3 things the Cowboys still have to play for as their season slips away

The Dallas Cowboys enter Week 16 of the season hanging onto their postseason hopes by half a thread. At this point, it’ll take a lot of help to get the Cowboys into the playoffs for a fourth consecutive year under head coach Mike McCarthy. However, just because the Cowboys will be heading home early this year, that doesn’t mean they have nothing to play for. That’s what we’re looking at here as we head into the final three weeks of the 2024 NFL season.

Playing for pride

This goes without saying but NFL players aren’t actively looking to tank for draft position. When the running joke is about your league's initials meaning “Not For Long,” there’s no way you’d purposely give management an easier way to bring in your replacement. The front office may want to go that route at times but coaches and players are trying to win until the final whistle of the season.

Unless the team has given up on the coaching staff, all bets could be off. However, for the most part, NFL players are a prideful bunch. Dallas is 6-8 and all hope of making the playoffs is just about flushed down the toilet. But that doesn’t mean they can’t make life hell for other teams before they hit Cancun for winter vacation.

Contracts (Micah Parsons most importantly)

Something forever on the minds of players and a team’s front office is securing that next contract, which becomes all the more prevalent when playing for a losing team. The most important contract extension on the horizon for Jerry Jones and the Cowboys would be that of Micah Parsons.

"I understand how that business side goes. Listen, no hard feeling in this business," Parsons said. "I'm here and I ain't anywhere else. Obviously, I've stated how I wanted to be here. But at the end of the day, I understand the business side. And I put in a lot of work. I play too hard so obviously if the sides can't agree to those type of things, it happens like that. But I'm just happy to be here and I'm just going to keep fighting hard while I'm here. And if I'm here for the next five or six years, I'm going to keep playing hard then too. Ain't really nothing going to make a difference, Micah's going to play hard."

Parsons’ first four games of the year were nothing to get excited about with just one sack and an ankle injury suffered in Week 4 against the New York Giants. After missing four games, Parsons returned in a loss to the Philadelphia Eagles but doubled his sack total in that one game. In six games back on the field since the ankle injury, Parsons has 7.5 sacks.

After those first four games, it felt like this season was going to be a wash for Parsons combined with the lengthy injury absence. While the Cowboys have been mediocre to horrible overall this season, Parsons has managed to salvage what started out just as bad for him individually. This second-half resurgence should go a long way in securing the bag for the All-Pro edge rusher.

“We love Micah,” Stephen Jones said when addressing the contract situation. “I can’t imagine a scenario where he’s not wearing the star on his helmet.”

Play spoiler

Another thing Dallas can play for at the end of the season is pure unadulterated hate. The Cowboys’ final two games this season are against division rivals jockeying for playoff position. In Week 17 Dallas is in Philly and the No. 1 seed in the NFC could be on the line. The Eagles are locked in a three-way tie atop the conference with the Detroit Lions and Minnesota Vikings, at 12-2. What better way to exact a little revenge on the Eagles than for the Cowboys to beat them in Philadelphia that week?

Then, in the season finale, the Cowboys welcome the Washington Commanders and former defensive coordinator, Dan Quinn back to Big D. Dallas beat Washington last month, so the Commanders are looking to get their lick back plus they could potentially need this game to clinch a playoff berth. So, there is plenty of potential for the Cowboys to make noise late in the season although it most likely won’t land them in the postseason.