Brian Schottenheimer's second year in the big silver-and-blue chair.
The offense can do the heavy-lifting, while the defense just has to be competent.
Having the 14th-ranked roster in football is nothing to sneeze at, and all things considered, it's a fairly respectful guess from the folks in Bristol.
Coming up: Being better than middle-of-the-pack, the task assigned the 'Boys in Frisco.
