If the first nine weeks of the regular season were like an amusement park ride for the Dallas Cowboys, they’d be bumper cars. You remember them being great as a kid, so you’re excited to hop in the car and take it for another spin. It’s different. Now that you’re older, the mystique is gone.
The gas pedal doesn’t work anymore; sometimes you don’t fit in the car, and you walk out with more back pain than you’ve felt in your lifetime. The defense is the cool bumper car in the corner no one can seem
to fix, and the offense is the bumper car that can only turn right.
After Brian Schottenheimer’s first year as head coach finished with a 7-9-1 record, it feels as if the team has somehow taken a step back. In the first four weeks of the season, it looked like the offense would carry the defense to the finish line. After three horrible losses to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Green Bay Packers, and Arizona Cardinals, the Cowboys’ offense struggled to find its identity.
There have been some bright spots over nine weeks and a win over the Indianapolis Colts helps, but the report card for the first half of the season isn’t filled with A-grades, despite the roster’s star power.
A grades:
Quinnen Williams (A):
When Quinnen Williams signed his contract extension with the Cowboys this offseason, it set the clock on whether or not the Micah Parsons trade officially pays off. It took Williams some time to find his footing in a system he hasn’t played in since college, but over the last five weeks he looks like an All-Pro at defensive tackle.
Among all defensive tackles, Williams is tied for fifth in sacks (5), third in total pressures (31), and is first in tackles for loss (14). His leadership in the locker room has been praised as a big reason why the defense is starting to turn a corner. Just like his counterpart on offense, Dak Prescott, Williams will have to help carry his unit the rest of the way if they want to make a postseason push, starting Sunday vs. the 49ers.
CeeDee Lamb (A):
After starting out of the gate extremely hot, CeeDee Lamb cooled off vs. the Packers, Cardinals, and Bucs. He had a dominant performance against the Philadelphia Eagles, but against those three teams, Lamb caught 18 passes for 137 yards and zero touchdowns. Then he bounced back vs. the Colts, with 10 receptions for 195 yards and a touchdown in the absence of George Pickens.
The offense needs to be more consistent with getting Lamb the ball because when he is cooking defensive backs, this team looks better overall. In four out of the five games where Lamb has scored a touchdown, Dallas has won. It’s not always that simple, but in this case, it might be. His ability to bring up the entire team keeps him at an A grade for the year.
Tyler Guyton (A-):
No one has surprised more this season than Tyler Guyton and his development. The Cowboys have put all their faith in Guyton and never gave up on him, and it’s paid off. Guyton might not be a Pro Bowl player yet, but he’s looked better than he has in the last two years at left tackle and, more importantly, has stayed healthy.
Coming into the year, he was the team’s biggest question mark. Now he’s turned into one of the team’s most consistent players up front.
Joey Porter Jr. (A-):
Like Lamb, Joey Porter Jr. has been able to raise all boats when he’s been healthy and on the field.
The biggest disappointment of Porter’s tenure so far in Dallas is that he hasn’t been fully healthy and has been bouncing between the field and the sideline. That’s why this grade is more on a curve of what he can be. He rolled his ankle in practice a few weeks ago, and he doesn’t seem 100 percent healthy, considering he only played 36 snaps on defense vs. the Cardinals and missed the Colts game. Christian Parker has shown he likes to rotate his cornerbacks, but JPJ needs to be on the field for almost every snap when healthy because of his impact.
The Cowboys don’t have their bye week until Week 14, so they may have to manage him until then, but he’s been an All-Pro-level corner when he locks down wide receivers for Dallas.
B grades:
Dak Prescott (B+):
There have certainly been A+ moments for the Cowboys quarterback, but overall, Dak Prescott has been very good this season—not elite. His inability to find answers against the blitz, which he’s normally great at, hurts him here.
Prescott was phenomenal in the second half of the Houston Texans game and in the Philadelphia Eagles matchup, but given what those teams have turned into, it wasn’t high-level competition. Prescott is currently third among quarterbacks in passing yards (2,381), tied for seventh in touchdown passes (16), and is third in quarterback rating (77.0).
The second half of the season will define his 2026 campaign more as he tries to dig Dallas out of the playoff hole they’re in right now. He’ll have to do it against big-time competition in the San Francisco 49ers, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Seattle Seahawks.
Otito Ogbonnia (B):
Just when the pro personnel department looks like its decision-making needs to be questioned, they find a diamond in the rough like Otito Ogbonnia. The Cowboys defensive tackle has been a force in stopping the run. Ogbonnia leads all defensive linemen with 18 run stops, per Pro Football Focus. Prior to joining Dallas, Ogbonnia never had more than 12 stops in a season.
He’s only here on a one-year deal, but the Cowboys need to find a way to re-sign him to a long-term contract because he’s shown he’s worthy of it, and he complements what Dallas wants to do up front with their defensive tackle rotation.
Javonte Williams (B):
The Cowboys bell cow picked up right where he left off a season ago. After having a career year in Dallas, Javonte Williams looks poised to repeat the same success that earned him a contract extension this offseason. Williams sits ninth in rushing yards for the year (629), averaging 4.1 yards per carry, and is tied for second in rushing touchdowns (9).
While the Cowboys were trying to find their identity in the run game, there were a few times Williams didn’t seem to see the holes well or couldn’t bounce the ball outside. He’s never going to be Bijan Robinson or Jahmyr Gibbs, but he can be the best back Dallas needs when they are trying to establish the run. Look no further than his career performance vs. the Eagles when he rushed for 155 yards off 25 carries.
C grades:
Cowboys Top 3 rookies (C+):
Caleb Downs’ and Jaishawn Barham’s performance vs. the Baltimore Ravens is doing the heavy lifting for the overall grade of Dallas’ top three draft picks. Downs has had to rotate from nickel corner to safety a few times this season while the defense dealt with injuries in the secondary. That’s a lot for a rookie—even one with his football intelligence—to process. That’s why at times Downs has looked like a fish out of water. However, his game vs. the Colts is exactly what the Cowboys hoped for when drafting him and what they’re hoping to see the rest of the season.
As for Barham and first-round pick Malachi Lawrence, there have been moments, but largely inconsistent. With DeMarvion Overshown coming back healthy, Barham is back on the bench, where it might be better for him to take some time and learn more from his peers. As a downhill defender in the run game, Barham has shown to have high-level instincts and a feel for finding the ball carrier. But in the passing game, he’s looked lost and slow, which makes him a liability on third down.
Lawrence may be done for the season, going on injured reserve after the Arizona Cardinals game. The hope is that he will return for the year, but depending on what the next three weeks look like, Dallas may decide to shut him down for 2026 and look toward 2027. This year was all about getting the reps at the NFL level, so it’s disappointing to see him put on the shelf for critical moments in his development. Prior to the injury, Lawrence was starting to stack some good weeks.
Terence Steele (C+):
The Cowboys’ right tackle has been very average so far, which is actually a win considering what we’ve seen in the past. Terence Steele hasn’t been Lane Johnson, but he also hasn’t been Chaz Green this year. His pass blocking has improved, allowing only three sacks, which is near a career low for him. Before his knee injury, Steele was known to be a mauler in the run game. That hasn’t shown up as much this year, considering Dallas’ run success has come when they go behind Tyler Guyton and Tyler Smith.
If Steele can stay at a C+ grade for the rest of the season, then there shouldn’t be any reason why Prescott isn’t finding his receivers and going through his progressions. I’m sure most coaches around the league would take average play from their tackles as long as they don’t get beat.
George Pickens (C):
The curious case of George Pickens. Was he ever going to repeat the All-Pro version of himself we saw in 2025? Probably not with a healthy CeeDee Lamb in the lineup. But up to this point, Pickens has disappointed given the expectations before the season. To tell you the truth, it’s not his fault either.
Yes, he could be a better blocker in the run game, but there shouldn’t be a game where Brevyn Spann-Ford has more targets in the passing attack than Pickens. Brian Schottenheimer has to do a better job of manufacturing touches for Pickens. Similar to his counterpart in Lamb, when Pickens gets rolling, he’s virtually unstoppable.
Just look at what Ja’Marr Chase and Tee Higgins are doing in Cincinnati with the Bengals. Cowboys fans can only hope the second half of the season looks more like that for the duo in Dallas.
Kenny Clark (C-):
With the arrival of Quinnen Williams last year, a lot of the pressure came off Kenny Clark to be “that dude” on the interior of the D-line. Having him and Williams together as a tandem was set up to be the best defensive tackle duo Dallas has ever had. Like many players in this grade range, there have been moments when it looks like Clark can turn back the clock to his old self, but he also looks like a player past his prime who can’t consistently play the way he’s supposed to.
At 31, Clark is on track to have the lowest PFF grade of his career: 57.4. He’s been generating pressures and is above league average with 20 among starting defensive tackles, but it’s not good enough given the expectations around him coming into the year. He’s a great leader in the locker room and will be great for a player like LT Overton, but for now, Clark has been okay through the first half of the season.
D grades:
All of the Cowboys’ outside linebackers (D):
Taking Malachi Lawrence out of the mix, the most disappointing thing about the Cowboys this season has been their inability to get sacks or production from their outside linebackers. Donovan Ezeiruaku, Rashan Gary, and Von Miller have provided no juice when rushing the quarterback. Most of their sacks this year, which isn’t many to begin with, have come when Williams pressures the middle or when they get coverage sacks.
Ezeiruaku was supposed to take a huge step forward in year two and get close to the pass-rushing production he had at Boston College. Only 2.5 sacks at this point in the year is not what the Cowboys were hoping for. Miller was supposed to roll out of bed and get eight sacks. He’s only recorded one sack through nine games.
Then there’s Rashan Gary. He is on the leadership council and is consistently showing up on the Cowboys Sounds from the Sidelines, hyping up defenders around him, which is great. The running game has been a disaster, and he hasn’t been able to set the edge. He might not be the same pass rusher he once was, but when Gary arrived in Dallas, the expectation was that he could replace what the defense was missing when DeMarcus Lawrence left.
If it wasn’t for Malachi Lawrence’s injury, the coaching staff would have to think hard about making Gary a rotation player and giving the rookie more snaps. Unfortunately, Dallas needs Gary to be a starter, considering there’s no one else, and Miller is a liability in the running game too.
With BT Jordan in the building as a pass-rush specialist, the hope was that he could get these guys to perform at a high level, as he has with the Broncos in Denver. With seven of Dallas’ 17 total sacks this year coming from their outside linebackers, it’s not the coaching that’s poor; it might be a lack of talent at the position.
