Cowboys’ Struggles Could Lead the NFL to Flex Out America’s Team

Could America’s Team be flexed out of some of the NFL’s biggest broadcast windows? 

We’ll soon begin to find out as the Cowboys’ 2024 season continues to unravel from one starting with Super Bowl aspirations to potentially their worst campaign in nearly a decade. 

Dallas was trounced at home Sunday by the Eagles 34–6, extending a winless season thus far at home for the Cowboys and dropping their overall record to 3–6.

After three straight 12-win, playoff seasons, the team is also battling a string of serious injuries to star players such as quarterback Dak Prescott, wide receiver Brandin Cooks, and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence. And its best defensive player—pass rusher Micah Parsons—had missed the previous four games with a high ankle sprain.

Still, Dallas has lost four straight, and its next three games are locked in: a Monday Night Football matchup on Nov. 18 against the Texans and a Thanksgiving Day game on Nov. 28 against the Giants, currently 2–8. That late-afternoon Thanksgiving game is traditionally the most-watched contest of every NFL regular season, but that status could be threatened this year as 2025 draft positions will likely be most at stake there instead. In between those games is an early-afternoon matchup against the Commanders on Nov. 24. 

After that, three of the Cowboys’ final five games are currently in key broadcast windows: a Dec. 9 MNF game against the Bengals, a Dec. 22 Sunday Night Football game against the Buccaneers, and a Dec. 29 national America’s Game of the Week slot at 4:25 p.m. ET on Fox against the Eagles. All three of those games conceivably stand at risk for movement by the NFL in the league’s flex scheduling rules—particularly given that Cincinnati and Tampa Bay also have losing records, and Philadelphia could have a postseason slot locked up by then. 

That SNF game, as well as the Week 17 Eagles game, could be shifted with at least six days’ notice while moving the MNF matchup requires a minimum of 12 days’ notice.  

The thought of the Cowboys not being in the leading broadcast windows is a major turn after the team has traditionally held bragging rights as the NFL’s top television draw. That status, however, now lies with the two-time defending Super Bowl champion Chiefs, who are still undefeated after a last-second blocked field goal Sunday against the Broncos. 

The Cowboys, one of the NFL’s most popular teams for more than 50 years, are currently on pace for their worst season since 2015, when they finished 4–12. Still, there is some hope within the league of a late-season revival.

“They’re obviously having their troubles, but we haven’t given up on them,” an NFL source said.

More Troubles

The on-field and television issues, however, are hardly the only drama surrounding the Cowboys. In that loss to the Eagles on Sunday, receiver CeeDee Lamb dropped a potential touchdown pass due to sun glare coming into AT&T Stadium. 

Lamb called for curtains to be installed, but team owner Jerry Jones instead lashed out at reporters after the Eagles game, sarcastically responding, “Well, let’s tear the damn stadium down and build another one. Are you kidding me?”

Such sun-related issues have cropped up occasionally in the facility’s 15-year tenure to date, also leading Jones to say, “Everybody has got the same thing. Every team that comes in here has the same issues.”