With training camp here, the excitement for football season is about to ramp up to a fever pitch. For the Dallas Cowboys, it’s been an offseason where more noise has come from their roster moves, free agent acquisitions, and draft picks than any off the field drama, which is a welcome change for a team that will begin the regular season 973 days removed from their last playoff game appearance.
That playoff game was the now-infamous 48-32 home loss to the Green Bay Packers. The Cowboys and Packers have
met just once since that January game in AT&T Stadium, and it was memorable for a whole other host of reasons, ending in a 40-40 tie on Sunday Night Football last season in week four.
The Cowboys and Packers will meet again on Sunday night primetime this season, at Lambeau Field, this time in week six. As we continue our season preview series, Dallas’ division rivals are now all behind us, and our focus will shift to some of the potential toughest games on the schedule against either other rivals or expected playoff contenders at large.
Also for the second year in a row, the Cowboys and Packers early season meeting will be marked by a trade between the two sides involving a pass rusher. Last season, it was Kenny Clark coming over to the Cowboys from the Packers (plus some draft picks) in exchange for Micah Parsons, and this year the Cowboys acquired Rashan Gary after seven seasons with the green and gold. With Parsons still rehabbing from a week 15 ACL tear last season against the Broncos, the Cowboys may not be playing against their own former pass rush star this time around. The Packers scored 40 points on the Matt Eberflus defense in 2025; this game will be a very important early comparison point to just how much of a difference new defensive coordinator Christian Parker is making.
Another theme both of these teams will have going into 2026 is the expectation for their all-important QB/HC pairing to prove they are the right men for the jobs. The Packers will go into year four of Jordan Love as the starting quarterback and year eight for Matt LaFleur having lost in the Wild Card round the last two postseasons. For the Cowboys, it will be just year two of Brian Schottenheimer but year 11 for Dak Prescott. There was a point when Love was an up-and-coming quarterback and Prescott was in the midst of the three straight 12 win seasons under Mike McCarthy, and both were seen as potentially battling for supremacy at the position in the NFC, but so far it still hasn’t manifested for either.
Love hasn’t dominated the NFC North, he has a career record of 9-8 against the Lions, Bears, and Vikings, but could also be looking to capitalize on the Lions seemingly hitting a downturn under Dan Campbell with Jared Goff and the Vikings bringing in Kyler Murray, leaving the Bears with Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams as their biggest rival.
Packers Key Free Agent Signings/Departures
*SIGNED IN FREE AGENCY
- QB Tyrod Taylor
- OL Darian Kinnard (Re-signed)
- CB Benjamin St-Juste
- DL Javon Hargrave
*DEPARTED IN FREE AGENCY
- QB Malik Willis
- WR Romeo Doubs
- LB Quay Walker
- C Elgton Jenkins
- EDGE Kingsley Enagbare
- LT Rasheed Walker
- CB Nate Hobbs
- RB Emanuel Wilson
- SAF Zayne Anderson
For a team without a first-round pick due to the Micah Parsons trade last offseason, the Packers have a potentially worrying list of departures compared to a short list of acquisitions in free agency this year. Doubs, Walker, and Jenkins are among the most significant contributors to leave the team, while Javon Hargrave coming over from the Vikings is their biggest outside name brought in – partially because it weakens a division rival and strengthens a position where the Packers previously had Kenny Clark as a mainstay.
One of the things the Packers are banking on to finally take the next step is something very similar to the Cowboys – continuity at wide receiver. Christian Watson, Matthew Golden, and Jayden Reed are all returning, and Doubs is the only significant loss. The Cowboys will be particularly happy to not see Doubs this season as he had three touchdowns on six catches against them in that overtime tie last season.
Reed is going into year four, Golden year two, and Watson year five, which the Packers will be hoping is the right formula along with Josh Jacobs in year three as the starting running back to have consistency both through the air and on the ground offensively.
Defensively, the Packers have struggled to hold up against more physical teams in their most decisive games in the front seven, and appear to be taking a new approach still with familiar names throughout to the point of attack on defense going into 2026. Walker and Enagbare are significant losses at linebacker and defensive end respectively, but Devonte Wyatt, Lukas Van Ness, Edgerrin Cooper, and the addition of Hargrave along with rookie draft pick Chris McClellan on the interior give the Packers the talent to compete on this side of the ball while they work on reintroducing Parsons back to the lineup deeper into the regular season.
This brings us to the rest of the Packers draft class, where four of their six total picks went to defense as well.
Packers 2026 Draft Class
- Round 2, Pick 20 (52 Overall): CB Brandon Cisse
- Round 3, Pick 13 (77 Overall): DT Chris McClellan
- Round 4, Pick 20 (120 Overall): EDGE Dani Dennis-Sutton
- Round 5, Pick 13 (153 Overall): C Jager Burton
- Round 6, Pick 20 (2o1 Overall): CB Domani Jackson
- Round 6, Pick 35 (216 Overall): K Trey Smack
When it comes to the draft in recent history, the Packers have been known to target very specific, certain archetypes of prospects, and find a way to get them at high value. Brandon Cisse may have been outside the radar of top cornerback talent in this class, but an athletic profile featuring a 93rd percentile vertical jump result and 91st in the broad jump along with being a strong run support secondary player make him an intriguing pick at 77th overall.
While Cisse does not necessarily impress as a physical specimen, the Packers next pick of Chris McClellan at DT makes up for it. With plus hand size and arm length, and flashes as both a pass rusher and run defender, Green Bay is hoping this is their next long-term solution on the defensive interior. The Packers double-dipped on the defensive line with their next pick, getting another plus athlete with an untapped high ceiling but perhaps lower-than-ideal floor in Dennis Sutton out of Penn State.
The Packers’ one pick on offense went to the offensive line with Jager Burton, who could slide in to the center spot vacated by Elgton Jenkins in free agency, or either guard spot.
Packers 2026 Coaching Changes
*New to staff this season:
- Wide Receivers Noah Pauley
- Defensive Coordinator Jonathan Gannon
- Secondary/Pass Game Coordinator Bobby Babich
- Cornerbacks Daniel Bullocks
- Linebackers Sam Siefkes
- Special Teams Coordinator Cam Achord
Head coach Matt LaFleur has retained a very impressive amount of continuity on his offensive coaching staff, but the one new position coach in Noah Pauley comes at an interesting spot considering what we said about the Packers developing their wide receiver corps.
The much bigger change comes on defense, where LaFleur will have the fourth new defensive coordinator over his tenure in Jonathan Gannon. The former Cardinals head coach brings a dynamic the Packers have not had in this position under their offensive play-calling head coach. The Gannon style of defense when playing well can be adept at forcing teams to take the long way downfield, limiting big plays well and relying on the front to shut down the run. It will be very interesting to see how this stacks up with LaFleur’s ability to control games with balance in the run and pass, as a coach who’s been very publicly criticized before for not picking and choosing the right times to be aggressive or not when games are in the balance and Green Bay has the ball.
New to Gannon’s staff are Bobby Babich who was a high-profile coach with the Bills since 2017, serving as their DC the last two seasons. Babich will work with the secondary along with Daniel Bullocks at the cornerback position, coming over from the 49ers.
In the front seven where the Packers will be a work in progress with Parsons waiting in the wings, Sam Siefkes will be in charge of the linebackers in his return to the NFL after being at Virginia Tech as DC in 2025. The Wisconsin native got his start in the NFL in 2021 with the Vikings, but was with the Cardinals most recently before Virginia Tech.
The Cowboys offense did well against the Gannon defense during his time as the Eagles defensive coordinator from 2021-22. Dallas went 3-1 in these games, scoring at least 40 points in all three wins. Gannon did get a win against the Cowboys as head coach of the Cardinals in 2023, the most recent time he’s coached against them.
The pressure is firmly on this coaching staff to get the most out of this talented roster for the Packers in 2026, and win the division for the first time since 2021. That season was the end of a three-year run where Green Bay won it all three seasons, and with the Bears as defending champions who have not repeated as North winners since 2005-06, the Packers are out for redemption in more ways than one this season, and week six against the Cowboys at night is going to be pivotal one way or another for both sides.
Prior to last season’s tie, the Packers had won five straight against the Cowboys, including playoffs, with only one of these games coming at Lambeau Field however. The Cowboys lost at the Packers in 2022, also a game that went to overtime, but won there in 2016.
