5 painfully obvious reasons why Vegas is surprisingly low on the 2025 Dallas Cowboys including concerns about Dak Prescott

A large percentage of Dallas Cowboys fans know the 2025 NFL season is a little bit of a mystery. There's a new head coach in town, Dak Prescott is returning from a nasty hamstring injury, and many defensive starters exited the team during the offseason, including DeMarcus Lawrence and Jourdan Lewis. 

I'd wager most are aware the playoffs are a question mark this season. Yet, there's an obvious reason to be hopeful. The last time the Cowboys quarterback was healthy for an entire season, he finished second in MVP voting and led the team to a 12-5 record, the third 12-win year in a row for the franchise. 

Now, he has George Pickens, too. If the offense is clicking, this can totally be a postseason squad. And yet, the betting world disagrees, projecting 7.5 wins for the Cowboys in 2025.  

If you ask me, the number is surprisingly low and believe me, I'm not particularly high on the Cowboys. But the oddsmakers are, most of the time, pretty spot on.

So I think it's only fair to try and see their perspective. And after doing some thinking, I thought of five obvious reasons why the Cowboys' projected win total is as low as it is. 

I too am excited about the energy and culture Schottenheimer appears to be bringing to the table in Dallas. It's a refreshing attitude. However, none of that will truly move the needle as much as play-calling, game-planning, and game management will. And we know very little about him in that sense. 

Even what we know about his tendencies from his days with the Seattle Seahawks is limited because he was calling Pete Carroll's offense, not his offense. Bringing in OC Klayton Adams is a very promising move as it suggests the Cowboys offense could truly look different but the fact is we don't know what it looks like. 

And considering Schottenheimer wasn't a hot candidate in the coaching market at all, I understand if oddsmakers aren't high on his scheme. 

Prescott said he'll be fully ready to go for training camp and while that may be true, the real question is how limited he'll be in terms of mobility. The Cowboys quarterback hasn't been the dual threat he was prior to his 2020 ankle fracture and a 2021 calf injury didn't help. Now, he's got to bounce back from a tough hamstring injury for which he tried to avoid surgery yet couldn't. 

Additionally, there's always the question of availability as his injury history has grown compared to his early NFL years, when durability was one of his biggest strengths. 

I'm not sure the Cowboys did anything to make the fanbase feel better about an obvious issue for the team: Stopping the run. Dallas is running it back with Mazi Smith at nose tackle—this time in a one-gap scheme that's unlikely to benefit his play style—and the defensive ends are better pass rushers than they are run defenders. 

Meanwhile, DeMarvion Overshown isn't playing until Thanksgiving and we don't quite know what the cornerback lineup is going to look like. I'm not saying it will be bad, but there's potential for defensive decline if we're being honest. 

Let's be fair: The Super Bowl champion team is still pretty good and they happen to be on the Cowboys' way of winning the NFC East. Will Philly finally break the division's curse of not having a repeat champion since 2004? Maybe not. But if I was betting on it, I'd say probably. 

They have one of the best offensive and defensive lines in football, they have plenty of continuity on their roster, and big-time playmakers on offense. If Dallas is going to make it to the playoffs, it will likely have to be as a wild card.