What Dallas Cowboys coach Brian Schottenheimer put together let know put asunder.
And when he stated in May that hope and expectations were the same thing in regards to receiver George Pickens showing up for training camp, it informally became the calling card for the Cowboys in 2026.
They expect to make the playoffs. They hope to get to the Super Bowl for the first time since the 1995 season.
After 31 years of coming not only coming up empty but not evening threatening to dance with trophy with just five playoffs win in the interim and no trips to the NFC championship game, it’s all the same for a prideful franchise with five Super Bowl titles in history to go along with eight total appearances and a fanbase starving for past glory.
There is a new generation of Cowboys who grew up never tasting the sweet nectar of even a bite of success.
Just making playoffs won’t come close to satisfying anyone’s thirst, not the players nor the fans and certainly not owner Jerry Jones.
So what that the Cowboys have missed the playoffs in each of the last two seasons with losing records _ 7-10 in 2024 in Mike McCarthy’s final lame duck season and 7-9-1 in Schottenheimer’s first year in 2025 _ there is only one goal, one hope, one expectation in Dallas.
The Cowboys aren’t the Chicago Cubs
There is no place here for loveable losers.
And considering their payroll with highest-paid quarterback in NFL history in Dak Prescott, popularity as America’s Team, status as the richest franchise in all of sports and outspoken owner in Jerry Jones, no one cares about their up-from-roaches story or individual journeys.
In the immortal words for legendary Las Vegas Raiders owner Al Davis, who was Jones’ NFL mentor before he passed away: “Just win baby!”
So what the Cowboys defense finished at the bottom of the league last year and is counting on a neophyte in first-time defensive coordinator Christian Parker, age 34, to be a miracle worker.
It’s the Cowboys themselves who have labeled Parker a rising star.
No honeymoon.
No excuses.
So what that Prescott has just two playoff wins in 10 seasons quarterback and has never advanced past the divisional round.
That didn’t stop Seattle Seahawks quarterback Sam Darnold, a former first-round bust of the New York Jets and on his fifth team, from taking a playoff-less, losing franchise in the previous season to a Super Bowl title in his first season as the signal caller.
Unlike Darnold, Prescott is in the prime of his career and ranks as one of the league’s best quarterbacks, despite his lack of postseason success.
He leads an offense that is explosive as any in the NFL with the league’s highest-paid receiver tandem in CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens.
The Cowboys don’t have to be Doomsday on defense. They just have to be appreciably better than No. 32 from a year ago.
With Parker and host of defensive additions, led by first-round pick safety Caleb Downs, there is hope and expectations that they will be able to stop somebody.
The playoffs should be a given. It’s the bare minimum in 2026 for Prescott.
“You miss it two years, yeah, it sucks definitely, but we’re pushing, and that’s our goal,” Prescott said. “That’s a minimum. When you have a team like this, and they’ve done everything they have in the offseason, we’ve got to push and get better on offense, but when we know we’re already improving on defense, yeah, that’s the minimum.”
The hope and expectations are much more.
As Schottenheimer said, they are one and the same.
They are Super. As always.
