The 2025 NFC East was a one-team division. The Philadelphia Eagles went 11-6 and won the division, and everyone else was just part of the scenery. The Washington Commanders, projected by most analysts to push for double-digit wins, collapsed to 5-12, losing eight straight at one point. The New York Giants went 4-13 with a quarterback carousel. Meanwhile, the Dallas Cowboys went 7-9-1 with one of the best offenses and a defense that turned every fourth quarter into a hostage situation. Inside The Star’s Richard Paolinelli dropped the coldest verdict in January, and that has stuck with me ever since.

“Aside from the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFC East had a dismal 2025 season,” Paolinelli wrote. “If not for the NFC South, the division would be the worst in the NFL.”

The Cowboys’ version of this is the most frustrating kind of bad season; the kind where the problem is obvious, fixable, and nobody fixes it. Dallas’ offense ranked second in the league in total yards per game at 391.9 (behind only the Los Angeles Rams) and averaged 5.9 yards per play (4th in the league). Dak Prescott was clean, sharp, and did exactly what a franchise quarterback should do.

But the defense allowed 30.1 points per game, a franchise record no one in the building ever asked for. Head Coach Brian Schottenheimer called the season “frustrating.” When they got knocked out of the playoff race, Prescott said Dallas “won’t be in this spot in 2026.” Nobody argued. They just pointed at the organization and nodded.

Most of us have been here before. The case I am making now isn’t built on faith. It is built on what happened this offseason in Dallas compared to what happened everywhere else in this division.

Four Teams, Four Plans, One Division at Stake

Every team in the NFC East came into this Spring with a real structural problem. The interesting thing is how differently each of them dealt with it, or didn’t.

Washington Commanders

Quarterback Jayden Daniels played in seven games last season, finishing with a 60.6 completion rate and an 88.1 QBR before the season collapsed. In free agency, Washington mostly added veteran depth on defense and gave Daniels a few pieces for the offense. DE Odafe Oweh, LB Leo Chenal, DT Tim Settle Jr., RB Rachaad White, and TE Chig Okonkwo were some of their biggest free agency additions. 

ESPN’s draft needs breakdown still has Washington looking for a wide receiver, a cornerback, and a center, which means Daniels’ immediate support system is still unfinished, and the defensive additions in free agency did not close the coverage gaps either. The additions help the floor, but don’t answer the question of whether Daniels can carry a full season without a receiver threat other than Terry McLaurin.

Philadelphia Eagles

As for the Eagles, many of their offseason additions were mostly short-term contracts: CB Riq Woolen, WR Hollywood Brown, LB Arnold Ebiketie, and so on. These are the moves made when you are managing a roster, not pushing one forward. Philly’s draft needs are edge, OL, and tight end. They lost linebacker Jaelan Phillips to the Carolina Panthers despite trying to re-sign him. Offensive tackle Lane Johnson and guard Landon Dickerson are thinking about hanging up their cleats, and Dallas Goedert’s return is just a stopgap solution.

Meanwhile, the ‘tush push’ only converted on 63.6% of attempts in 2025, down from 79.6% in 2024. The polarizing play that defined Philadelphia’s identity is no longer automatic. Quarterback Jalen Hurts has mostly managed the games, protecting the football, not taking any risks. While he is good enough to carry this team, the question is how long the pieces around him hold up. A team with these gaps heading into the draft is not a division favorite. It’s just trying to remain one somehow.

New York Giants

John Harbaugh arrived in New York as the new head coach with a clear offensive vision and immediately started building around it. TE Isaiah Likely followed Harbaugh from the Baltimore Ravens. WR Darnell Mooney signed a one-year deal to give the receiver room a boost beyond Malik Nabers. Tremaine Edmunds came in at linebacker to anchor the defense. By virtue of the Dexter Lawrence trade with the Cincinnati Bengals, the Giants landed the 10th overall pick in the Draft. Add their existing 5th overall pick, and they have genuine leverage for a team trying to move up fast with sophomore quarterback Jaxson Dart.

But they still need help at defensive tackle, guard, and cornerback. The secondary and the offensive line around Dart are both still works in progress. They could make a big splash in the draft, but their success depends on Dart’s second-year development. The capital is real, so is the plan, but neither guarantees that the team is ready to compete for a division title in 2026. And there’s the fit. Harbaugh’s new system will take time to sync with this roster, and if Dart’s recklessness from last season continues, the entire rebuild slows down with it.

All three teams made additions this spring, but none of those were more coherent than Dallas. And that’s the whole point.

The Cowboys Finally Built on All Sides of the Ball

Seven of Dallas’ external additions this offseason were defensive. Rashan Gary at edge, Jalen Thompson and P.J. Locke at safety, Cobie Durant and Derion Kendrick at cornerback, Jonathan Bullard and Otito Ogbonnia at defensive tackle. On the offensive side, the Cowboys retained George Pickens with a $27.3 million franchise tag (still unsigned). Running back Javonte Williams re-signed, and Dallas made Brandon Aubrey the highest-paid kicker in the league most recently.

After the free agency period, head coach Schottenheimer said Dallas has done enough in free agency to “draft natural and draft pure.” He also acknowledged that there are still some gaps in their roster, but the draft, as well as the season beyond, could help them get the players they’ll need.

“We’ve added some really good pieces, we’ve got some good depth,” Schottenheimer noted. “There’s still a few positions that we need to address, that’s all part of the process. Like I say all the time, not my line, I think it’s Stephen’s or Jerry’s, but [player acquisition] is 24/7, 365, and it never stops. We’re never stopping to look, we’re always open for business.”

The remaining positional needs are very real: linebacker, nickel corner, and edge rusher. But Dallas is using its draft capital (two first-rounders at 12 and 20) to finish a plan. Owner/General Manager Jerry Jones has already said he’s looking at trading up or down in the draft. Pete Schrager’s latest mock draft also has the Cowboys trading up to pick 9, and down to 29, trading their first-round picks with the Kansas City Chiefs to land CB Mansoor Delane and edge rusher Malachi Lawrence.

So Dallas is now using the draft to finish their plan, and it all contributes to their new defensive identity.

Christian Parker’s 3-4 Rebuild Will Be the Difference Maker

Parker, arriving from the Eagles, is transitioning Dallas from a 4-3 to a 3-4 base, and every free agency addition this offseason fits that system perfectly. His scheme, rooted in Eagles defensive coordinator Vic Fangio’s blueprint, requires boundary corners to handle one-on-one scenarios while the safeties rotate freely. Durant fits that scheme at cornerback, Thompson gives the scheme the safety range it needs, and Gary fits the 3-4 edge demand for a rusher who can hold his ground against the run and still pressure the quarterback on passing downs.

The last time Dallas committed to a full defensive overhaul, it worked. From 2005 to 2009, the Cowboys’ defense ranked in the top-10 four times. They had two first-round picks even then, and built a powerful roster through multiple rounds. Parker has the same window now, in a class that NFL.com’s draft analyst Lance Zierlein identifies as deep at linebacker, cornerback, and edge, the exact three positions Dallas still needs to address. 

The Cowboys Are No Longer Surviving the Division; They Can Win It

I’ll give the skeptics the floor first, because the Cowboys Nation has earned the right to hold that line. Dallas had a promising team on paper last season, too, but it all flamed out. A Reddit thread of optimism for the Cowboys heading into 2026 also turned up negative. One user, paraphrasing former head coach Bill Parcells, actually wrote, “Talk to me after Thanksgiving.” Another added, “Haven’t sniffed the NFC championship in 30 years, so no.” These are people who have been waiting for a change for years, and they remember every time The Star let them down.

What changed this time is the organizational clarity that came with firing Matt Eberflus. Poor communication consistently left his players confused and misaligned. That’s a coaching problem that infected a roster that had just enough pieces to try and hold their ground. In contrast, Parker runs a system with defined responsibilities and personnel built to execute them.

What’s more, Dak Prescott is entering his eleventh season as an MVP candidate after a season that almost mirrored his 2019 peak in terms of production. When he said 2026 won’t be a repeat of last season, the front office finally gave him something real to back it up with.

Dallas didn’t fix everything. Linebacker is still a draft target, the nickel corner spot is open, and the edge depth behind Gary is shaky. The draft has to answer all of it correctly. Those are the stakes. But the rest of the NFC East didn’t fix all its problems either. Washington needs to build around a quarterback who kept getting injured last season. Philadelphia is a good team that didn’t really get better in free agency. And the Giants need to sync with a new coaching identity while trying to stay competitive.

Dallas has, simply put, pulled ahead of its rivals. This gap is the first real opening Prescott & Co. have had in years, and for once, they earned this opportunity not just by what Dallas did, but by what everyone else left up in the air. The window is open; now it’s their job to close it.