Dak Prescott says Cowboys can compete with Eagles; Michael Irvin responds

The 2024 NFL season was one to forget for the Dallas Cowboys, as they lost quarterback Dak Prescott for the season after eight games due to a hamstring injury, went 7-10, missed the playoffs and parted ways with head coach Mike McCarthy. What’s more, the archival Philadelphia Eagles won Super Bowl LIX.

That said, Prescott recently expressed that the Cowboys are “very close” to the Eagles from a competitive standpoint. And on Wednesday’s edition of “Speak,” Cowboys great Michael Irvin concurred with Prescott’s general point, but not the larger context.

“I agree with Dak that they are close to the Eagles and could possibly come up and have something with the [Washington] Commanders because of familiarity, from playing them all the time. So you’ll get an opportunity, and yes, you can beat them,” Irvin said. “You’ll split a season with [the Eagles], wins and losses. You’ll split a season with the Commanders. Dak’s record against the Commanders is 11-2. Against Philadelphia, his record is 6-1 at home, so Dak Prescott has been playing some great football against those teams. Against the whole NFC East, his record is 33-8. That’s a great record, but you don’t just go through the East. You got to go through the rest of the league, and you know the problems you’d had with San Francisco [49ers]; you know the problems you’ve had with the Green Bay Packers; you know the problems you’ve had with everyone else.

“Yes, he’s right when he looks at those two teams, but he has to look at the whole league because you got to go through more than your division to get to a Super Bowl. So you can be close to those teams, but you’re not close to a Super Bowl.”

While Prescott, a three-time Pro Bowler, didn’t play in either game, the Cowboys were swept by the Eagles in their 2024 season series, with Philadelphia out-scoring Dallas, 75-13. It was the first time that the Eagles won in Dallas since 2017, when the Eagles also won the Super Bowl. The two teams split their 2023, 2022, 2020, 2019 and 2017 season series, with the Cowboys sweeping the 2021 and 2018 season series.

The Commanders went from 4-13 in 2023 to 12-5 in 2024, winning a playoff game for the first time in 19 years and reaching the NFC Championship Game for the first time in 33 years. They were led by new head coach — and former Cowboys defensive coordinator — Dan Quinn and Offensive Rookie of the Year Jayden Daniels. Washington and Dallas each won on the other’s home turf this season, with the Cowboys winning 13 of the past 18 matchups.

Are Cowboys “very close” to Eagles’ level of success as Dak Prescott says?

Prior to this season, the Cowboys stacked up three consecutive 12-5 seasons, which saw them win the NFC East in 2021 and 2023. At the same time, they still haven’t appeared in the NFC Championship Game since 1995 — which is now the active NFC record — and have lost four consecutive games, two of them coming in the postseason, to the 49ers.

As for what went wrong outside of injury, the Cowboys’ defense cratered without Quinn, who was their DC from 2021-23. After finishing fifth in points surrendered in both 2022 and 2023, the Dallas defense was 17th in passing yards (218.1 yards per game), 28th in total yards (355.2 yards per game), 29th in rushing yards (137.1 yards per game) and 31st in points (27.5 per game) under defensive coordinator Mike Zimmer in 2024.

The Cowboys have promoted offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer to head coach, with former Arizona Cardinals offensive line coach Klayton Adams becoming the team’s new OC and former Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus becoming their new defensive coordinator.

As for its offseason prospects, Dallas is projected to be over the cap and owns the No. 12 pick in the 2025 NFL Draft. In the weeks leading up to the 2024 season, the Cowboys extended Prescott (four-year, $240 million deal) and star wide receiver and four-time Pro Bowler CeeDee Lamb (four-year, $136 million deal). Star linebacker and two-time All-Pro Micah Parsons is extension-eligible with one season remaining on his rookie deal.

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