The Dallas Cowboys are coming off a 34-13 preseason win over the Arizona Cardinals, and now the conversation has shifted to what this roster might look like when the real games begin. With Week 1 against the New York Giants set for Sept. 13, Brian Schottenheimer isn’t hiding how he feels about the group he has in front of him.
On Monday, the Cowboys head coach made his strongest comment yet about the team’s makeup, saying the current roster stacks up better than last year’s version. Schottenheimer pointed directly to the overall quality and the number of players available, calling the depth and talent “higher.”
“If you take our roster from last year and you lay it down next to our roster from this year, there’s no question that the depth and the overall talent is higher,” Schottenheimer said, according to Jon Machota of The Athletic. “This is a good football team.
We got a lot of confidence. We just got to make the right decisions as we get to cut-down day, which we will.”
That confidence starts with the names at the top. Dak Prescott leads the offense, while CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens give Dallas a dangerous receiver pairing. On defense, the Cowboys have Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark among the impact players expected to help raise the level of that unit after a frustrating season.
Dallas is trying to move forward from a 7-9 finish that left it second in the NFC East. For Schottenheimer, the message is clear: the roster feels stronger, and the Cowboys believe they have the pieces to make noise in 2026.
In Other News...
Eagles Rookie Is Giving Cowboys Fans A Reason To Laugh
Training camp has already given Cowboys fans one small comfort in Philadelphia, and it comes courtesy of a rookie tight end who was supposed to help stabilize the Eagles passing game. Eli Stowers, a second-round pick in the 2026 NFL Draft, has instead spent much of camp and the preseason fighting to find his footing, with his blocking and receiving both drawing scrutiny as the Eagles try to sort through a depth chart battered by injuries at receiver.
For Dallas, the details are almost beside the point. Any time a division rival invests premium draft capital and then sees the early returns wobble, it invites the kind of unflattering comparisons that stick around, and Stowers has already been mentioned in the same breath as JJ Arcega-Whiteside, another second-round Eagles pick who never lived up to the billing. The bigger issue for Philadelphia is immediate pressure, because the injuries around him leave the rookie with even less margin for error as the season approaches. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Suddenly Have A Real Roster Decision At Two Key Spots
The Cowboys got a useful look at a few roster battles in their second preseason game, and it did more than just fill out the exhibition calendar. Joe Milton kept building his case to be the backup quarterback, while wide receivers Camden Brown and Jonathan Mingo both put themselves in the conversation for final roster spots. With cutdowns approaching, Dallas is watching not just who plays well, but who keeps stacking productive snaps when the competition gets tighter.
Snap counts are becoming part of the conversation too, which is usually a sign the decisions are getting real. The Cowboys are sorting through a deeper receiving mix and weighing how much value each player brings beyond one good night in August, and they are also open to exploring trades if that helps shape the 53-man roster. For a team trying to balance upside, depth and certainty, the next few evaluations may matter as much as anything that happened in the preseason opener. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Suddenly Face A Tough QB Roster Decision
Dak Prescott is locked in as the Cowboys starter, but the competition behind him has become one of the more interesting roster questions in camp. Sam Howell and Joe Milton III have both put together strong preseason stretches, enough to make Dallas at least consider carrying all three quarterbacks on the 53-man roster even though teams usually prefer to keep just two.
Todd Archer of ESPN projects that possibility, and it speaks to how much the backup battle has shifted from a routine depth issue to a real decision point. The Cowboys still have not settled the spot behind Prescott, and with the preseason winding down, the outcome is less about naming a favorite and more about deciding whether either Howell or Milton has done enough to force an extra quarterback onto the roster. [Read more 🡒]