After the release of the 2023 schedule, there have been many discussions about who the Cowboys will have to play this coming season. The team will play six primetime games, tied for the most in the NFL, and seven nationally televised games. The Dallas Cowboys defense will have to field several elite players throughout their schedule. This is a list of the top five opposing passers they should play against this coming season.
While Cowboys fans don’t like to hear this, the current best quarterback in the NFC is Eagles QB Jalen Hurts. In only his third season with the team, Hurts produced 22 passing touchdowns, six interceptions and a 101.6 passer rating. He also caused damage on the ground, rushing the ball for 165 carries, 760 rushing yards, and 13 touchdowns.
Besides being a serious contender for the NFL Most Valuable Player award until his injury late in the regular season, Hurts led the Eagles to division and NFC Conference wins before losing to Kansas City Chiefs In the power.
The Cowboys defense will continue the dual threat defense that Hurts brings to the field in 2023.
Continuing the trend of dual-threat quarterbacks comes Buffalo Bills QB Josh Allen. Allen has been one of the most decorated professional passers in the league since the Bills drafted him in 2018 NFL Draft. He is widely recognized as having one of the strongest arms in the entire league, along with the ability to improve the players around him. Like Hurts for the Eagles, Allen helps the Bills on the ground, too. Throughout his five seasons with the Bills, Allen rushed for 38 touchdowns. This is the most in the NFL since 2018 when he was drafted.
Where Allen’s game has drawn some criticism in the past two seasons is his decision-making with football. Despite throwing for 35 touchdowns in 2022 in addition to 36 in 2021, he also added 14 interceptions in 2022 in addition to 15 in 2021. Allen tends to be a bit careless with his decisions as a passer, allowing the opposing defense to take advantage of them. This trend could prove fruitful for the Dallas defense; The team has been leading the league in takeaways since Dan Quinn took over as defensive coordinator in Dallas. While Josh Allen is a better passer on the football than Jalen Hurts, his consistent quality of turning the ball over and his inability to go as deep in the postseason as Hurts so far, puts him at number two on this list.
When it comes to accuracy, arguably the most accurate player on this list is Los Angeles QB Justin Herbert. Herbert has a knack for throwing some of the nicest footballs around the league, finding his receivers in cramped windows. His passing ability is as evident on the stat sheet as it is in the movie, as Herbert threw for 14,089 yards and 94 touchdowns in his three seasons with the Chargers.
Herbert won Offensive Rookie of the Year in 2020, and has continued to improve increasingly as the years go by, becoming more and more comfortable in the NFL. One of the most notable storylines involving this matchup is that the call to play Herbert will be none other than former Cowboys offensive coordinator Kellen Moore. Moore was the offensive coordinator for several statistically impressive years for the Dallas offense, however, he was let go by the team after being unable to reach expectations in the playoffs.
While discussing playoff success, this is a big reason why Herbert is ranked below other quarterbacks ahead of him. Herbert failed to do anything noteworthy in the postseason in his young career. While Herbert has plenty of skill as a passer, he’s expected to make a deeper playoff run with his talented Los Angeles roster.
The Dallas Cowboys can’t seem to avoid playing their kryptonite, QB Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers has won six of his last seven games with the Cowboys. No matter how his season looks like, or how it goes Packers Considered as a team, Rodgers plays his best when he takes on the Cowboys.
Rodgers is 39 years old, and he is in the final stages of his professional career. With that being said, he’s still very capable of reading the defense, throwing elite throws, and lifting the supporting reps around him. Rodgers joins the New York Jets’ roster of young talent and potential on both sides of football.
Rodgers has made more Hall of Fame inductees during his career than any other quarterback the Cowboys will play in the 2023 regular season. He is a confirmed first-time Hall of Famer vote, and a Super Bowl champion. With this, his age is beginning to catch up, as he threw for fewer than 4,000 yards last season for the first time since 2017. He also added 12 interceptions, a big jump from the four he threw just one season prior in 2021. Rodgers is not easy to fit into the NFL organization, especially the Dallas Cowboys.
5 – Twa Tagovailoa, Miami Dolphinweek 16.
Miami Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa had two less-than-impressive seasons with the Miami Dolphins in 2020 and 2021. In his first two seasons with the team, he threw a total of 4,467 yards, 27 touchdowns, and 15 interceptions.
However, in 2022, the league saw a huge jump in production from the former college football national champion and Heisman Trophy winner. He had 3,548 passing yards, 25 passing touchdowns, and eight interceptions for a 105.5 average. He did so while only playing 13 of the team’s possible 17 games.
Tagovailoa’s pass has long been questioned by analysts across the league, because he doesn’t have a very strong arm, and is the least accurate on this list. Regardless of this, he is constantly improving as a professional quarterback, and begins to lead the Miami Dolphins to a brighter and more successful future with the team. Not to be taken lightly in 2023.
Tua Tagovailoa has the fourth highest pass score in the league behind Joe Burrow, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen last season, per PFF. pic.twitter.com/ZBQgO4WyHd
– Nick Penticoff (@nick Penticoff) May 10, 2023