The Dallas Cowboys' schedule came out Thursday night, and while fans were eager to see the times, channels and early predictions, we found out the Cowboys got completely screwed by the NFL, and they won't have much rest early in the season.
We already knew the Cowboys would be playing in Rio de Janeiro in Week 3, but that didn't stop the NFL from testing them in the worst way possible.
From Weeks 3 to 5, the Cowboys have the ultimate gauntlet schedule, and it's going to be a tall order. As Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram says, that stretch will be an "absolute nightmare."
The Cowboys will play three games in 11 days early in the season
The Cowboys’ early season stretch is an absolute nightmare.
— Nick Harris (@NickHarrisFWST) May 14, 2026
Traveling 11 hours back from Rio de Janeiro, going on the road for a noon game in Houston, and turning around for a Thursday night game all in 11 days will be incredibly difficult.
All of that, just to go back on the… https://t.co/ZPtTyOIJtE
The NFL did America's Team no favors at all here.
We're expecting to see an exhausted team by Week 5. After the Cowboys play the Ravens in Brazil, they will travel to Houston for a noon game, and then get ready for a Thursday night game against Tampa Bay.
It's also a rough stretch, considering all three teams are solid teams that can give Dallas some trouble. But the real trouble is from the NFL giving the Cowboys so much work from traveling overseas to and back, and expecting a team to play football.
This was just like what happened last year when the Cowboys had a stretch from pre-Thanksgiving week to a Thursday night in Week 14 against the Detroit Lions. We can argue that the 2026 schedule is somewhat better, considering the Cowboys don't have to go through such a gauntlet late in the season.
Instead, this will be an early challenge for them, and they won't have to worry about going through that kind of stretch during a playoff push. They will also get some normalcy after the Thanksgiving shenanigans, as the Cowboys will play a Monday night game after their Thanksgiving Day game against the Philadelphia Eagles.
Harris adds that we will learn a lot about this time in the first seven weeks of the season. That could be a good thing, considering an international trip can cause a team to bond differently. However, this gauntlet the Cowboys got screwed with could end up with a 3-4 record by Week 7.
Maybe we can end up in the right direction with a 3-0 record, but this is still a travesty by the NFL giving the Cowboys an unfair advantage.
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