Making the – Dallas has missed the postseason since 2023 and hasn’t won a playoff game since 2022. Dak Prescott, speaking through the team website, called reaching the 2026 playoffs the bare minimum—tying it to a push for improvement on both sides of the ball and the chanc
Dallas hasn’t made the postseason since 2023. and the memory of winning a playoff game is even older—last coming in 2022. In that stretch. the Cowboys’ postseason record has offered more frustration than celebration. with Dallas not getting a win in the playoffs since their last run ended with that 2022 victory.
So when Dak Prescott talks about 2026, he doesn’t dress it up. “It sucks, definitely,” Prescott said last week via Tommy Yarrish of the team website. “But we’re pushing. That’s our goal. That’s a minimum. When you have a team like this. and they’ve done everything they have in the offseason. obviously we’ve got to push and get better on offense. but when we know we’re already improving on defense. that’s the minimum. That’s everybody’s goal in here.”.
The Cowboys’ recent stretch has been hard to measure with anything other than numbers. Over the past two seasons, Dallas is 14-19-1. Prescott’s language—“that’s the minimum”—lands in the middle of all that. because the Cowboys have already gone years without the one thing they’re trying to get back to.
His message also carries a direct personal edge for the players who are still waiting for their first playoff experience. Prescott pointed to teammates on the roster who have never played a postseason game. including Quinnen Williams. Tyler Guyton and Cooper Beebe. He also referenced George Pickens, who has never won a playoff game and has lost twice in the postseason.
“To hear [Williams] say he’s never been to the playoffs, that’s what you want to do it for,” Prescott said. “And that’s what I told him. I said, ‘I’ll get you the playoffs. I’m going to need you to go help us win it.’”
That “minimum” isn’t coming from nowhere. Since the Cowboys last won the Super Bowl to end the 1995 season. they’ve gone 258-226-1 with 13 playoff appearances and a 5-13 playoff record. And there’s an added layer to the drought: 1995 is also the last time Dallas reached the NFC Championship Game—still the longest drought in the conference.
Prescott’s insistence on 2026 as a must-have moment is rooted in the same contradiction that has followed Dallas for years: the team’s talent and expectations have never been in question. but postseason results have. And for players like Williams. Guyton and Beebe—along with Pickens. who has already felt what it’s like to come up short—this season’s offseason work isn’t just about progress. It’s about finally turning “the minimum” into something you can hold up in January.
Dak Prescott Dallas Cowboys 2026 playoffs postseason drought George Pickens Quinnen Williams Tyler Guyton Cooper Beebe Tommy Yarrish