3 ways the Cowboys can improve on offense in 2026

The Dallas Cowboys are coming off their most disappointing healthy Dak Prescott season of his career. A large reason for that was because of the struggles on the defensive side of the ball. While the Cowboys offense was still very good in 2025 (fifth in EPA/play, sixth in success rate, second in yards per game, and seventh in points per game), there are a few areas they could improve in 2026.

Here are three ways the Cowboys offense can be even better in 2026 to hopefully get them back into the playoffs.

A fully healthy George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb

The first-year of George Pickens was as eventful as anyone could have hoped. Pickens addition to the offense added an explosive element to the Cowboys’ passing attack that we haven’t seen in a few years. But CeeDee Lamb missed multiple games in 2025 with a high-ankle sprain and a concussion suffered in the Detroit Lions loss. With Lamb missing time throughout the season, George Pickens was asked to carry a heavy workload as the teams WR1 for parts of the season. Pickens shined for the most part in those games, but keeping both Lamb and Pickens healthy and on the field together for all 17 games would help the Cowboys offense be even more efficient, put up more yards and points in 2026.

More aggression on fourth down

Despite the team having a very disappointing year record-wise, first year head coach Brian Schottenheimer did a very nice job of running the offense in 2025. It’s easy to forget now, but there were some serious concerns with how this offense would look under Schottenheimer after how things ended in Seattle as the team’s play-caller. Overall, there were few complaints regarding the play-calling and play design, but one thing that will need to improve moving forward is Schottenheimer’s aggressiveness on fourth down.