For all practical purposes, the preseason doesn’t matter. Starters rarely play more than a series or two, if at all, and the old half-or-three-quarters tune-ups are gone.
But sometimes it does matter.
When a roster leans young, those snaps build timing. When players return from injury, they need to feel NFL speed again. And when a team is trying to develop a backup quarterback… Never mind. But for the Dallas Cowboys, the preseason is also about something harder to measure: toughness. Through two preseason games, Dallas hasn’t shown much of it.
Habits and hardness—that’s what actually matters, and Dallas has way more to prove than they should.
The Final Score Of A Preseason Game Doesn’t Matter, But Toughness and Physicality Do
The Toughness Audit Through The Dallas Cowboys’ First Two Games
Interior Line Play
Toughness shows up long before schemes do. You see it in how a team controls the line of scrimmage, finishes tackles, and avoids self-inflicted mistakes. That’s not game planning: that’s a mindset. Through two preseason games, the Cowboys have not put enough of those hard, repeatable snaps on film. The scoreboard is irrelevant; the film says the most fundamental of standards hasn’t been met.
Run defense was the biggest concern heading into 2025, and August hasn’t erased it. Against the Rams and Ravens, Dallas gave up 329 yards, at *only* 4.3 yards a pop. Sounds survivable. But watching it in real time, it felt more like eight. The defensive front simply can’t move people. The interior got pushed backwards on almost every play, and the linebackers couldn’t stay clean. First down runs became second-and-short and kept drives on schedule. If that carries over into the regular season, expect the same results as 2024.
“But Dallas was playing their backups!” Kind of, but not really. Mazi Smith is a starter. The other tackles who rotated in are going to get meaningful snaps in the regular season. Osa Odighizuwa? He’s not a run stopper, and he would’ve been in reverse just like the rest of his teammates.
Soft Edges
The pass rush has been just as lifeless, even accounting for absences. Through two preseason games, Dallas has managed just one sack and almost no meaningful pressure. Four-man rushes aren’t stressing the pocket, and the edge rushers aren’t winning with speed or power. And let’s be honest, Stetson Bennett and Cooper Rush aren’t Lamar Jackson. Then they look comfortable in the pocket, something’s wrong.
The fix starts where toughness lives: in the trenches. Backups or not, the next tape needs to show Dallas resetting the line of scrimmage, keeping second-level defenders free, and making the pocket uncomfortable. Until that shows up, the eye test will keep looking worse than the numbers.
Is Dallas’ Offensive Identity Really Going To Be The Run Game?
Interior Push
Through two preseason games and a joint practice, a run-first identity doesn’t look viable.
It toughness lives in the trenches, then the run game is how a team shows it. Brian Schottenheimer has banged the run first drum all offseason—which sounds great in a press conference—but it hasn’t shown up on film. Sure, preseason play calls are vanilla, but if you’re going to hang your hat on physicality, you should be able to impose your will up front regardless of scheme. So far, the Cowboys haven’t done that.
The tackles were a question coming into 2025, and that was before Tyler Guyton went down with a broken leg. The interior of the offensive line, however, was billed as a strength, especially with the addition of Tyler Booker. So far, it’s been…fine? There have been moments where the interior gets movement, and Booker has shown flashes, but there hasn’t been enough there. Outside of Tyler Smith, who’s a true tone-setter, there hasn’t been consistent push, and the backs aren’t running through clean lanes.
This doesn’t look like an offense that’s built to grind out 12-play drives. Touchdowns feel more like six-play, 78-yard bursts capped off by a 50-yard strike. Not the work of a power-run team controlling the tempo.
Even if the scheme is designed for ground-and-pound, the personnel says otherwise. Dallas once again treated the running back position like an afterthought. Offseason additions Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders haven’t moved the needle; Williams hasn’t even taken a preseason snap. Jaydon Blue, the fifth-round rookie, isn’t a power back and missed the first two preseason games with an injury. Phil Mafah, another rookie, could fit the mold, but he might not even make the 53-man roster.
Questions Marks At Tackle
The tackle situation only adds to the uncertainty. Guyton, the starter at left tackle, fractured a leg bone and wasn’t playing well before the injury. That happened on the first day of padded practice, no less. Terence Steele, now two years removed from ACL surgery, has been average at best. Without reliable play on the edges, the interior can’t carry the burden. You can talk about establishing the run all you want, but if you aren’t consistently winning on first down, the whole model breaks crumbles.
Back in 2016, when Dallas really did want to establish the run, they spent the No. 4 overall pick on Ezekiel Elliott and paired him with an already dominant offensive line. That told you everything about their identity. This year’s approach tells you the opposite.
The reality is that Dallas’ strength is the passing game. CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens, and a healthy Dak Prescott is the group you trust. The question is how long Schottenheimer will stick to his stated identity if the run game continues to come up empty. At some point, Dallas will have to accept what it is. And what it’s not.
The Bottom Line
The preseason doesn’t matter in the standings, but it matters in other ways. It tells you which habits are forming and which ones still aren’t. Through two preseason games, Dallas hasn’t looked like a team built on toughness or physicality. The defensive front has been soft against the run and quiet against the pass. The offensive line isn’t moving people, and the run game doesn’t match the identity that Schottenheimer has been selling.
It’s not about wins in August. It’s about standards; establishing an identity. Right now, Dallas doesn’t have that figured out.
The Cowboys’ tape doesn’t reflect the one thing this team keeps talking about. If toughness and physicality is really going to be the identity, it better show up on film before the preseason wraps. Otherwise, they’ll walk into Week 1 at Philadelphia still searching for answers to a question they should’ve already answered: Can you win at the line of scrimmage?
If not, the Eagles will embarrass you.
Main Photo Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images