No respect for the Dallas Cowboys in recent rankings

With week one of the NFL season upon us, many in the national media say the Dallas Cowboys are, at best, a middle-of-the-pack team. Is Dallas being underrated?

A quick glance at the power rankings and you will quickly see the Dallas Cowboys are viewed as anything more than a middle-of-the-pack team. The average is between 15-19 in the rankings. Robert Mays over at The RInger has them as the 25th team in the league (Although in fairness he does say in the best case scenario they could be much better).

The Dallas Cowboys don’t really have a guy at wide receiver you just look at and say, that is the guy. Michael Gallup looks like he could be that guy, but we really don’t know what this corps is. Allen Hurns has had injuries and really only had one 1000 yard season. On paper the corps doesn’t impress much. Sure, Dak Prescott should be able to spread the ball out, but until you actually see it, I suppose just looking on paper this is a middle of the pack receiving corps at best.

The next issue is the offensive line. With Travis Frederick out, the knee injury to Zack Martin (who should be fine), and Tyron Smith’s chronic back issues, the offensive line, looking from the outside, could be a little bit of a concern. The depth isn’t very good, so another injury or two on the line could be an absolute disaster.

Also, while this defense performed well down the stretch last year, recent history states the Cowboys have not had a “great” defense. Sure, Sean Lee has had injury problems, but this linebacking corps might just be the best in the league. The corners should be better, and the defensive line will surprise a lot of people. But again, until it is actually seen in the regular season a lot of people are not throwing a ton of support behind it. As someone who follows this team, I think they will be proven wrong, but if you don’t follow this team closely, you probably don’t know.

The last big reason is Jason Garrett. There seems to be a consensus that Garrett is unoriginal and a mediocre coach. While I personally don’t disagree, this is a big year for Garrett and he will be out to keep his job and prove he is better than a lot of people think. It looks like there are some scheme changes this year, but again, history would lead you to feel Garrett is an average coach, so why not rank his team that way.

With the first game a few days away, there should be a better picture starting to form on what this team will actually be. Some fans I have talked to think this team is easily a 12 or 13 win team and that the offense and defense will be unstoppable. Others I have talked to think this is a 4 or 5 win team that needs a ton of help on offense and even a little on defense. Just averaging all of that out puts the Cowboys right in the middle of the pack.