Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones alluded to sizable changes on defense before his team lost to the New York Giants in the season finale.

When Roger Staubach was 33, he had five more Pro Bowl seasons ahead of him. He led the Cowboys to two Super Bowls, beating the Denver Broncos and losing to the Pittsburgh Steelers. But Staubach's age 33 season was only his third year as the full-time starter.

While the significance to April’s draft is not lost on Giants fans, New York played like a team that was determined to finish out the 2025 season on a high in Sunday’s win over the Dallas Cowboys.

Playoff team draft order is a mixture of what round they are eliminated in, and then winning percentage. So if the Packers bow out as a wild-card loser (they've now lost four in a row), then the slot they give to Dallas will be No. 20 with a Steelers win, or No. 21 with a Baltimore win.

The 2025 Dallas Cowboys season is officially in the books, as a 34-17 loss against the New York Giants capped off a 7-8-1 record for the team. This one featured both familiar issues for Dallas and brought some hope for 2026.

He could accomplish something Sunday his Cowboys quarterback predecessors never did. A Dallas quarterback has never led the NFL in passing. Entering Sunday’s Week 18 regular-season finale, Prescott’s 4,

"We’ve got one of the best offenses in the league and unfortunately one of the not so good defenses in the league," Prescott said.

With the conclusion of the 2025 season, here’s a look at next year’s slate of opponents for the Dallas Cowboys.

With Prescott's campaign complete, he finishes the season with starts in all 17 games, completing 404-of-600 passes for 4,552 yards with 30 touchdowns to ten interceptions. He added 53 rushes for 177 yards and two more scores.