Can the Dallas Cowboys put the NFL on notice in the 2026 season? That’s the question that has been troubling the Cowboys community since the offseason. With Dak Prescott and others hyping up the team more than needed, setting the team’s motto as “GOTI,” or “Greatest offense there is,” the noise around the question has grown louder. And former NFL coach Eric Mangini has bluntly refused to ride the hype train.
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“No, they cannot put the league on notice,” Mangini told the panel on FOX’s “First Things First”. “When you talk that much trash about how great you are, the only thing you can do is look bad. That’s it. If they don’t hang 30 or 35, well, that’s a problem.
“This is self-induced. They are the ones – greatest receiving corps, greatest running game, greatest… Like, that’s not Jerry Jones. Jerry Jones has been outstanding this offseason. And then they pumped it up, and against the Giants defense is being retooled… To me, I hope Dallas wins the game because I’m a Schottenheimer fan.”
Well, Prescott has a long history of trash-talking. Back in 2023, he claimed that trash talk is his form of leadership in the locker room. The quarterback revealed that often, it’s him who starts the locker room trash talk, which makes his teammates comfortable talking trash to him.
“Just being honest with you. I enjoy it. I really do,” Prescott told the media following training camp in 2023. “It gets the best of me. You got to be accountable from your words. I like to see other peoples’ reaction. Sometimes they can take it, most of the time they can take it. I don’t talk trash to a teammate or do anything that I know a guy that that doesn’t get them going.”
Prescott even likes to talk trash about his opponents ahead of their games. He did the same against the Los Angeles Rams ahead of their preseason game in August.
“Tell ’em [Rams] bet the clocks today — winner takes the f—— clocks,” the Cowboys quarterback said. “We’ll steal their s—. They ain’t ready for that bet.”
However, the game ended in a disappointing 21-31 defeat for the Cowboys. The Rams took a massive 14-point lead in the very first quarter, while Prescott had yet to get his offense on the board.
While Eric Mangini made his opposing stance clear, analyst Chris Boussard believed otherwise because of how Jerry Jones bolstered the team’s defense this offseason. For starters, he hired Christian Parker as the new defensive coordinator. He later added Rashan Gary, Tyrus Wheat, Otito Ogbonnia, Cobie Durant, Von Miller, Jalen Thompson, and P.J. Locke.
“I think the way they put the league on notice is with the defense looking pretty good,” Boussard weighed in on the big question. “So, I’m predicting the offense, nobody’s gonna be, ‘Oh wow, their offense is great.’ We know that… I just think that the defense is so much improved. And again, the schedule is tough for them. As much as I’m predicting a great season for the Cowboys, tough schedule. So, you can’t let these games against teams you’re better than go the wrong way.”
The Cowboys’ preseason defense wasn’t out of the ordinary, but a 2-1 record was enough to get momentum going. Dak Prescott & Co. will kick off Week 1 against the New York Giants on Sunday.
