2026 Cowboys preseason: These stats are becoming hard to ignore

GLENDALE, ARIZONA - AUGUST 22: Joe Milton III #10 of the Dallas Cowboys throws a pass during the second quarter of the preseason NFL game against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium on August 22, 2026 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) | Getty Images

The preseason is a cracked and murky crystal ball from which everybody is trying to divine some meaning, even though making any type of predictions based on preseason results is largely a hit-and-miss affair.

We all know that preseason performance is a notoriously fickle indicator of regular-season performance. The 2008 Lions are the best example of that, going 4-0 in the preseason and ending up 0-16 in the regular season. In 2014, the Cowboys also famously went 0-4 in the preseason and still ended up tied for the best record in the league with 12-4.

But that’s not going to stop us from reviewing some key stats and their development over the first two preseason games.

Starts, Snaps counts, Risers & Fallers

Even in preseason games in which the Cowboys sit almost all of their presumptive regular season starters, somebody still has to start, which effectively already establishes two tiers among the backups: Starters and subs.

And now that we’re two games into the preseason, we even have a second separator: players marked in blue in the table below have now started two preseason games, players in green were promoted to starters in week 2, and players marked in yellow lost their week 1 starting spot.

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Cowboys’ offensive snap count vs Cardinals
	OL		WR		TE		RB		QB
Tier	Player	Snaps	Player	Snaps	Player	Snaps	Player	Snaps	Player	Snaps
Starters	D. Shelton	55	T. Johnson	38	L.Schoonmaker	8	M.Davis	14	J.Milton	31
	T.Keegan	53	C.Brown	28
	N.Leverett	53	J.Mingo	18
	A.Cornelius	53
	N.Thomas	31
Subs	S.Gutierrez	30	M.Valdes-S.	23	Z.Kuntz	43	J.Blue	27	S.Howell	28
	C.Glaser	10	A.Smith	22			I.Abanikanda	15
	D.Wingfield	6	J.Hudson	18			Mafah	3
	M.Johnson	6	D.Mims	17
	S.Pete	6	J. Smith	13
Legend	Blue: 2 Preseason starts			Green: Promoted to starter Wk 2			Yellow: Demoted to sub in Wk 2

So what we see here is that the starting O-line from last week was largely back. T.J. Bass did not play at all and was replaced by Nick Leverett, who got his first preseason start.

Lots of movement at WR where only Jonathan Mingo kept his starting spot. Tyler Johnson and Camden Brown were promoted to starters, while Marquez Valdes-Scantling and Anthony Smith had to take a step back.

At TE, Luke Schoonmaker defaulted as the starter, as the Cowboys played with just two tight ends the whole game. Malik Davis got the nod over Jaydon Blue at RB, as did Joe Milton at QB over Sam Howell.

In addition to the snap counts, we can also look at the PFF grades for the top and bottom guys.

Top 10 PFF Grades, Offense vs ARI
Player	POS	Grade
Jonathan Mingo	WR	91.1
Joe Milton III	QB	86.2
Ajani Cornelius	RG	83.5
Luke Schoonmaker	TE	81.8
Trevor Keegan	OG	81.0
Israel Abanikanda	RB	76.0
Marcellus Johnson	RT	75.9
Nick Leverett	OC	74.1
Phil Mafah	RB	71.0
Camden Brown	WR	70.5
Bottom 5 PFF Grades, Offense
DJ Wingfield	RT	54.4
Tyler Johnson	WR	54.1
Sebastian Gutierrez	RT	51.9
Shiyazh Pete	LT	44.5
Drew Shelton	LT	28.9

The conclusions here are that the running backs had a good night and that four O-line backups looked good, but that problems remain at left tackle depth and overall consistency across the backup O-line.

On to the defense, where only five week 1 starters returned as starters in week 2.

Cowboys’ defensive snap count vs Cardinals
	DT		OLB		ILB		CB		Safety
Tier	Player	Snaps	Player	Snaps	Player	Snaps	Player	Snaps	Player	Snaps
Starters	J.Toia	34	J. Houston	18	J. Barham	22	S.Revel	5	J.Wood	46
	LT Overton	21	M.Lawrence	5	S.James	19	D.Kendrick	35	A.Clark	49
							A.Speed	28
Subs	T.Dunn	31	S.Williams	32	J. Barron	48	R.Steward	45
	DJ Withers	30	M.Liufau	28	C. Robinson	27	T.Bridges	31
	A.Odeleye	20	I.Land	25	L. Patterson	14	C.Carson	28
			T. Wheat	22			D.Moore	20
							J.Butler	18
							Z.Childress	14
Legend	Blue: 2 Preseason starts			Green: Promoted to starter Wk 2			Yellow: Demoted to sub in Wk 2

Caleb Downs and P.J. Locke didn’t play against the Cardinals, so their starting spots were up for grabs. Four other players “lost” their week 1 starting jobs (D.J. Withers, Marist Liufau, Curtis Robinson, and Caelen Carson) and in their stead, James Houston, Jaishawn Barham, Derion Kendrick, Ameer Speed, Julius Wood, and Alijah Clark were promoted to starters.

The top and bottom PFF Grades don’t necessarily reflect those movements.

Top 10 PFF Grades, Defense vs ARI
Player	POS	Grade
Jaishawn Barham	OLB/ILB	90.1
Tyrus Wheat	DT	78.1
Caelen Carson	CB	76.4
Julius Wood	S	75.5
Sam Williams	OLB	72.6
Ameer Speed	CB	70.9
Malachi Lawrence	OLB	67.2
Justin Barron	LB	66.0
Zion Childress	S	65.2
Derion Kendrick	CB	64.1
Bottom 5 PFF Grades, Defense
Shavon Revel	CB	46.1
Curtis Robinson	LB	37.8
Adedayo Odeleye	DT	32.8
Jay Toia	DT	30.3
James Houston	OLB	27.0

Jaishawn Barham had a strong day, as did the two safeties along with Sam Williams and Malachi Lawrence coming off the edge. Shavon Revel, despite his interception, ranked quite low, and James Houston also doesn’t look great in this table.

PFF Cowboys Rookie Preseason Grades

Here’s how the Cowboys rookies were graded across the two games.

Cowboys Rookie PFF Grades
Player	POS	Week 1	Week 2
Jaishawn Barham	OLB/ILB	– –	90.1
Camden Brown	WR	91.5	70.5
Malachi Lawrence	OLB	80.1	67.2
D.J. Withers	DT	56.9	62.5
Anthony Smith	WR	55.8	62.3
Langston Patterson	LB	55.3	62.2
Jordan Hudson	WR	68.9	61.4
LT Overton	DT	60.1	61.1
DJ Wingfield	OL	75.6	54.4
Tommy Dunn	DT	61.1	49.0
Devin Moore	CB	– –	48.6
Shiyazh Pete	LT	68.2	44.5
Drew Shelton	LT	48.5	28.9
Caleb Downs	DB	63.2	– –
Michael Trigg	TE	60.2	– –
Kelvin Gilliam	DT	57.6	– –
DJ Rogers	TE	24.3	– –

All eyes were on Jaishawn Barham, and he lived up to his training camp accolades with the highest rookie grade in week 2. Overall though, week 2 was a bit of a damper for the rookie class. Only D.J. Withers, Anthony Smith, Langston Patterson, and LT Overton improved their grades versus week 1.

Top 10 preseason grades

Context always matters with these grades, and just comparing them internally against teammates may not always value some of the better grades properly.

The following table lists all Cowboys players that rank within the top 10 at their position after two weeks of preseason, ranked by their total offensive or defensive grade.

Cowboys players ranked within Top 10 of their position groups
Position	Min. requirement	Player	PFF Grade	NFL Rank
Offense
QB	(min 25 snaps)	Joe Milton III	80.5	3
WR	(min 5 targets)	Jonathan Mingo	90.5	3
WR	(min 5 targets)	Camden Brown	89.7	5
TE	(min 5 targets)	—	—	—
RB	(min 15 snaps)	Israel Abanikanda	71.7	5
OG	(min 35 snaps)	Ajani Cornelius	84.2	2
OG	(min 35 snaps)	Trevor Keegan	82.2	10
OC	(min 35 snaps)	Nick Leverett	74.6	4
Defense
DI	(min 15 snaps)	—	—	—
Edge	(min 15 snaps)	Jaishawn Barham	90.1	3
LB	(min 15 snaps)	—	—	—
Safety	(min 15 snaps)	Julius Wood	83.0	9

That’s a total of nine players ranked within the Top 10 of their position groups, which is not bad, and suggests the Cowboys do have some quality backups in their line up. The list is a bit skewed in favor of the offense, which suggests the depth there may be better than on defense. Also note the positions at which the Cowboys don’t have any players in the Top 10; these may arguably be the weakest positions in terms of backup quality.

Defensive passer rating

The Cowboys started the preseason by allowing a defensive passer rating (DPR) of just 88.6 against the Seahawks. That was almost 12 points lower than what they allowed in last year’s preseason opener, but more importantly, it was lower than what the team allowed in all but one of its regular-season games last year.

Against the Cardinals, the DPR improved further to 75.3. The Cowboys allowed a 109.6 defensive passer rating in 2025, the worst mark in the league. Sunday’s 75.3 rating is 34.3 points lower than last year’s average and would have ranked the Cowboys second in the league last season.

The Cardinals posted a 130.6 passer rating in their first two preseason games and came into Sunday night boasting of their 50-of-59 passing. The Cowboys largely put a stop to all that. Two games of preseason data suggest that what we’re seeing could be real and not just random noise. We’ll see.

YPRR for Cowboys Receivers

Yards Per Route Run (YPRR) is a football metric that measures a pass catcher’s efficiency by dividing their total receiving yards by the number of passing routes they ran, essentially giving us the average number of receiving yards a player makes every time he runs a route.

We looked at the metric in great detail this offseason, go to this post if you need more info.

Here’s the YPRR for both preseason games.

Yards per Route Run, Weeks 1-2
POS	Player	Routes	Yards	YPRR
WR	Camden Brown	27	139	5.15
	Jonathan Mingo	16	82	5.13
	Anthony Smith	31	46	1.48
	Tyler Johnson	21	28	1.33
	Jordan Hudson	26	23	0.88
	Marquez Valdes-Scantling	16	14	0.88
	Jaden Smith	10	0	0.00
	Denzel Mims	9	-1	-0.11
TE	Luke Schoonmaker	5	19	3.80
	Michael Trigg	18	30	1.67
	Zack Kuntz	23	34	1.48
	DJ Rogers	9	2	0.22
RB	Malik Davis	7	8	1.14
	Jaydon Blue	18	15	0.83
	Phil Mafah	9	6	0.67
	Israel Abanikanda	12	0	0.00

As usual, beware the small sample sizes. And yes, it’s just two preseason games, it’s a bunch of second- and third-teamers, preseason stats don’t mean anything, yada, yada, yada.

Still, the table shows that Camden Brown and Jonathan Mingo are creating clear separation across the two weeks at the wide receiver position. Over a full regular season, a YPRR of ≥ 2.0 is considered elite, generally indicating a top-tier wide receiver. It’s the preseason, so things are a bit different, but these are highly encouraging numbers anyway, also considering that Brown and Mingo rank 10th and 11th respectively among all wide receivers this preseason.

Luke Schoonmaker’s 3.80 also looks great, but the small sample caveat applies.

At RB, it’s a bit discouraging not to have a back that is effective and being utilized to run routes.

Hidden yardage

Bill Parcells used to say that a 100-yard advantage in field position (the sum of starting field positions on all drives), or “hidden yardage,” was worth seven points. Brian Schottenheimer recently also talked about penalty differential as “hidden yards”, so here’s a look at the hidden yardage and penalty differential across the two preseason games:

2026 Presason Hidden Yards & Penalty Differential
Metric	vs Seahawks	vs Cardinals
Hidden Yardage differential	-200	+101
Penalty Differential	-32	+43
Total	-232	+144

In week 1, the Seahawks special teams unit clearly outplayed the Cowboys’ unit, and special teams got some very special attention in practice last week. The results versus the Cardinals improved, with the Cowboys recording a sum of starting field positions of 351 yards, while the Cardinals only managed 250, an advantage of +101 yards for the Cowboys.

The overall hidden-yardage number improved dramatically, but the improvement wasn’t primarily about special teams but more about the defense. Shavon Revel’s interception delivered 88 hidden yards, and the turnover on downs on Arizona’s second-last drive accounted for 62 hidden yards. That’s a combined 150 hidden yards generated by the defense, which still leaves a lot of room for improvement on special teams, especially in the return game.

More encouraging is the positive penalty differential, though knowing the Cowboys, that might not last very long.

Passer Rating Differential

We’ve repeatedly shown that passer rating differential is one of the stats most closely linked to winning in the NFL. The Cowboys already have a top ten passing offense, so there isn’t really that much room for improving the passer rating differential via the offense. That leaves the defense.

If the Cowboys are going to make the playoffs in 2026, an improved passer rating differential will be a big part of the equation. Don’t trust anybody who tells you otherwise.

And across two preseason games, for whatever it’s worth, the numbers look good.

2026 Preseason Passer Rating Differential
Metric	vs Seahawks	vs Cardinals	2-game Total
Offensive Passer Rating	119.5	115.1	117.5
Defensive Passer Rating	88.6	75.3	80.8
Passer Rating differential	+30.9	+39.8	+36.7

By itself, the +36.7 looks impressive, but doesn’t mean much. But if you compare it to last year’s league standings, that number provides a lot of hope for the season ahead.

Last year, the 14 playoff teams all ranked within the top 17 teams in Passer Rating Differential (PRD). The table below shows those 14 playoff teams (marked in green) and where they rank relative to the non-playoff teams.

2025 Regular Season Passer Rating Differential
Rk	Tm	OPR	DPR	PRD	Rk	Tm	OPR	DPR	PRD
1	Bills	102.1	79.8	22.3	18	Falcons	85.3	88.4	-3.1
2	Rams	108.0	87.0	21.0	19	Saints	86.6	91.8	-5.2
3	Eagles	94.7	75.4	19.3	20	Chiefs	84.4	89.9	-5.5
4	Seahawks	96.3	77.9	18.4	21	Cardinals	90.1	97.6	-7.5
5	Patriots	111.3	93.1	18.2	22	Giants	86.2	94.3	-8.1
6	Chargers	87.2	75.0	12.2	23	Buccaneers	88.0	97.5	-9.5
7	Texans	88.0	76.2	11.8	24	Bengals	89.5	99.4	-9.9
8	Lions	103.6	92.5	11.1	25	Cowboys	96.8	109.6	-12.8
9	Jaguars	89.3	78.5	10.8	26	Vikings	72.1	86.0	-13.9
10	Broncos	86.8	78.7	8.1	27	Raiders	77.7	96.4	-18.7
11	Packers	100.6	92.7	7.9	28	Dolphins	85.1	105.3	-20.2
12	Ravens	93.8	89.6	4.2	29	Commanders	83.7	104.0	-20.3
13	Colts	91.0	88.0	3.0	30	Browns	67.4	90.0	-22.6
14	Steelers	92.4	92.2	0.2	31	Titans	75.4	108.3	-32.9
15	Bears	89.5	91.4	-1.9	32	Jets	71.6	110.9	-39.3
16	Panthers	85.8	88.2	-2.4
17	49ers	97.6	100.5	-2.9

Last year the Cowboys ranked 25th with a PRD of -12.8. The +36.7 from the two preseason games would have ranked them a clear No. 1 last year and almost certainly put them in the playoff picture – and maybe more. Can the 2026 Cowboys carry their preseason PRD to the regular season? Their season hinges on it.

Preseason Passer Rating Leader

Just leaving this here for your reading pleasure.

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2026 Cowboys preseason: These stats are becoming hard to ignore

Starts, Snaps counts, Risers & Fallers

PFF Cowboys Rookie Preseason Grades

Top 10 preseason grades

Defensive passer rating

YPRR for Cowboys Receivers

Hidden yardage

Passer Rating Differential

Preseason Passer Rating Leader

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2026 Cowboys preseason: These stats are becoming hard to ignore

Starts, Snaps counts, Risers & Fallers

PFF Cowboys Rookie Preseason Grades

Top 10 preseason grades

Defensive passer rating

YPRR for Cowboys Receivers

Hidden yardage

Passer Rating Differential

Preseason Passer Rating Leader

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