Finally. It's officially game-week for the Cowboys and a short week at that.
The rest of the NFL has to wait until at least Sunday to kick off the season but the Cowboys and Eagles will get the 2025 regular season started with a bang 鈥 opening night in Philly.
Here are the 10 big storylines for the week, with five for the Eagles and five for the Cowboys.
Eagles
This must be heaven for the Eagles fans. Not only is football back, but they get to celebrate last year's Super Bowl season with a celebratory ring ceremony before the game. And even better for them, it all happens right in front of their hated rivals. The Eagles get to hang another Super Bowl banner and traditionally the excitement in Week 1 is good for the home team. In the last 25 years, the defending champs are 21-4 in Week 1, but two of those defeats have occurred in the last three years. And another was by the Cowboys, who beat the Giants in 2012 to open the season.
Saquon Barkley became the ninth player in NFL history to have a 2,000-yard rushing season and proved his worth all through the regular season and playoffs. He's a dynamic runner and receiver for the Eagles and the Cowboys have talked about it all week that stopping, or at least containing Barkley is the key to success. Last year in the two games with the Cowboys, he rushed for a combined 233 yards but did not score a TD in either game.
Jalen Hurts proved all of his critics wrong when he not only led the Eagles to a Super Bowl title, but won MVP honors in the process. Hurts has plenty of weapons around him in Barkley, plus receivers A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith but the Eagles just added more speed to the table, trading for John Metchie, a former second-round pick of the Texans who joins a stellar receiver group. Throw in tight end Dallas Goedert and the Eagles once again have plenty of options for Hurts when he chooses to throw.
Speaking of throwing, the Eagles have had changes to their own secondary, particularly with the departures of veterans Darius Slay and C.J. Gardner-Johnson, Philly has somewhat of an experienced group of defensive backs, but still very talented with the likes of Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. With the Eagles' stout pass-rush up front, they don't seem to be too concerned about the turnover back in the secondary. But with the Cowboys bringing in their best group of receivers in a while, this could be a challenge for the Eagles.
The Eagles have some injuries to monitor, including guard Landon Dickerson, who had meniscus surgery on Aug. 13 and had returned to practice last week. This week, he's been limited, creating some uncertainty if he'll be ready to go in the middle of the Eagles' line.
Cowboys
The biggest news for the Cowboys 鈥 not only this past week but the entire offseason 鈥 finally got some resolution a few days ago when Micah Parsons was traded to the Packers. That doesn't exactly affect this upcoming game, except for the fact Parsons won't be rushing the Eagles off the edge. And the interior defense seems to be better with Kenny Clark now joining the Cowboys in the trade. But the overall ramifications of the trade remain to be seen. The Cowboys must prove they still have enough depth in their pass-rushers to make a difference in a game against an Eagles offense loaded with weapons.
It's hard for any storyline to trump a new head coach making his debut, but that's what happened with Parsons. Still, the fact Brian Schottenheimer has taken over this team and will become the 10th head coach in Cowboys history is still something to address. Schottenheimer has said all the right things and seemingly made a lot of great moves this offseason, but the son of legendary coach Marty Schottenheimer knows he will be judged by wins and losses and they start counting for real on Thursday.
For the first time since 2023, Dak Prescott takes the field against the Eagles. He missed both games last year and that was part of the reason Philly held a decisive 75-13 combined advantage in those games. This time around, Prescott has more weapons than we've seen in a while with CeeDee Lamb, George Pickens and even KaVontae Turpin looks to be a big contributor in the offense, along with Jake Ferguson, Jalen Tolbert and the running game of veterans Javonte Williams and Miles Sanders.
Question marks on the offensive line start with left tackle Tyler Guyton, who suffered a bone fracture in his knee during training camp. He's been practicing and it looks like he's got a real shot to play at left tackle Thursday night. If not, Nate Thomas would likely get the start and make his NFL debut in the process.
Another injury situation to watch is at cornerback, where Trevon Diggs has been steadily rehabbing his knee injury from last year. The Cowboys chose not to put him on IR to start the season, meaning he could play in at least one of the first four games. It could be as early as Thursday, especially after Diggs said this week he has a "75-80 percent" chance of playing against the Eagles and will continue to work to be able to get on the field come Thursday night.
