Dallas Cowboys will get plenty of national exposure in 2017

The NFL released the official 2017 schedule Thursday, and the NFL fans will get to see plenty of the Dallas Cowboys.

A successful regular season typically gives NFL teams plenty of exposure the following season, and the Dallas Cowboys are no exception this time. Following an NFC-best 13-3 regular season last year, NFL fans will see the Cowboys featured in five primetime games in 2017, including a Sunday night opener against the New York Giants. But before we look at the key games, here are some highlights about the schedule in general.

Dallas has a bye in week six that leads into the most difficult stretch of the schedule. Three of four games will be on the road and the last two teams they face in that stretch made the playoffs in 2016. It’s also incredibly balanced.

In total, they play seven of their 16 games against playoff teams from last season. The schedule splits that as evenly as possible with three in the front half and four in the back. However, only three of those seven games come on the road. Interestingly, their home opponents combined for a record of 67-59-2 last season. Their road opponents had the exact same 67-59-2 record as well. Of course, that also means a pretty difficult schedule both on the road and at home.

Now let’s look a little more in-depth at the big games for next season. We do still have the 2017 NFL Draft on the offseason schedule and free agency has not completed, yet. But that doesn’t mean we can’t take an early look at the key games and break them down. So, here are the highlights for this season’s Dallas Cowboys schedule.