One month into the 2026 season, the Dallas Cowboys have already shown both sides of what this team can be. They’re 2-2 heading into Week 5 and Thursday Night Football against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and the first four games have delivered a clean split of bright spots and trouble.
The offense, at least, has given Dallas plenty to feel good about. Tyler Guyton was one of the biggest question marks coming in, with concerns at left tackle hanging over him before the season even kicked off.
Four games later, he’s quieted plenty of doubters, and his latest performance against Danielle Hunter and Will Anderson Jr. stood out even more. After handling the Houston Texans’ pass-rush duo, Guyton has started to look like a real breakout piece for Dallas.
Dak Prescott has been rolling right along with him. Even the harshest critics would have a hard time picking apart what he’s done lately.
He followed a strong comeback effort against Baltimore with another big outing last weekend, and while that Ravens rally didn’t end in a win, Prescott wasn’t the reason Dallas lost. Through four games, he has thrown for 1,065 yards, eight touchdowns and only one interception.
CeeDee Lamb has been just as dangerous, if not more. He’s playing with the kind of confidence defenses can’t seem to shake, and the numbers back it up: 498 yards, four touchdowns and 37 catches.
His Week 4 explosion against Houston was the loudest statement yet, as he piled up 189 yards and a touchdown on 17 receptions. Everyone knows where the ball is going, and Lamb is still winning.
On the other side of the ledger, Von Miller’s first month has been a quiet one. He said the Cowboys didn’t pay him for sacks, and that line has held up through four games.
Miller has two tackles and no sacks so far. The veteran presence may matter behind the scenes, but on the field, the production simply hasn’t shown up.
Jake Ferguson has also had an uneven start. The touchdown totals look nice - he has three - but the rest of the stat line is harder to sell.
Ferguson has only 12 catches, is averaging a career-low 6.9 yards per reception, and had a costly fumble in Week 3 against Baltimore. His in-line blocking is drawing questions too, and Brevyn Spann-Ford is starting to get more attention as a possible answer because of his blocking and red-zone size.
Jaishawn Barham has gone from a shaky Week 1 to one of the more encouraging developments on the roster. His debut wasn’t clean, and he even went viral for an exchange with defensive coordinator Christian Parker on the sideline.
But when DeMarvion Overshown got hurt, Barham was pushed into more action and responded. He now has 21 tackles and four tackles for loss, and PFF ranks him 22nd among linebackers.
Dee Winters, though, has not made the same kind of leap. Brought in as a draft-day trade, he was supposed to stabilize the middle of the defense.
Instead, his 42.5 PFF grade ranks 72nd out of 74 linebackers, and there are already calls for him to lose his spot when Overshown returns. Fans are pushing for an Overshown-Barham pairing.
The concerns extend to DaRon Bland as well. Jerry Jones said he isn’t too worried about him, but the numbers from Week 4 tell a rougher story.
Bland gave up 104 yards and a touchdown on seven targets in that game alone, and his overall PFF grade sits at 55.5, which ranks 72nd out of 103 qualifying defensive backs. After signing a four-year, $92 million extension in 2025 to be the CB1 of the future, Bland now finds himself in a tougher spot after Dallas traded for Joey Porter Jr. one year later.
Jones may frame that move as help for Bland, but it could also be a sign of where things are headed.
In Other News...
Cowboys Pass Rush Problems Could Revive A Reunion Fans Never Expected
Four games into the 2026 season, the Cowboys pass rush has not produced the kind of pressure this defense needs, with just four sacks so far. That kind of slow start tends to get teams looking for outside help, and Bleacher Reports Kristopher Knox has already floated a familiar name as a possible fix: Jadeveon Clowney, now with the Texans, who are also sitting at 0-4.
The idea is not exactly new in Dallas, since the Cowboys have shown interest in Clowney before, but the fit is where the conversation gets tricky. Under Christian Parker, the defense has its own structure and demands, and there are real questions about how well Clowney would slot into it if the Cowboys decided to explore a trade market that suddenly feels more urgent than expected. [Read more 🡒]
Jerry Jones Just Put Pressure On Two New Cowboys To Deliver
The Cowboys latest additions from Pittsburgh arrive with the kind of built-in urgency that follows any move for young, talented players on rookie deals. Jerry Jones made clear the club is not treating contract talks as the immediate priority, which puts the spotlight squarely on George Pickens and Joey Porter Jr. to show they can help right away. Pickens has 225 yards and no touchdowns this season, while Porter is just getting started in Dallas after missing time because of injury.
For a team that has spent plenty of time talking about expectations, the message is simple enough: production comes first, and everything else comes later. Jones suggested any future negotiations will be shaped by how both players perform and how the team fares, so these early weeks matter. Pickens has to turn volume into impact, and Porter has to build on a delayed debut, because the Cowboys are making it clear that both newcomers will have to earn their next conversation. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Stole This Rivalry Win In A Way Texans Fans Will Hate
The Cowboys walked out of NRG Stadium with a 34-30 rivalry win over the Texans, and it came with the kind of late-game finish that tends to linger in this series. Dak Prescott found CeeDee Lamb for the touchdown that sealed it, a sequence that let Dallas leave Houston with bragging rights after a tight night in front of a split crowd feel.
Even before the final score settled in, the game had already drawn attention for a different reason when Instagram influencer Ene, better known as @truly.ene, went viral for her custom Houston Texans outfit. The look added another layer to a matchup that already had plenty of edge, and it turned the night into one of those crossover sports moments where the football result and the scene around it both got people talking. [Read more 🡒]