The Dallas Cowboys officially closed the book on their 2025 season with a deflating 34-17 loss to the New York Giants, but for owner and general manager Jerry Jones, the focus has already shifted to what comes next.
With the franchise’s championship drought now stretching to 30 seasons, patience is wearing thin inside the organization, and Jones made it clear that there will be no pause before a full-scale reassessment begins.
The defeat underscored a season defined by inconsistency and missed opportunity. The Cowboys finished with four losses in their final five games and ended the year outside the playoff picture, a familiar outcome in recent years.
Since 2018, Dallas has made the postseason four times and missed it four times, an even split that highlights the franchise’s inability to sustain success despite high expectations.
Yet there is also opportunity ahead. Thanks in large part to the trade involving Micah Parsons, the Cowboys will hold two first-round picks in the upcoming draft.
Combined with recent contract restructures that could provide more financial flexibility, Jones believes the team is positioned to be far more aggressive than it has been in recent offseasons.
“We can really get down to business,” Jones said before Sunday’s kickoff. “As it should be, and we’ll start first thing in the morning.”
He went further, signaling that significant change is not only possible but expected: “I think we can do some things in this offseason that are stacking up relative to our players, our personnel, availability, to maybe make as dramatic a difference as we could in a long time.”
A franchise at a crossroads
The 2025 campaign marked consecutive losing seasons for the first time since 2000 and 2002.
In head coach Brian Schottenheimer‘s first year, the Cowboys finished 7-9-1. It does not exactly represent much of an improvement, considering they were 7-10 in Mike McCarthy‘s final season.
Sunday’s loss also carried symbolic weight, as it was the first time since 2020 that Dallas fell to the Giants. For quarterback Dak Prescott, who sat out the second half, it was his first loss to the NFC East rival since his rookie season in 2016.
Schottenheimer did not shy away from accountability when reflecting on the year. “Disappointed, yeah, of course. Absolutely,” Schottenheimer said. “Again, the question is why? We need to look at and figure out why.
“I did not think that we would be 7-9-1 and I didn’t think we wouldn’t be in the playoffs. I expected to be in the playoffs and competing for a Super Bowl. We did not do that. That starts with me, I understand that.
“But I can promise you this: we’re going to get to the bottom of it. We’re going to work our a**es off to figure it out and we’re going to adjust and make changes that we need to do to help us get there.”
Despite the urgency, neither Jones nor Schottenheimer outlined a firm timeline for decisions. Exit interviews with players are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday, followed by meetings with coaches later in the week.
“Things that we have to address, we’ll prioritize those, and we’ll focus on getting better,” Schottenheimer said.
Where do the Cowboys need to strengthen?
Defense looms as the most pressing concern. The Cowboys allowed a franchise-record 511 points this season under coordinator Matt Eberflus, according to ESPN. That followed a 468-point season under Mike Zimmer a year earlier.
Under Dan Quinn from 2021 to 2023, the defense showed more promise, ranking 19th, 12th, and fifth while leading the league in takeaways, but Jones noted lingering issues against the run when it mattered most.
“This took five or six years to get here,” Jones said. “This is a product of several years of combinations of philosophies.”
For a franchise desperate to escape its cycle of disappointment, those words carry weight. The 2026 season may be months away, but in Dallas, the reckoning has already begun.
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