With the launch of training camps comes unbridled optimism, for most teams.
Cowboys guard Tyler Smith is feeling that optimism about his own team, even if it’s been 30 years since Dallas advanced to the NFC Championship.
Asked about his team’s goals for 2025, Smith said this, via Todd Archer of ESPN.com: “Super Bowl champions. That’s always the expectation.”
It’s the expectation for plenty of the 31 teams that eventually won’t make it to the top of the mountain.
“I think it’s a realistic goal, yeah,” Smith said.
Why is it realistic?
“Because we can win a Super Bowl,” Smith said. “Why not? Why can’t we win? Do you think it’s unrealistic?”
It’s realistic, technically. They are one of the 32 teams that have a chance to do it. Whether they’ll be good enough to overcome the elite teams in the NFC and then to outscore the eventual AFC champion is a different issue.
“I think we built a great core on offense; the addition of [receiver] George [Pickens] and all the other key pieces,” Smith said. “I think drafting [guard Tyler] Booker [in the first round], he’s going to be a hell of a guy just to bolster the front line. And we have many guys across the board, but those are some of the guys who are the key pieces on what we do this year.”
Smith isn’t wrong. But there are many variables, starting with health. A rash of injuries can derail expectations. Even if the Cowboys manage to avoid losing key players for extended stretches, can they compete with the likes of the Eagles, Lions, Buccaneers, 49ers, Rams, Commanders, Vikings, Packers?
While the team’s three decades of Super Bowl futility are irrelevant to whatever happens this year, it’s hard to forget about the forgettable seasons. Hovering over all of it is whether the front office can get linebacker Micah Parsons’s contract situation resolved.
Even if he shows up on Monday, he likely won’t be practicing until a deal is done. And that could be enough to make an early-season win become a loss, with that loss being the difference between winning the division or missing the postseason entirely.
They’ll have a great opportunity, right out of the gates. They start the season in Philadelphia. Beat the Eagles, and they’ll be on their way.
Either way, there will still be 16 more games to go. Which will include contests against all teams from the NFC North (which sent three teams to the postseason in 2024) and the AFC West (which did the same).
How realistic their chances are in January will depend directly on what they do from September through December.
Still, July is the time for seeing the glass as half full. Even if, yet again, it comes up empty.