Tag: Todd Archer

Vegas has Cowboys at just 9.5 wins in 2021; ESPN takes the under

Caesars Sportsbook thinks Dallas will just barely top the .500 mark this season; one team insider thinks that may be too optimistic.

It’s that time of year when rose-colored positivity abounds for Cowboys fans. Dak Prescott is signed and cruising down the road to recovery. Ezekiel Elliot is looking spry in posted workout videos. The lawfirm of Cooper, Gallup, and Lamb is on track to be a monster triple threat. The O-line is going to be healthy and angry. The defense has a brilliant new coordinator who’ll turn the ship around. The team will draft only perfect-fit prospects. No one will get hurt in camp. They’ll run the table and turn in an undefeated season en route to another Lombardi Trophy!!

Okay, maybe not. But yes, hope springs eternal in April in the NFL… at least until professional oddsmakers and network analysts jump in and rain on the parade with things like logic and reason.

Cowboys Nation won’t like what either party has to say about the 2021 team’s chances for a vast improvement over 2020.

Caesars Sportsbook by William Hill has released its initial win projections for each of the NFL’s 32 teams, just as over/under wagering was set to open on Friday. (The league announced it had signed a multiyear partnership deal with Caesars Entertainment and two companies other on Thursday.) And ESPN took the opportunity to have its NFL Nation reporters weigh in on those projections.

Caesars has Dallas’s 2021 win total pegged at 9.5 games.

But ESPN’s Todd Archer is taking the under. He’s predicting just a nine-win season for the squad.

He writes:

“As much as optimism will reign with the returns to health of Dak Prescott, Tyron Smith, Zack Martin, La’el Collins, and Blake Jarwin, the Cowboys’ defense has a lot to prove with a new coordinator in Dan Quinn. Maybe they will have all of the answers, but the Cowboys’ nondivision schedule looks to be difficult. They play at Kansas City, at Tampa Bay, at New England and at New Orleans. It is possible they lose all of those games, which puts a premium on the rest of the schedule to reach more than 9.5 wins. Of course, nine wins could still win the NFC East.”

A divisional crown would be welcome for the club that watched all of last year’s postseason from their sofas, but the Cowboys are certainly aiming for loftier goals than a 9-8 record.

Whether they go on to create a nice payday for bettors who take the over, though, only time will tell.

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ESPN free agency power rankings: Cowboys 11th

Dallas has lost a few big-name players, but recent acquisitions have helped put them on the doorstep of the Top 10 in the new rankings.

It’s all theoretical at this point. There’s no actual football happening anywhere. Guys are coming and going, the roster is evolving, some holes are being created, others are getting filled. But the 2020 Dallas Cowboys exist only on paper right now, and while fans can like or dislike the moves that have been made thus far this offseason, no one can yet say with any certainty if those changes have made the team better or worse on the field, where it matters.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth trying. ESPN has tasked its NFL Nation reporters and a “power panel” made up of writers, editors, and TV personalities with sorting all 32 teams based on where they sit right now. After weighing recent personnel losses with free agency acquisitions, the Cowboys have climbed a spot since Super Bowl Sunday. As Todd Archer writes, they’re poised on the doorstep of a Top 10 ranking.

11. Dallas Cowboys

“The Cowboys’ top goal was to keep quarterback Dak Prescott and wide receiver Amari Cooper, and they did that with the exclusive franchise tag and a five-year contract, respectively. They have suffered some losses, such as Byron Jones, Randall Cobb, Robert Quinn and the retired Travis Frederick, but they knew they could not pay big money to everyone. They added Gerald McCoy and kept Sean Lee, Anthony Brown and Joe Looney — which takes on added significance after Frederick’s retirement — but are they better now than last season’s 8-8 finish? It’s difficult to say yes, but there is the draft to consider.”

Dallas occupied the No. 12 slot in the network’s “Way-too-early rankings” following the Chiefs’ Super Bowl win on February 2. The watchword for the club then was “hope.” The hiring of coach Mike McCarthy had Archer feeling optimistic about the Cowboys’ chances for improvement. Now, despite those big-name losses in the locker room, they have climbed the ladder by a single rung.

For what it’s worth, the Cowboys also occupy 11th place in NFL.com’s latest power rankings, up two spots from No. 13 in the previous version.