Michael Irvin thinks the Cowboys are headed for a big year, and he’s not being subtle about it.
Appearing on "The Rich Eisen Show," Irvin walked through Dallas’ 2026 schedule game by game and landed on a 13-4 finish for the Cowboys, who open the season on Sunday, Sept. 13. He called for wins over the New York Giants in Week 1, the Washington Commanders twice, the Baltimore Ravens, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Green Bay Packers, Arizona Cardinals, Indianapolis Colts, San Francisco 49ers, Tennessee Titans, Los Angeles Rams, Jacksonville Jaguars and Commanders again in the finale.
The losses in his projection come at Houston in Week 4, at Philadelphia in Week 7, at Seattle in Week 13 and at New York again in Week 17.
Irvin said the Giants’ late-season win comes because he expects New York to look much different by then.
"That New York team will be vastly different than the one (Dallas) played in the beginning of the year," Irvin said. "By the end of the year, that (John) Harbaugh stuff will have taken root and they got the talent and they got the mentality in New York, so by the end of the year, that's going to be a whole different team."
He also explained why he has Dallas finishing by beating Washington in Week 18. In his view, it depends on whether the Cowboys actually need the game, though Rich Eisen’s own prediction influenced the pick.
At 12-4, Dallas might not need that finale, but Irvin still gave the Cowboys the win and the season sweep.
"I didn't just just throw wins in there, I gave you how this thing would play out and you gonna know," Irvin said.
Irvin didn’t make a playoff prediction, but he did point to Week 13 in Seattle as the kind of game that could have people talking like it might be an NFC Championship Game preview. He said Dallas would be 10-2 heading into that trip, but with the bye week following, he believes the Cowboys would get caught looking ahead.
"In Seattle and everybody's going to be talking about, 'Is this the NFC Championship Game matchup,'" Irvin said. "And here's going to be the problem right here: Everything's going good, but they got a bye week after this and this is what Jimmy Johnson always worried about.
You start thinking about the bye week before it's time to go goodbye. And Dallas loses it."
The schedule isn’t doing Dallas any favors. Warren Sharp of Sharp Football Analysis has the Cowboys with the fifth-toughest schedule in the NFL based on projected win totals from Vegas oddsmakers.
That’s why a 13-win season would be a serious statement. To get there, Dallas would likely need its defense to finish in the top 10 and its offense to play at an elite level.
A more grounded path, according to the outlook in the source, would be a defense that rises to around league average and an offense that finishes top five. If that happens, a 10- or 11-win season would be enough to put the Cowboys back in the playoffs.
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Bland and Ferguson are the names that matter here beyond the bookkeeping, because the restructures also raised their dead cap hits and made an easy escape far less likely. In other words, Dallas has tied a little more of its future to both players while leaving itself with enough maneuvering room to chase a major addition if the right opportunity comes along, including a big-money defensive splash that would fit the kind of move this team has been eyeing. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Just Added A Risky New Twist To Their Tackle Battle
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What makes the move so interesting is that Jones has often looked more comfortable on the left side, even as the Cowboys are asking him to compete on the right. His technique and consistency have been part of the concern, and he is still working back strength after missing time, which makes his path to a starting job less straightforward than it might appear. For Dallas, it is another swing at finding the right answer at tackle, but it comes with the kind of risk that can reshape the whole competition. [Read more 🡒]
Cowboys Still Have One Roster Problem Jerry Jones Can't Ignore
With injuries and roster churn still shaping the back end of camp, the Cowboys are doing what every contending team does this time of year: scanning the league for useful pieces before the regular season locks the roster in place. The practice squad market has become part of that search, and Jabbar Muhammad stands out as one of the more intriguing names because Dallas can still use help at cornerback. The current depth chart has enough questions to keep the front office honest, especially with the team continuing to weigh how much stability it really has behind its top options.
It is also the kind of position where one move can quietly matter more than the splashier headlines around the team. Trade chatter has already followed Dallas in other areas, from the Maxx Crosby buzz to the ripple effects of the George Pickens deal and the Cowboys' own quarterback roster activity, but the cornerback conversation keeps circling back to need. For Jerry Jones, the unresolved issue is not whether there are interesting options out there. It is whether one of them is worth acting on before someone else does. [Read more 🡒]