There’s no rest for the weary; at least that’s what local Dallas Cowboys media and content creators are telling themselves after the Cowboys 2026 schedule was released on Thursday. There’s a large contingent of older fans who are probably feeling similar sentiments after it was announced that America’s Team, the media darling that they are, are booked for six primetime games.
What makes it worse? That total includes a ridiculous back-to-back-to-back gauntlet of nighttime kickoffs from Week 5 through Week 7. The primetime contests are part of seven nationally-televised games, which doesn’t even include them hosting their longtime playoff rivals, the San Francisco 49ers.
No rest for the weary is likely how the Cowboys feel with a scheduling quirk that happens early in the year and leads our takeaways.
3…2..1… Primetime
The Cowboys are the darlings of NFL ratings, the one thing keeping broadcast TV and cable afloat in the modern age. This year, the Cowboys will play on NBC’s Sunday Night Football on three different occasions, ESPN’s Monday Night Football twice, and also streaming giant Amazon Prime Video one time to total their six primetime contests.
- Sunday Night Football (NBC)
- W1 at Giants
- W6 at Packers
- W16 vs Jaguars
- Monday Night Football (ESPN)
- Thursday Night Football (Prime)
- W5 vs Buccaneers
The new international game gauntlet
The Cowboys are used to facing a Thanksgiving gauntlet, when they often play 4 games in 18 days (Sunday, Sunday, Thursday, Thursday). But this one is much different. The Cowboys travel to Brazil to nominally host the Baltimore Ravens in Week 3. But that’s too early for a bye. They’ll face off against the Houston Texans, in a road contest in Week 4, and then turn around and play Thursday night when they host the Buccaneers.
- Week 3: vs BAL in Brazil
- Week 4: at HOU
- Week 5: vs Bucs on TNF
Night Game Gauntlet comes with extra rest
The Cowboys will kickoff under the lights (or at least finish the game well into the night) three straight times, but they are going to get some extra travel rest after the weird beginning to the season. Dallas will be at home to host the Bucs on TNF in Week 5, then get a minibye before traveling to Green Bay for a SNF game against the Packers. They’ll travel back to Dallas before heading back on the road, but with an extra day before their MNF game in Philadelphia against the Eagles.
Traveling west with extra rest
The schedule makers also did the Cowboys a bit of a favor in that their two west coast games, at Seattle and at Los Angeles to take on the Rams, both come with extra rest.
Dallas faces the Seahawks in Week 13. That game is on a Monday night and comes after they play on Thanksgiving, so that’s their second minibye of the season. They then get a full week off with the official bye in Week 14 before heading out to SoFi Stadium to take on Matthew Stafford’s Rams.
Those are the only two games west of Texas this year.
Home Cooking down the back stretch of the season
The Cowboys are going to get some home cooking down the stretch of the season, and they deserve it because of some of the gauntlets they’ll face. From Week 10 through Week 18, they’ll play five of their final eight games of the season, and their only back-to-back road games are separated by a late-season bye. And honestly, Week 18
- Week 10: vs SF
- Week 11: vs TEN
- Week 12: vs PHI
- Week 13: at SEA
- Week 14: BYE
- Week 15: at LAR
- Week 16: vs JAX
- Week 17: vs NYG
- Week 18: at WAS
Soft Launch?
The Cowboys have a brutal travel schedule to start the year, but they don’t necessarily have the hardest group of opponents over their first six weeks.
The combined 2025 record of their first set of opponents is just 46-47-1.
- Giants: 4-13
- Commanders: 5-12
- Ravens: 8-9
- Texans: 12-5
- Buccaneers: 8-9
- Packers: 9-7-1
This article originally appeared on Cowboys Wire: Major Takeaways from Cowboys schedule release include unique gauntlets