Thanksgiving in Dallas is older than most of the people watching it, and in 2026 the visitors are Philadelphia. That is one of six games the Dallas Cowboys play outside the ordinary Sunday afternoon window, which is roughly a third of the season spent in front of a national audience.

Everything in the panels on this page is drawn from the league data feed, so scores, standings, the roster and the statistical leaders stay current without anyone touching them. The writing below covers the fixed parts: the television load, a home game played 5,000 miles from Texas, and the second year of a coaching project.

Six Nights in Prime Time, Plus the Holiday

The night games fall in Weeks 1, 5, 6, 7, 13 and 16. NBC has three of them, ESPN two and Prime Video one, and they are spread across the whole year rather than bunched into one stretch. Add the Thanksgiving afternoon fixture and seven of the seventeen games sit outside the normal Sunday slate.

The season begins in one of those windows, a Sunday night at the Giants. It also ends near one, with Jacksonville visiting on the Sunday night after Christmas before a Sunday afternoon meeting with the Giants again in Week 17.

All that television comes with mileage. Dallas covers 27,980 miles in 2026, the fourth largest travel load in the league, and the bye does not arrive until Week 14.

Dallas Cowboys 2026 Games and Kickoff Times

All seventeen games are below with Eastern kickoff times. Arlington runs on Central time, so subtract an hour for the clock at the stadium. Select any opponent to open that game.

Want the printable version? The full Dallas Cowboys schedule 2026 has a free PDF, wall calendar and kickoff times in every time zone.

The Week 18 line is the only one without a date. That is settled once Week 17 finishes, and flexible scheduling can still shift a Sunday afternoon game into a later window before then.

A Home Game at the Maracana

Week 3 is listed as a Dallas home fixture against Baltimore, and it is played at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. The Cowboys hold nine home designations this season but only eight of them are staged at AT&T Stadium, and this is the reason.

AT&T Stadium in Arlington seats around 80,000 under a retractable roof, with the field set below ground level and the two arches carrying the whole thing. The eight dates played there in 2026 include Washington, Tampa Bay, Arizona, San Francisco, Tennessee, Philadelphia on Thanksgiving, Jacksonville and the Giants.

Philadelphia appears twice inside five weeks, first on a Monday night in Pennsylvania in Week 7 and then across the Thanksgiving table in Week 12. Where those results leave the division is on the NFL standings page.

Schottenheimer’s Second Year and a New Defense

Brian Schottenheimer took over as the tenth head coach in franchise history and his first season finished 7-9-1, with the tie a fair summary of a year that never resolved itself. Dallas missed the playoffs for a second straight time.

The offense was left alone. Klayton Adams stays as coordinator and Dak Prescott stays at quarterback. The defense was not: Matt Eberflus lasted one season in the role and Christian Parker replaced him, a first time coordinator who had been coaching defensive backs in Philadelphia and Denver.

That is the shape of the year, then. Continuity on one side of the ball, a rebuild on the other, and a schedule that puts most of it on national television. The roster panel above tracks the active 53 exactly as the league lists it.

Dallas Cowboys FAQ

The Dallas Cowboys spend more of 2026 in national windows than almost anyone, open the year under the lights at the Giants and give up one home date to Rio de Janeiro. Eight Sundays remain in Arlington, and Philadelphia sits across the table on Thanksgiving.

Last updated: September 9, 2026. Checked against dallascowboys.com and nfl.com.