Every snap counts for rookies during preseason

By Josh Ortega

The Dallas Cowboys kicked off the 2026 NFL season with a win during the first week of the preseason. The Cowboys defeated the defending Super Bowl Champion Seattle Seahawks 17-7 Saturday night at Lumen Field in Seattle. 

After Dallas capped off the first full week of the NFL preseason with a win, Head Coach Brian Schottenheimer expressed his satisfaction with his team’s effort against a quality opponent, while mentioning there were still areas to clean up with two weeks left in the preseason.

“A little bit of training camp football, a little sloppy — that’s kind of what you deal with,” Schottenheimer said after his team’s win in Seattle. “The things we obviously have to clean up are the penalties. They threw a lot of penalties really on both teams, but that’s what the preseason is for. Overall, I was really, really proud of our guys.”

Multiple players, including four-time Pro Bowler quarterback Dak Prescott, All-Pro wide receiver CeeDee Lamb and many other staples of the Dallas starting lineup, did not see action during the first week of the preseason, a fairly common trend in the buildup to the regular season.

Saturday night’s win in the Pacific Northwest gave a glimpse into what the team had been working on during this summer’s training camp, while showing ongoing position battles and first glimpses of multiple rookies wearing a star on their helmets for the first time during a game.

Fourth-year quarterback Sam Howell, who signed with the team in March after pit stops in Washington, Seattle, Minnesota and others, got the start for Dallas, playing the entirety of the first half of the game. After the Seahawks drove downfield and opened up the scoring midway through the first quarter, Howell drove the offense downfield to start the second into field goal range for three-time Pro Bowler Brandon Aubrey. Aubrey got his first points of the season, knocking through a 29-yard chip shot into the uprights to get Dallas on the board 7-3 with 11 minutes remaining until halftime. 

Both teams continued to trade possession throughout the second quarter and, with seconds until halftime, Howell connected with rookie wide receiver Camden Brown on a 39-yard shot to the end zone. Brown battled with Seattle corner Shemar Jean-Charles, and the undrafted rookie out of Georgia Southern came down with the catch to give Dallas the lead, 10-7, heading into halftime. 

Brown would end his night leading all the Cowboys’ receivers in yards with 62 targets and yards per reception with 20.7. Schottenheimer praised Brown after the game, mentioning that this was the type of performance the 6-foot, 2-inch wide receiver was having every day in practice. When Brown spoke after the game, he mentioned how he now has a different look on going undrafted throughout the summer, and how he showed all of his skill sets in his performance against Seattle. “Sometimes, you get knocked down; sometimes you bring up and shoot. Today, I showed it all,” Brown said. “Just being undrafted itself puts a chip on your shoulder. Now that I look at it, I’m glad I went undrafted. I feel like it put an edge to me a little bit more, and so I am very, very thankful.” 

In the second half, Brown caught his second touchdown of the game in the third quarter, this time from third-year quarterback and former sixth-round pick Joe Milton. Milton took over under center for Howell in the second half, who zipped a 21-yard back shoulder fade to Brown who snagged it with one hand for Dallas’ second touchdown and final score of the game. 

Both teams would trade possessions throughout the final two quarters until Dallas muffed a punt on the doorstep of its own end zone to give the Seahawks’ first and goal with six minutes left in the fourth quarter. However, the Cowboys’ defense stood firm, forcing negative yardage plays and holding ground to prevent Seattle from scoring, ending the game and wrapping up the win for Dallas. 

The Cowboys will play two more preseason games: one on the road in Glendale, Arizona against the Arizona Cardinals before ending the preseason at AT&T Stadium to face the New Orleans Saints. 

The preseason is very hit or miss to how the actual NFL regular season will play out. Its importance rests upon teams being able to see in real time how new schemes are being installed into playbooks and understanding which players could be depth pieces across varying degrees of minutes for an NFL team. 

Right now, each team in the league has 90 players on the roster, which will have to be cut down to 53 players a week before the 2026 NFL season begins. So, as much as wins, losses and the all-too-common preseason tie don’t affect a team’s record at the start of the regular season, every snap on the NFL’s grand return in the build-up to the regular season is pivotal in players making an NFL roster. The Dallas Cowboys will begin the regular season on September 13 in East Rutherford, New Jersey against the New York Giants on the road on Sunday Night Football on NBC.