The Dallas Cowboys may have an easier path to success in 2022 than any other NFL team, but that does not mean the road will be easier than last season. While the Cowboys’ 2022 schedule ties for the easiest in the NFL, it is marginally more complicated than the team’s 2021 schedule.
As with every season, the Cowboys will face NFC East rivals the Philadelphia Eagles, New York Giants, and Washington Commanders with games both at home and on the road.
Dallas will also have home games against the Chicago Bears, Detroit Lions, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Indianapolis Colts, Houston Texans, and the Cincinnati Bengals.
The Cowboys will go on the road to face the Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Los Angeles Rams, Jacksonville Jaguars, and Tennessee Titans.
Outside of division games, the team will meet only one team from last season, when they welcome Tampa Bay to Frisco. Tampa Bay was one of four AFC teams to defeat the Cowboys last season. Dallas lost only one game to an NFC team in the regular season with a Week 17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals.
Cowboys fans can take heart in that Dallas will not face any of the four AFC West teams they met last season, which accounted for three of the five losses.
It was only through a last-second field goal against the Chargers that the Cowboys did not lose all four games to what is shaping up to be the NFL’s most competitive division.
Opponents for 2022 have an average win ratio of .462, tied with the Washington Commanders, whose schedule will also face off against teams with a sub-.500 win record last season.
The NFC East takes all four of the easiest spots, with the Eagles facing teams with a .464 win percentage and the Giants facing teams with a .465 win record. The Dallas Cowboys had a strength of schedule rating of .452 in 2021.
The teams with the most challenging schedules include the Rams, Bengals, and Buccaneers, taking three of the top four spots. All three will also face Dallas.
Fans hoping for a rematch against the San Francisco 49ers, who knocked the Cowboys out of playoff contention in the Wild Card Round, will have to hope for a chance in the playoffs.
The 49ers are tied for the fifth-most challenging schedule with the Kansas City Chiefs — who also defeated the Cowboys last season.
CBS Sports writer Jason La Canfora admitted midway through last season that he had underestimated the Cowboys’ playoff potential in the preseason.
Still, he predicted that the Cowboys will fall short in 2022 despite the relative ease of the team’s schedule. His way-too-early picks for the NFC East give the Eagles the division, and the Packers, Saints, and Cardinals take the Wild Card spots.
“This is a coin flip for me right now between the Cowboys, Cardinals and 49ers,” La Canfora wrote in justifying his choice of Arizona. “All have warts and flaws and I don’t see much separating them. Arizona is probably good enough for nine wins so I’ll lean in that direction. If the 49ers rode Jimmy G I’d go their way, but it’s Lance time and I have trepidation about that learning curve in what amounts to year one. And Dallas looks in decline to me, with questions already being asked of the coaching staff.”
While the match-ups have been released, the entire NFL schedule for 2022 will not be available until May 12, when fans will finally get to see the full slate of games that begin on September 8, 2022.