Cowboys' season looks bleak but schedule offers some hope - ESPN

FRISCO, Texas — Quarterback Dak Prescott has been around long enough to know the general feeling around the Dallas Cowboys at the moment.

No one inside the organization — ownership, personnel, coaches and players — expected the team would be 2-4 after six games when they left Oxnard, California, at the end of training camp. They didn't expect the defense to be as porous as last year's, and certainly none of them expected the offense that returned nearly everybody from 2025 to be as inconsistent as it has been through six games.

«When your guys believe, you've got a chance,» Prescott said following Sunday's 23-13 loss to the Green Bay Packers. «And we know right now that we're probably the only ones, the guys in the locker room are the only ones who do believe.»

The rough start has led to the typical reactionary takes from fans: owner and general manager Jerry Jones needs to hire a real general manager; coach Brian Schottenheimer is over his head; the effort is lacking. The fans could be put off by the 31-year Super Bowl drought, or it could be recent failures.

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The Cowboys had three straight 12-5 finishes from 2021 to 2023 but that seems a long time ago. It is as if the organization has not recovered from the 48-32 loss to the Packers in the wild-card round of the 2023 playoffs when a team that went undefeated at AT&T Stadium in the regular season was bludgeoned at home in the postseason.

Since then, the Cowboys are 16-23-1. While a good amount of the roster has been changed over — only seven starters remain — the success has