This season has gone from bad to worse for the Dallas Cowboys. There is some light at the end of the tunnel, even if Cowboy fans refuse to see it. With their latest loss to Atlanta dropping them to 3-5, the Cowboys making the playoffs seems like an impossible feat now. But if you look at the Cowboy’s season with a glass-half-full approach, the Cowboys are one loss away from being tied for the No. 1 draft pick in 2025. They need to embrace the tank full-heartedly and lose out so they can secure the No. 1 overall pick and secure the future face of their franchise, Shedeur Sanders.
On Sunday, Nov. 3, the Cowboys season was on the line against the Atlanta Falcons. They sure didn’t play like it. After putting up the first points on the board, the Falcons responded quickly with two touchdowns of their own, and they never looked back. To add insult to injury, no pun intended, the Cowboys lost both Dak Prescott and CeeDee Lamb to injury before the game was over. It is officially panic time in Dallas.
Or is it? The injuries might be a saving grace for the Cowboys. With Prescott and Lamb going down to injuries, Dallas’ top three players are all out due to injuries. Micah Parsons hasn’t played football in a month, and from the looks of it, he won’t be coming back anytime soon, either. Yesterday, Nov. 4, the Cowboys announced that Prescott will be out with a hamstring injury for the ‘foreseeable’ future, which means the Cowboys will be starting Cooper Rush. Cooper Rush is a serviceable backup, but if that’s who the Cowboys choose to trot out for the rest of the season, it will get ugly and quick.
The Cowboys need to embrace the ugliness of a wasted season, and truthfully speaking, they should’ve embraced it before the season began. They would be in the exact same situation as they are now, except they wouldn’t be tied to Prescott’s mediocrity for the next four seasons, and Jerry Jones would be $240M richer. They might not be able to get the money back, but they do not have to handicap themselves with Prescott as their quarterback.
As stated earlier, the Cowboys are one loss away from being tied for the No. 1 overall pick. Next week, they face a Philadelphia Eagles squad that is on a four-game win streak. Let’s not pretend; we all know there will be another loss without Prescott, Parsons, or Lamb playing. Hypothetically speaking, that loss next week should have them tied for the worst record in the league. Being tied won’t get them Shedeur, though; the next step will take some trickery.
The Cowboys are entering the toughest stretch of their season over the next three weeks with games against the Eagles, Commanders, and Texans, and they should all be losses. They will then play in a “battle of the least’s,” as they will take on the New York Giants, the only team in their division that they are above and the team most likely set to get the No. 1 pick. They must lose to the Giants on Thanksgiving.
After losing to the Giants, they will be slated to get the No. 1 pick or at least tied with the Giants for it. Lucky for the Cowboys, two weeks later, they play the Carolina Panthers, another team currently in the lead for the No. 1 pick. They must lose that game. Giving wins to the Giants and Panthers will automatically raise both teams above the Cowboys in the win column, nearly cementing them as the worst team in the league. All they would have to do is lose those final two games, and no matter what happens, the No. 1 pick and Shedeur Sanders will belong to the Cowboys.
Yes, this sounds like an awful reality for Cowboys fans. But let me ask you, would you rather sacrifice one season for 15 good ones? or would you be interested in seeing Dak throw interceptions for another five?
The choice seems clear to me.
