Emmitt Smith Reveals What the Dallas Cowboys Need for a Successful 2026 Season
Emmitt Smith won three Super Bowl rings during his legendary tenure with the Dallas Cowboys, but "America's Team" hasn't won a Lombardi Trophy since the last championship team he was a part of 30 years ago.
The Cowboys have only won five playoff games since their last title, but that doesn't stop high expectations from being the annual norm around Arlington.
In an exclusive interview with Athlon Sports, Smith gave his opinion on what his old team needs to do if they want to have a successful 2026 season, and get back into the Super Bowl hunt.
"Well, I think right now, one of the keys is definitely getting in physical, great shape to go through a grueling season," Smith said. "Playing in the NFC East is never easy, and never has been easy. So physically, mentally and emotionally is what we should be doing this offseason, gelling as a unit and as different components of the unit, different segments, offense, defense and special team is important as well. With the addition of the new guys that are coming in, whether it's a new D coordinator, new players that have been drafted through the draft, those are all good things."
Smith is a big fan of how the Cowboys have approached the 2026 offseason, in part because they haven't been interested in chasing flashy moves in favor of quiet preparation and making the right decisions to set the team up for success.
"But what I'm loving the most about this Cowboys offseason, it's been fairly low key, fairly quiet to me," Smith said. "That is a focus that needs to take place and continue to elevate itself throughout the course of the season, and just trying to trying to maintain health, getting better in year two of Brian Schottenheimer's offensive scheme, and allowing our new defensive coordinator (Christian Parker) to implement his new scheme with the young players that he drafted and the current veterans that are around that's going to help us stop the run, and the linebackers that we gathered, the secondary that we're putting together."
Many of the Cowboys' biggest problems last season came down to ineffective communication and confusion on defense, something Smith doesn't think will be as much of an issue this time around.
"I think the disconnect that we saw defensively will come together this year," Smith said. "I think communication is going to be extremely important for our defense in order to not have some of the breakdowns that we saw last year where we gave up chunks of yards down the air to wide open guys because we busted a cut."
With experienced playmakers on offense, and some important new additions on defense, the Cowboys should be primed for a bounce-back season in 2026, which would thrill the NFL's all-time leading rusher.
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This story was originally published May 19, 2026 at 6:30 AM.