‘I don’t want you on my team’ – Dak Prescott makes the Dallas Cowboys’ mindset very clear going into the 2026 NFL season
The Dallas Cowboys quarterback knows what the 2026 NFL season is all about. And he isn’t willing to hide it. Instead, he’s embracing it.
The Dallas Cowboys are in a weird spot. The conversation surrounding a team off of a seven-win season tends to be about taking the next step and having a winning record with a playoff trip.
But for the 2026 Cowboys, that wouldn’t be enough. Instead, the conversation is more about being on a win-now period and doing whatever possible to be a Super Bowl contender.
The reasons why include the Cowboys fielded a top-tier offense last year and the fact that Dak Prescott played like an MVP candidate most of the year. The idea is if that was enough for seven wins with the worst defense in the game, then this year’s improvements should be enough to catapult them to contender status.
But is this the pressure fans and media should be putting on the Cowboys? Prescott has no doubt.
It’s all or nothing for the Cowboys
Speaking in an event from his Faith, Fight, Finish Foundation, Prescott addressed the Super Bowl or bust mentality surrounding the Cowboys. His message was very clear: it’s all that it’s about.
“It’s the one thing that I truly love about the Cowboys organization and the fanbase,” Prescott said via The Athletic’s Jon Machota. “It’s that or nothing.”
Prescott added: “That’s what being a competitor is. If that’s not how you’re wired, if that’s not how you think—whether you’re a fan, whether you’re a player, whether you’re a coach—honestly, I don’t want you on my team.”
The only problem? Cowboys fans have been hearing similar hype for years.
Why buy in now? Prescott explains
Asked if hopes of winning a Super Bowl were more realistic this year, Prescott explained why he thinks so.
“Each year you think that,” Prescott said. “But when you have the last year that we did, the offense that we did, you’ve been making changes and you got a great defensive coordinator (Christian Parker), and you’ve got young guys, old guys, a great mix of vets with talent and us understanding what needs to be done.”
Prescott is spot on with his comments. If the offense keeps up the production it was putting out in 2025, the Cowboys will be in a position to win games. They were a Top 5 scoring offense and ranked near the top in nearly every advanced metric. However, as Dak knows, it’s all about the defense getting better.
To go full angry translator on his comments above, let me remind you of Prescott’s quote at the end of the 2025 season: “One of the first seasons — if not the first of my career — I can’t directly correlate my play to the wins or losses, or the end of the season, or overall success of the season. So that makes it frustrating. One of the best offenses in the league, explosive. Now, sure, not always to our standard. Didn’t play like that every week, week in and week out, but put up a lot of points. Unfortunately, just didn’t win all the games that we should have.””
Prescott is big on controlling what he can. But he knows and understands not making the playoffs in 2025 was a result of the defensive play. So when he talks about the mix of veterans and changes going on, he’s probably talking about a new defense being in town.
Hopefully, the Cowboys are able to hit the ground running to turn things around.
“It’s not going to happen in Week 1 of training camp,” Prescott added. “But we have to make sure that we’re getting better every day.”