Dallas City News

Dallas Cowboys 2024 NFL schedule release: Dates, times, primetime games and more – RJ Ochoa, BTB

The Cowboys 2024 schedule is out.

It was a bit jarring to see that the Cowboys’ home opener is a 1 PM ET kickoff. They have not had a home opener to a season in the early slate since 2020 (the watermelon kick game against Dan Quinn’s Atlanta Falcons).

Playing on a Thursday night so early in the season is extremely weird and uncommon. In fact, since the dawn of Thursday Night Football in 2006 this has never happened. Getting one out of the way is nice, but having to experience a road Thursday game is something Dallas had avoided until 2022 when they played the Tennessee Titans. Amazon has paid a lot for the TNF package and clearly want to get their money’s worth. Now the Cowboys will have two separate parts of their season with Thursday interruptions.

That Steelers game will mark the third road trip in the first five weeks of the season for the Cowboys. Some simple math tells us that the remaining 12 games will feature “only” five road trips. It did not work out in the playoffs obviously, but Dallas was tremendous at home last year. Having the bulk of home games take place over the second half of the season is a good thing for this team.

Dallas drew the in-state Texans on Monday Night Football in Week 11, but what is notable is what that game kickstarts. Normally the Cowboys go from Sunday to Sunday to Thanksgiving, a three-game stretch in 12 days (they often have played on the Thursday after as well). By playing on the Monday that is 10 days before Thanksgiving that is now shortened to three games in 11 days, not to mention that Dallas also plays on a Thursday night earlier in the season as noted against the Giants.

Cowboys, Chiefs, Bills set to play on MNF two times each – Todd Brock, USA Today

As per usual, Dallas will be having their share of primetime games.

The Cowboys know where and when they’ll be to start the 2024 season, but the rest of the schedule is still a bit murky.

Leave it to Joe Buck to provide some clarity.

The play-by-play man appeared on ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday to offer a preview of the coming slate for Monday Night Football, and in the process, he dropped a major hint about the Cowboys’ primetime presence.

“We know that we also have the Cowboys twice,” he said at one point, without revealing any more than that.

It’s important to point out that Buck’s comments do not necessarily mean the Cowboys will play two Monday night games. (Although they certainly could.) The MNF crew has traditionally handled games on other nights of the week, like in Week 17 last season when the Lions and Cowboys played a Saturday evening contest.

The Cowboys’ two MNF games will likely come against top-tier opponents. After opening Week 1 (on a Sunday) against the Browns, Dallas will play eight additional games versus teams that made the postseason last year: Baltimore, Detroit, Houston, Philadelphia, and Tampa Bay at home; Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and San Francisco on the road. All of those games have to be considered strong possibilities for the MNF slate.

Of course, there’s also a home date with the Bengals- who just missed the playoffs- and two meetings (one home, one away) with Dan Quinn and the Commanders that could provide palpable drama.

Buck went on to say that both the Chiefs and Bills will also appear on the MNF schedule twice in the coming season.

Zimmer tells ‘ideal’ plan for Mazi Smith, run defense – Patrik Walker, DallasCowboys.com

Zimmer hopes last year’s first-round pick comes into form this season.

Not since the release of X-Men ‘97 have so many been concerned with the fate of a Wolverine. But when it comes to former first-round pick Mazi Smith, fans of the Dallas Cowboys are wondering what Year 2 will reveal from the former Michigan defensive tackle, seeing as Year 1 was ultimately one he, and all involved, would probably like to forget.

Enter Mike Zimmer, the former Cowboys’ defensive coordinator turned current Cowboys’ defensive coordinator with the potential to become Dallas’ version of Professor Xavier.

That is to say he’s already working through Smith’s psyche to determine what went wrong in 2023 — a season that saw Smith, a nose tackle, dip to below 300 pounds from his pre-draft weight of roughly 325 pounds.

But, why did he?

“He lost a lot of weight when he got here,” said Xav- … er… um … Zimmer. “He was trying to be an attacking 3-technique to get up the field.”

Whilst that was clearly Dan Quinn’s plan, it simply will not do for what Zimmer has on the agenda — a coordinator that famously relies heavily on dominant play from both his linebackers and his defensive tackles. And the latter has to include an impact nose tackle that eats up blockers and stops the run on the inside.

It’s what Smith did at Michigan, and it’s what Zimmer wants him doing for the Cowboys.

“We’re gonna probably play blocks a little bit more, and try not to get reached so linebackers know where they’re supposed to fit — so forth and so on,” he said of Smith. “That’s the biggest thing. … Yeah, it’s what he did in college.”

Smith underwent shoulder surgery this offseason that’s forced him into injury rehab, but the good news is he’s not only on the mend, but he’s also already gained weight toward what he and Zimmer have identified as the “ideal weight”; though Zimmer stopped short of revealing what that number is.

Cowboys to utilize running back-by-committee approach: What it means for Ezekiel Elliott – Garrett Podell, CBS Sports

Elliott will just be one of the running backs Dallas uses this season.

Three-time Pro Bowl running back Ezekiel Elliott returns to the Dallas Cowboys in 2024, and as far as his presence in the locker room, nothing has changed.

“It’s probably as natural of a transition that you’ll ever see,” Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy said Saturday, via The Athletic. “He walked in and he has that unbelievable smile and it’s just like he never left. Huge personality in the locker room. He definitely puts you on guard because he’s old school. He’s an old-school guy. He’ll go up and smack a 60-year-old man [McCarthy] on the ass, and it hurts. It’s those kinds of things that you just enjoy about him, not that I enjoy getting smacked on the ass, but just enjoy his personality and having him back in the building and things like that.”

“We’re a running back by committee [team],” McCarthy said. “But I think he’ll definitely play at the level that he’s played at in my time here [since 2020]. I don’t see any drop-off in the way he moves. He’s in good shape. … He has come in here and picked up right where he left off.”

Dallas’ coaching staff will now be forced to become more creative as they won’t simply be slotting in either Elliott or the departed Tony Pollard as the primary ball carrier. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing because none of the last seven Super Bowl champions had a player rush for 1,000 or more yards. The last team to win it all and have a 1,000-yard rusher was all the way back in the 2016 season when a 30-year-old LeGarrette Blount ran for 1,161 rushing yards on 299 carries for the New England Patriots. Quarterback Tom Brady finished second in NFL MVP voting that season.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a challenge. I think it’s exciting,” Cowboys offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer said Tuesday when asked about being a running back by committee team. ”I think part of our process now is figuring out what all these guys do. Well, it’s nothing that’s new to the league.”