Poll: Predict the Cowboys’ record for 2018

At this point in the offseason, every single one of the 32 NFL teams is excited about the upcoming season. And and every single fan base harbors the hope that if things work out just the right way, their team will make the playoffs.

This is the time of year where hope springs eternal and most fans feel optimistic about the new season. As Cowboys fans, we collectively found reasons to be optimistic about the incoming draft class. We’re still busy telling each other why two franchise players leaving the team is actually a good thing. We’ve convinced ourselves that not spending big in free agency is actually beneficial in the long run (if for no other reason than it limits the amount of money the front office could have sunk into questionable player contracts). And we like to point out how many other teams don’t have a true No. 1 wide receiver and are doing well.

To varying degrees, almost every Cowboys fan will acknowledge that he or she is perhaps just a little bit more optimistic about the 2018 Cowboys right now than an objective look at the facts warrants. But that’s okay. We’re fans. It’s our job to be optimistic.

And at this point in time, other teams are no different. Training camps are still about a month away, and the opening game is even further away, but all 32 teams are going into the season hopeful that This Could Be The Year.

Anything can happen in the NFL. Every new NFL season is always a new chance for teams that fell short of the playoffs the season before. The NFL is intrinsically designed to be a parity-driven league; the draft, revenue sharing, the salary cap, compensatory draft picks, all the way through the schedule; everything about the NFL is designed so that every team from every market has a legitimate opportunity to compete year-in and year-out.

The question for the Cowboys now is what type of team they are. Are they basically an 8-8 team with the occasional swing in either direction (which is exactly what the parity-driven NFL is designed for)?

Or are the 2014 (12-4) and 2016 (13-3) seasons the norm, with 2015 (4-12) and 2017 (9-7) the outliers that confirm the 2014 and 2016 norms?

Or perhaps 2014 and 2016 are the outliers?

Over to you: what do you think the Cowboys’ 2018 W/L record will be? Let us know where you stand in the poll below and let us know in the comments how you feel about the Cowboys’ postseason chances this year.