The 2026 Dallas Cowboys enter the season with plenty of questions on defense, rising expectations on offense, and a second-year head coach looking to prove he can turn things around. Bold predictions season is here, and these aren’t your typical shot-in-the-dark guesses. Each one comes with real reasoning behind it. Or at the very least, I’ve tried to make it that way. 

Let’s dive in and hit me up on social media with your bold predictions @MauNFL on X! 

George Pickens leads the Cowboys in receiving yards again over CeeDee Lamb

This one qualifies as bold because even though Pickens already did it in 2025, the context matters. Lamb was dealing with an injury early in the year, missed a few games, and was never fully healthy. Pickens, meanwhile, played the full season and showed up in massive ways.

Lamb will likely finish with more catches in 2026 because he’s going to operate out of the slot as Dak Prescott’s easy button on plenty of plays. He’ll remain the go-to guy. But Pickens is going to keep racking up big chunks of yardage every time he touches the football. Vertical routes, go routes, chunk plays. That’s who he is.

Here’s the key, though. The Cowboys are going to expand how they get Pickens the ball. In 2025, it felt like Dallas stumbled upon what Pickens could do with the ball in his hands. The coaching staff even admitted they were surprised by elements of his game. That won’t be the case this time. Expect an increase in targets as they move him around the formation and a deliberate effort to create yards-after-the-catch opportunities.

DeMarvion Overshown emerges as one of Dallas’ sack leaders

Where are the sacks going to come from for the Cowboys? It’s a critical question for a team that only had two players exceed five sacks last year: Jadeveon Clowney and James Houston. That’s it. Several outside linebackers could approach the 5-sack mark this season, whether it’s Rashan Gary, Donovan Ezeiruaku, or newcomer Von Miller. But I think inside linebacker DeMarvion Overshown forces his way into the sack conversation.

The reasoning goes back to 2024. Mike Zimmer struggled to build on Dan Quinn’s previous success with the Cowboys defense, but one area he nailed was how he deployed Overshown as a blitzer. Overshown was among the most-used and most-efficient blitzing linebackers in the NFL that season. He finished the year with five sacks and ranked among the top inside linebackers in pass-rushing rate and pressures.

One of my theories about the Christian Parker defense is that we’re going to see a lot of blitzing, way more than the Eagles blitzed when Parker was Philadelphia’s defensive pass game coordinator. 

The Cowboys know they don’t have a star edge rusher, so they’ll manufacture pressure. Overshown is one of their best assets to do that. I wouldn’t be surprised if Caleb Downs gets in on the fun, too, but I’m not going to predict 5-plus sacks for a rookie safety. That would be insane, though it would probably land him in the Defensive Rookie of the Year conversation.

The Cowboys offense finishes as a top 3 unit in the NFL

Dallas already hit that mark in a few categories in 2025, but fell short in others, particularly in the red zone relative to how well they moved the ball between the 20s. I expect the Cowboys to improve as an offense, and that’s saying a lot for a unit that was already productive.

The biggest reason is one that’s often forgotten: Dallas massively upgraded at its third wide receiver spot. Ryan Flournoy didn’t even start the 2025 season on the roster. He was cut during roster cutdowns. The Cowboys rolled with a funky mix of Jalen Tolbert and some KaVontae Turpin at the position early on. 

Starting 2026 with Flournoy in that role from Week 1 is going to make a significant difference in the passing game. Defenses will focus on taking away Lamb and Pickens, and Flournoy is going to get around five targets a game and produce big plays the way he showed he could late last season. He’s also going to be a weapon in the red zone, where the Cowboys were already calling plays for him.

On top of that, this is Year 2 of the Cowboys offense. Continuity matters. Brian Schottenheimer has talked about spending more time on play design and game planning while Klayton Adams installs the passing offense, a role Adams didn’t hold in 2025 when he only handled the run game installation. That continuity across the board should push Dallas into top 3 territory.

One last but extremely important factor: average starting field position. The Cowboys were the worst team in the NFL in that category last year, largely because of poor defense and poor special teams. I expect at least the defense to improve considerably, which should directly boost the offense’s field position and make scoring easier.

Quinnen Williams posts an 8-plus sack season

Williams is a defensive tackle, so there’s going to be a lot more on his plate than piling up sacks. He’s coming off a 2.5-sack season, and the Cowboys’ defensive sack leader last year was Clowney at 8.5. Williams has surpassed that mark only once in his career (he had 12 sacks in 2021). So yes, this qualifies as bold.

Even though the Cowboys are going to ask their defensive tackles to react more and play a gap-and-a-half scheme instead of being an aggressive one-gap front, I think Parker is going to capitalize on what Williams does best. 

The fact that Williams has been with the team since the start of the offseason instead of arriving midseason should help. The defensive front around him is straight-up better. And you’re crazy if you think the Cowboys aren’t going to let Williams attack one-on-one when the situation calls for it. He’s by far Dallas’ best defender, the coaching staff will focus on capitalizing on his pass rush.

Brian Schottenheimer enters the Coach of the Year conversation

To win this one you need two things: wins and a turnaround story. 

Schottenheimer should have the latter if the wins come. Think about it. He inherited a mess of a defense, didn’t get to pick his defensive coordinator, and he witnessed Micah Parsons being traded away one week before last year’s opener. 

This year, Schottenheimer responded by getting his pick at defensive coordinator. His decision? Hiring 34-year-old Christian Parker to fix the defensive side of the ball. If he oversees a defensive turnaround while calling plays for one of the best offenses in the NFL, he’ll be a top candidate. 

If the Cowboys go from a 7-9 record in Schottenheimer’s first year to a winning record and an NFC East division title, he’s going to have a legitimate case. He won’t be known as the best play caller in the league, but he’ll be the guy who spearheaded defensive change through smart hiring and personnel decisions while running a top-tier offense. Give me Schottenheimer as one of the finalists for Coach of the Year when the season is over.