The Dallas Cowboys had a mediocre campaign last year, finishing 7-10 during the 2024 regular season, followed by another underwhelming offseason in 2025. They did swing a trade for the mercurial but supremely gifted wideout George Pickens, but other than that, there’s not much to write home about. Their list of opponents for 2025 isn’t doing them any favors either.
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So, what are their 2025 adversaries? The Cowboys will obviously play their NFC East opponents twice each, which will be tough considering two of them were in the NFC Championship last year — the Eagles and the Commanders.
They will also play the AFC West and NFC North, which means they will play three of the four best divisions in football. If that wasn’t already tough enough, the schedule itself exacerbated the difficulty.
The NFL released the full schedule for all 32 teams on Wednesday, and America’s Team got a real shock. Not only will they face tough opponents, but they’ll also have a wonky schedule: for the first time in NFL history, a team will play four games on Thursday.
And of course, that team is the biggest club in the sport, the Cowboys. FS1 analyst James Jones believes that this stop-and-start schedule will keep Dallas from reaching the postseason.
“It’s hard for me to see the Cowboys bouncing back and really getting back into the playoffs. Unless the quarterback plays at an MVP level, because that’s what it’s gonna take. And another thing, I’m noticing on that schedule is they’ve got four Thursday games. That’s the most ever by a team,” Jones said on an episode of The Facility.
If they do fall short of the playoffs, it would be just the second time since 2013 that they’ve missed out on the dance in back-to-back years.
While we all know the Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Commanders are going to be good, Jones also believes the Giants will be better than Dallas, too. That theoretically gives the Cowboys two more tough games to contend with.
“Even on top of all the good teams that they’re playing, you’re going to have to stay healthy, it’s going to be tough to get through this schedule with all these Thursday games. I’m gonna say no man, I think the Cowboys miss the playoffs again with this schedule. … I am not confident looking at this schedule with four Thursday games, these opponents, because I am really high on the Giants.”
.@89JonesNTAF is not confident in the Cowboys making the playoffs this season 👀 pic.twitter.com/GOIvaRrnzo
— The Facility (@TheFacilityFS1) May 15, 2025
Dallas’ four Thursday games are truly unprecedented. Only seven other times in NFL history has a team even had three in the same year. Though it is worth noting that four of those have occurred in the last six seasons: in 2019 and for three years straight from 2021-2023.
Dallas starts off with four tough games at Philly, home to the Giants, at Chicago, and at home to the Packers. After a short midseason respite, they have four Thursday or Monday night games in five weeks from Weeks 9-14. They then finish with back-to-back road division games against the Commanders and Giants. Not ideal.
