The NFL will reveal the full schedule for the 2026 season on Thursday night, but they have announced one marquee Week 1 game on Monday.
The first Sunday Night Football matchup of the season will see the Cowboys at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey to face the Giants on NBC on September 13. It will be the eighth time in 15 seasons that the two NFC East clubs have faced each other in Week 1.
It’s the second straight season that the Cowboys will find themselves in a featured game in the opening week. They were in Philadelphia for the first game of the 2025 season. We also know that the Cowboys will be in Rio to face the Ravens in Week 3 and they will be at home for their customary Thanksgiving game.
The NFL plans to announce all of this year’s international matchups on Wednesday and there will likely be a trickle of other games to prime the pump for Thursday’s big reveal.
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Rookie minicamps routinely include more than rookies. In Minnesota, veteran quarterback Cooper Rush will participate on a tryout basis.
The team has announced 57 attendees for the weekend session. Of that number, 23 have been invited to the weekend practices on a tryout basis.
Rush, 32, has played in 42 regular-season games with 16 starts. He has a 9-7 record.
The Ravens cut him earlier this year, after making Tyler Huntley the primary backup to Lamar Jackson. Before that, Rush spent seven seasons with the Cowboys, starting eight games in 2024 and five in 2022.
Although the Vikings have four quarterbacks on the roster, they need arms for the rookie minicamp. And they neither drafted nor signed as an undrafted free agent any rookie quarterbacks.
Joining Rush on a tryout basis will be Aidan Bouman. His father is former NFL quarterback Todd Bouman, who played for the Vikings, Saints, and Jaguars.
The NFL will announce the full 2026 schedule on Thursday, May 14, but the league’s international slate of games will be revealed earlier than the domestic ones.
The matchups for this year’s international games will be announced on NFL Network at 9 a.m. eastern time on Wednesday.
Nine international games are on the docket this year, but the matchups for two of them have already been announced. The 49ers and Rams will meet up in Melbourne in Week 1 and the Cowboys will face the Ravens in Rio in Week 3.
One team in each of the other seven games is already known. The Jaguars will play in London twice and the Commanders will be involved in the city’s third game. The 49ers will be in Mexico City, the Falcons will be in Madrid, the Lions will be in Munich and the Saints will take part in the NFL’s first game in Paris.
Cowboys safety Caleb Downs has the top-selling jersey of all rookies. For those who were expecting a jersey displaying No. 18 to eventually show up, they’ll be in for a surprise.
Downs has already shifted to No. 13, via Tommy Yarrish of the Cowboys’ official website.
At rookie minicamp, Downs wore No. 18. He’ll wear the new number for OTAs.
But buyers beware. Yarrish notes that the current number is “subject to change and still could be different between now and the beginning of the regular season.”
Downs wore No. 2 at Ohio State. That number currently has been issued to cornerback Cobie Durant, who signed a one-year contract with the team in March. It’s possible Downs will work out a deal with Durant — or that the Cowboys will exercise their prerogative to reclaim the number.
If Downs is going to change from No. 13 to No. 2, here’s hoping it happens soon. If Durant doesn’t return in 2027, Downs could make the change from No. 13 to No. 2, rendering obsolete any and all jerseys purchased in 2026.
Colts wide receiver Josh Downs will be looking for the date of one game in particular when the 2026 schedule is released later this month.
The Colts will be hosting the Cowboys at some point during the regular season and that means that Downs will have a chance to play against his brother. Safety Caleb Downs was the 11th overall pick of this year’s draft and his early intel about the Cowboys’ plans for him suggest the two brothers will be seeing a lot of each other.
“He told me if he goes to the Cowboys, he’s playing nickel,” Josh Downs said, via James Boyd of TheAthletic.com. “So, that’s like head-to-head all game. I was like, ‘that’s interesting.’ So then he got drafted, I was like ‘you know we play next year’ and he got all hyped. It’s all fun and games, but you know I gotta let him know he’s the little brother in the situation.”
The Cowboys will be in Rio to play the Ravens in Week 3 and Week 18 is reserved for divisional games, but the matchup of the Downs brothers could take place at any other point in the regular season.
Recently, former NFL defensive end and former ESPN and Fox Sports on-air personality Marcellus Wiley was accused of sexual assault by four individuals. The claims, which were addressed in an item on Awful Announcing, were first reported by Rolling Stone on April 29.
On Tuesday morning, Wiley responded publicly to the new accusations on his YouTube show.
“Pick a date, pick the encounter, pick the allegation,” Wiley said. “For every one of them, I either saw, communicated — through email, text, phone — was invited by these individuals after these dates to engage, to be intimate, or all the above. After the dates that are in question, OK? So this matters. Why does it matter? . . . Because it directly contradicts the narrative that they’re trying to present publicly.”
He posed a simple question to the accusers. “Why did you continue to see or maintain friendly communication at minimum that can be verified — will be verified — with someone that you’re accusing after the alleged incidents?”
Wiley compared his situation to the Stefon Diggs criminal trial, which at the time had not yet ended. (On Tuesday, Diggs was acquitted of strangulation and assault charges.)
Unlike Diggs, Wiley faces accusations from multiple persons. Unlike Diggs, Wiley has not faced criminal charges.
Wiley has vowed to defend his name, especially since his son carries that same name.
“To you, it’s about money,” Wiley said. “To me, it’s about my son’s name that he will one day Google and think that this is about him, but he’s gonna know it’s about his dad. And how dare you stain the brain of my child and his hero.”
Wiley did not address any of the details in the allegations. And that’s smart. Anything he says can be used against him in court by the persons who have made the accusations.
On Tuesday night, Wiley posted on Twitter court documents showing that three prior allegations have been dismissed.
Columbia University also has been named in the new lawsuit, which seeks certification of a class action against Wiley and Columbia. Via Rolling Stone, a hearing regarding potential certification of a class action will be held on May 12.
Wiley will have the right to fully and aggressively defend himself against the allegations. And, again, he has faced no criminal charges at any time in connection with any of the claims.
Where the litigation goes from here remains to be seen. Wiley’s initial response makes it clear that he intends to aggressively fight all of the allegations.
Wiley spent 10 years in the NFL, playing for the Bills, Chargers, Cowboys, and Jaguars. He worked for ESPN through 2018, and he then worked at Fox Sports until 2022.
The Cowboys closed the book on the Micah Parsons trade during draft weekend. The team used the extra picks to make even more trades.
In the end. . .
The Cowboys sent the All-Pro edge rusher to the Packers. They traded defensive tackle Mazi Smith and a 2026 second-round pick to the Jets (later traded to the Lions) and the better of their two 2027 first-round picks to the Jets.
The Cowboys acquired defensive lineman Quinnen Williams, defensive lineman Kenny Clark, outside linebacker Malachi Lawrence (23rd overall), cornerback Devin Moore (114th overall) and defensive lineman LT Overton (137th overall).
The team has walked away from Parsons feeling as if they have won the trade.
“We feel really good about it,” executive vice president Stephen Jones told Adam Schein on Mad Dog Sports Radio. “Obviously, much respect for Micah and what he stands for and how he plays and the caliber of player he is. At the same time, we feel good about what we’ve added via that trade. You look at a guy like Quinnen Williams and Kenny Clark. They’re alpha players, who are not only great players on the field, but they’re leaders in the meeting rooms, how about they go about their business in the offseason. Just bring great leadership to this team.
“I just feel very optimistic that we have the right pieces in place. Ultimately, the decision we made was that one player is not worth four or five good ones, and we feel like that’s where we’re going to end up here in a good spot. We had that opportunity there. Didn’t feel like we were one player away last year, but I certainly feel like we’re putting the pieces together to give us an opportunity to go do what our fans deserve, what we want, which is to go and try to win the big trophy.”
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones predicted after the trade that Dallas would turn the trade into “three, four, five, six players for one.”
It’s unlikely that any one of the players the Cowboys acquired is as good as Parsons, but Williams is only 28 and has four Pro Bowls and is a one-time All-Pro. Clark is a three-time Pro Bowler.
The Cowboys, who are switching to a 3-4 defense under new coordinator Christian Parker, will have only three of the same starters from Week 1 of last season in what turned out to be a historically bad defense. If the Cowboys can have even a mediocre defense in 2026, they could contend, even without an All-Pro edge rusher.
The Cowboys signed offensive lineman DJ Winfield, who tried out for the team at their rookie minicamp. The team cut offensive guard Sidney Fugar, Todd Archer of ESPN reports.
The Cowboys have one open roster spot, with Dayo Odeleye getting an international exemption.
Fugar attended three different schools during his college career.
He began at Western Illinois, where he was the starting left tackle as a redshirt freshman, before transferring to South Carolina. With the Gamecocks, Fugar started four games and appeared in 10 at both tackle spots.
He moved on to Baylor, where he played 24 games in two seasons with 15 starts. He ended up starting at left tackle after being listed as a backup left guard.
Cowboys wide receiver George Pickens has signed his franchise tag, but he hasn’t landed a long-term deal with the team and the lack of one has led some to wonder if he might still decide to skip some mandatory work periods this offseason.
The team’s June minicamp is the only part of their program that falls into that category ahead of training camp, which means it is also the only mandatory work before the deadline for Pickens and the Cowboys to come to a multi-year agreement. Pickens would be subject to fines if he did skip that camp and executive vice president Stephen Jones told Adam Schein of Mad Dog Sports Radio on Tuesday that the team expects the wideout to be there while referencing quarterback Dak Prescott doing the same thing after being tagged in 2020.
“Haven’t been told that. Certainly, that’s what we expect,” Jones said. “I mean, anytime a player signs a contract and the expectations, as we hold for all of our players, is when you sign up and you’re under contract and you’re expected to do what your teammates are doing. And certainly, you know, go back to Dak, I know he’s working with Dak and those type of things, but at the end of the day, you know, we will see how this thing plays out.”
There haven’t been any indications that the two sides are making progress toward any longer arrangement and Jones reiterated that the team has “zero interest” in trading Pickens, so the stage is set for more contract talk for Pickens and the team in 2027.
The Cowboys are meeting with a potential addition to their secondary on Tuesday.
Cornerback Adoree’ Jackson is visiting with the team, per a report from NFL reporter Jordan Schultz. The Cowboys currently have one open spot on their 90-man roster.
Jackson played for the Eagles last season and he recorded 55 tackles and an interception in 14 regular season appearances. He also had four tackles in their playoff loss to the 49ers.
The move to the Eagles came after Jackson spent four seasons with the Giants. The 2017 first-round pick spent his first four years in the league with the Titans. He has 459 tackles, five interceptions, six forced fumbles, and five fumble recoveries over the course of his career.
The Cowboys signed Cobie Durant and Derion Kendricks as free agents before drafting Devin Moore in the fourth round last month. DaRon Bland and Shavon Revel are their top returning corners.
