Will The Dallas Cowboys Make The Playoffs? Betting Odds Favor Postseason Appearance

Dak Prescott, Ezekiel Elliott and Dez Bryant have yet to suit up for a game this year, but the Dallas Cowboys’ quest to win a championship has already begun. The team officially kicked off their 2017 NFL season Thursday night, defeating the Arizona Cardinals in the Hall of Fame Game.

Dallas is coming off their best season in a decade, having gone 13-3 and winning the NFC East with the best record in the conference. The Cowboys’ playoff run ended just as it began when the team lost to the Green Bay Packers in the divisional round of the playoffs.

READ: What NFL Teams Will Make The Playoffs? Patriots, Seahawks Considered Postseason Locks

Will Dallas return to the postseason in 2018? The betting odds seem to indicate that the Cowboys are heading for another winning season.

Westgate Las Vegas Super Book gives Dallas -200 odds to reach the playoffs, putting their odds of missing the postseason at +175. Only the New England Patriots are given a better chance to win Super Bowl LII. Dallas has 8-1 odds to win their first title in 21 years.

The Cowboys are the only team in the division that is favored to make the postseason, though the New York Giants are close with +120 odds to either win the NFC East or claim one of the two wild-card spots. The Philadelphia Eagles have +160 playoffs odds, and the Washington Redskins have +300 postseason odds just two years removed from winning the division.

On paper, the Cowboys look like an easy bet to make the playoffs.

Ezekiel Elliott was the league’s best running back as a rookie, leading the NFL with 1,631 yards on the ground and finishing more than 300 yards ahead of the No.2 rusher. Prescott played like a top tier quarterback in his first year, ranking third with a 104.9 passer rating and second in touchdown-to-interception ratio with 23 scores and only four picks.

Even if they don’t improve and just remain at the same level they reached a year ago, Dallas is going to be extremely difficult to beat.

“Zeke had a great year,” tight end Jason Witten said, via The Washington Post. “Dak, too. They did a lot of great things. But there’s a lot of things they can improve on. And that’s what they’re working on. When you have that approach, then it’s really easy to kind of take this big picture and dial it back down into, ‘My read on that. My drop on this,’ and that’s the maturity you have to have at a young age. And they’ve shown that, which as a veteran, I sure as hell appreciate it just because that approach allows you to think that good things are gonna happen.”

Much of Dallas’ success, or lack thereof, will rest on the shoulders of the defense. The Cowboys seemingly overachieved on that side of the ball for much of 2016, ranking fifth in points allowed.

Dallas lost both Brandon Carr and Morris Claiborne in the secondary, and they’ll be relying on rookies Chidobe Awuzie and Xavier Woods to play key roles.

The biggest concern that a Cowboys’ fan might have is the team’s recent history. It’s been 10 years since Dallas made it to the playoffs in consecutive years, and it’s happened just twice since 1999.

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The NFC East has proven to be the most unpredictable division in the league. There hasn’t been a repeat winner since 2004 when the Eagles did it, and a case can be made that each team has a legitimate chance to finish in first place. New York made the playoffs last year, and Washington had a winning record. Philadelphia had the best record of any last-place team at 7-9.

The NFL season is unpredictable, and sudden injuries can change the course of a team’s season. But Dallas’ roster certainly appears to be one of the NFC’s six best teams with a month remaining before the season begins.