Dallas Cowboys rank outside of top 5 in ESPN’s initial power rankings for 2024 season

Early rankings for the 2024 season feature the Dallas Cowboys outside of the top 5.

Super Bowl LVIII has come and gone and to the shock of absolutely no one the Kansas City Chiefs remain World Champions. Life is good when you are a part of a dynasty. We knew about that once upon a time.

Focus for 31 other teams has obviously shifted towards making sure that they are the one team happy at the end of the 2024 season, and soon enough that will be evident with things like the NFL Combine, 2024 NFL Draft, so on and so forth. As the dust on this past season begins to fully settle, and we peel the plastic film off of a new one, we can start to try and figure out who is going to be good again, who might surprise and who might regress.

On Monday morning, ESPN released an offseason set of power rankings that did just this, and perhaps to your shock or not, did not feature the Dallas Cowboys in the top 5.

2023 record: 12-5

Offseason in three words: One more try

With coach Mike McCarthy going into the last year of his contract and Dak Prescott potentially in the same boat, the Cowboys will try to end their Super Bowl drought next season and need to prepare this offseason to do it. The Cowboys have won 36 regular-season games the past three years but just one playoff game. If McCarthy can’t find the playoff success he had early in his time with the Packers and Prescott can’t break through past the divisional round for the first time in his career, the Cowboys could be looking at a complete renovation in 2025. No overhaul is expected this offseason, but the pressure to build a Super Bowl team is on. — Todd Archer

It is true that the Cowboys have been one of the more consistent teams in the NFL over the last thousand days or so as they have put together three consecutive 12-5 seasons. Unfortunately they only have a single playoff win in that span.

The blurb here notes that Mike McCarthy is entering a contract year which has certainly already cast an interesting cloud over the season. It also notes that Dak Prescott could be joining him in that capacity, although it seems more likely than not that he will receive an extension from the team sooner rather than later.

Here are the top 10 teams in order from the power rankings:

1. Baltimore Ravens
2. Kansas City Chiefs
3. San Francisco 49ers
4. Detroit Lions
5. Buffalo Bills
6. Miami Dolphins
7. Dallas Cowboys
8. Philadelphia Eagles
9. Houston Texans
10. Green Bay Packers

While the Cowboys are seventh overall, they are third in terms of NFC teams. They trail only their nemesis, the San Francisco 49ers, and the Detroit Lions, who Dallas managed to beat in the penultimate week of the regular season (granted under the cloud of some controversy). It should also be mentioned though, that they got worked by the Packers in the Wild Card Round and Green Bay comes in as the last team inside the top 10.

A lot will change before the regular season kicks off, but right now the Cowboys are expected to be in the mix once again.