The first five weeks haven’t looked anything like the preseason picture people had in mind for the Dallas Cowboys, but that hasn’t shaken everyone’s confidence. With 10 days of rest and a road trip to Green Bay coming up on Sunday Night Football, Dallas has a chance to wipe away the sour taste of last week’s embarrassing loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
One of the more notable believers is NFL insider Ian Rapoport, who spent time on The Rich Eisen Show making the case that the Cowboys still have real upside. He didn’t pretend the start has been clean, but he did say he still sees a team that can be “really good” once things start clicking.
“Maybe I’m crazy. … I still think the cowboys can be really good.” @RapSheet shares his thoughts on the Cowboys on the @RichEisenShow 👀 pic.twitter.com/eDv2wo7SUs
Rapoport pointed to the defensive setup as the key reason he’s not ready to write Dallas off. He said the Cowboys “hired Mike Pettine” and compared the situation to the Ravens bringing along a young defensive coordinator with extra help from a more experienced voice. In his view, it’s the kind of arrangement that can pay off once everyone settles in.
The full quote laid out that thinking in detail: "They hired Mike Pettine. And this reminded me of when the Ravens had a young defensive coordinator named Zach Orr, who they really liked, and they kept bringing in Dean Pease to help," Rapoport recalled.
"This, to me, has the same vibes. Like, I think the defensive coordinator is good.
I think he's talented. I think he's going to be a good coach.
Sometimes experience helps. Sometimes having someone come in and go, great thought, but it actually has to be this way.
Sometimes that helps. And I think it was a good move.
"People talk about the Cowboys all the time. They do what they believe is necessary to win all the time, and they try to keep improving.
The Joey Porter Jr. trade is going to be a really good one. He didn't play last week.
That makes it hard to evaluate the defense. Bringing in Mike Pettine on the fly.
Good move. Maybe I'm crazy.
It's possible I'm crazy. But I still think the Cowboys are going to be really good.
You can clip this off in like January."
Dallas still hasn’t had a fully healthy defense this season, and that’s a big reason the unit hasn’t shown what it can be yet. Once the projected starters are all on the field, the Cowboys will have a better chance to show whether this early stretch was just growing pains or something more.
For a fan base that has spent years waiting on better defense, there’s at least some comfort in hearing that kind of backing from someone as plugged in as Rapoport.
In Other News...
Cowboys Already Have One Ugly Debate At 2-3
The Cowboys 2-3 start has already pushed the conversation past disappointment and into blame, which is never a comfortable place for a team this early in the season. Around Dallas, the usual list of culprits is starting to take shape, with owner and general manager Jerry Jones, head coach Brian Schottenheimer, defensive coordinator Christian Parker, player execution and injuries all landing under the microscope as fans try to make sense of what has gone wrong.
A fan survey is now feeding into that larger debate, asking whether the Cowboys are headed in the right direction. It fits the mood of a season that has moved quickly from expectation to unease, and it says plenty about how thin the margin has become when a team with this much attention is already trying to answer questions about its direction instead of its ceiling. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys May Have One Fix For Problems On Both Sides
The Cowboys early-season frustrations on both sides of the ball have pushed the conversation back to an old football truth: when the ground game works, a lot of other problems get easier to manage. Dallas has been trying to find more balance on offense while also looking for ways to help a defense that has been pressed too often, and the rushing attack has become a clear area to clean up. It has been a quiet slide so far, with the unit sitting near the bottom of the league and Javonte Williams not producing the kind of rushing yards Dallas needs from him.
A stronger commitment to the run could give the Cowboys longer drives, better field position and some relief for a defense that would benefit from a little less time on the field. That makes the upcoming game against the Green Bay Packers a useful measuring stick, because the path to fixing one side of the ball may run directly through the other. If Dallas can get the rushing game moving, it might not solve everything, but it would at least give the team a more stable place to start. [Read more 🡒]
Why Chad Hennings Made Cowboys No 96 Mean So Much More
For the Cowboys, No. 96 will always carry a little extra weight because of Chad Hennings, the defensive tackle whose path to Dallas was anything but ordinary. Before becoming a fixture on the line and a respected locker room presence for nearly a decade, Hennings served as a pilot in the U.S. Air Force and arrived in the NFL already well into his 20s, bringing a level of discipline and perspective that fit neatly with a franchise built on toughness and expectation.
What made Hennings so memorable was not just the football resume, though three Super Bowl rings make that case pretty quickly. It was the combination of his military background, his late start in pro football and the way he became a steady defensive force once he finally settled in with Dallas. Among all the players who wore 96, Hennings stood out because his story gave the number a meaning that went well beyond production on Sundays. [Read more 🡒]