“Cowboys are going to win at least 12 games, possibly 13.” Stephen A. Smith said it to a crowd at Off the Hook Barbershop in Atlanta, and the crowd did not buy it. They told him the Eagles would take the division.
Smith held his ground, with a catch. Yes, he said, Dallas would win the NFC East. Then it would fall apart. “They are going to have you talking about the Super Bowl and then they go flatline.”
Why Smith likes this team, for now
He had already shocked people with his Stephen A-List, putting the Cowboys in the top five and the Los Angeles Rams at No. 1. His reasoning was simple. “I said Jerry, you did your job. You got your defense set,” Smith said, before running through an offense of Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens and Javonte Williams. “You’ve got to score points to beat the Dallas Cowboys this year.”
He was careful about the timing. “I didn’t say a damn thing about January. This is September, okay? That’s different. I got them top-five right now. They ain’t top-four though.”
The roster behind the talk
Owner Jerry Jones reworked the roster in the offseason. Dallas traded for edge rusher Rashan Gary, who lines up with interior linemen Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark, both acquired during the 2025 season. That gives the Cowboys one of the league’s more formidable defensive lines on paper. The unit ranked worst on Pro Football Network’s Defense Impact Metric last year, so the bar to clear is low.
Brian Schottenheimer enters his second year as head coach. Dallas went 7-9-1 in 2025 and has gone two years without a playoff game. The Eagles, meanwhile, remain the archrivals standing in the way.
Sources
- ‘They’re Going To Win the NFC East’ — Stephen A. Smith Predicts Cowboys Will Rack Up 12 Wins, Get Complacent Before Rival Crushes Super Bowl Dreams – AOL
- Buccaneers vs Cowboys AI Predictions for TNF: Week 5 ATS Pick & TD Projection
