2022 Dallas Cowboys Odds, Schedule, & Fantasy Football Team Preview
The Cowboys are coming off of yet another disappointing playoff exit in the Wild Card round of the playoffs and will hope to overcome significant roster turnover, particularly in the receiving corps, following the departure of Amari Cooper to Cleveland and Michael Gallup’s recovery from an ACL tear he sustained in Week 17 of last season. In this article, we’ll explore the impacts of these storylines for sports betting and fantasy football drafts, so that we can profit from the various betting and daily fantasy sites this season.
Using RotoGrinders NFL 2022 projections, we’ll preview all 32 NFL Teams this summer and uncover all the best bets and league-winning picks we can find. Among the questions we will look at to answer in this article:
- Dallas Cowboys Betting Odds: Is there still value on the Cowboys winning the NFC East despite being priced as favorites?
- Team Overview: Do the Cowboys become a more pass-heavy team in neutral game scripts with Ezekiel Elliott on the decline?
- Fantasy Football Drafts: Can CeeDee Lamb return value on his ADP? Is Tony Pollard the preferred RB to target in drafts from the Dallas backfield?
Be sure to check out all the great sports betting, fantasy football, and DFS content available on RotoGrinders leading up to kickoff. We’ll be covering fantasy football for BestBall with Spike Week, rankings and projections, DFS preseason with RotoGrinders Premium, and RotoGrinders Premium and Sports betting at RG and ScoresAndOdds.
2022 Dallas Cowboys Schedule, Lines, and Best Bets
Projected Odds, derived & modified from data originally published by Sean Koerner here.
Win Total and Total Games Favored:
10 (-110) / 13 Games Favored ( 5 Big Favorites / 0 Big Dogs)
It’s always difficult to rationalize locking up a portion of your betting bankroll for an entire season. But if you were interested in futures betting the Cowboys, there appears to be some value in them claiming the NFC East crown once again at +135 following the Philadelphia Eagles’ recent meteoric rise up the odds board. Despite the Eagles having a better overall roster on paper and being every national NFL pundit’s dark horse pick to win the NFC East, they still have one major question mark at the quarterback position. That should give Dak Prescott and the Cowboys a marginal leg-up to begin the season. The potential downside of this bet, other than Jalen Hurts taking a leap as a passer, is the Cowboys difficult out-of-division schedule. But if the Cowboys can handle their business against the clearly weaker divisional opponents in the New York Giants and Washington Commanders and at least split their two games with Philadelphia, they should find themselves right in the thick of the NFC East and playoff races at the conclusion of the regular season.
Dallas Cowboys Props
PrizePicks is a site where you can use your fantasy knowledge to make prop parlays and win cash. It’s also perfect if you love player props but aren’t in a state with legal sports betting.
Favorite Prop: Ezekiel Elliott UNDER 875.5 rush yards
While the RotoGrinders season long projections don’t currently reflect significant value in this prop, it’s easy to envision Elliott continuing his decline as a productive NFL running back. That could be due to injury, Tony Pollard seizing the lead back role, the Cowboys having less favorable rushing game scripts, or some combination of the above.
Dallas Cowboys Fantasy Football Projections
Team Rankings and Ratings
Offense Ranks:Rank 7/ Very Strong Rush / Very Strong Pass/ Rank 12 Points For)
Defense Ranks:Rank 4/ Average Rush / Average pass / Rank 32 Points Allowed)
Opponent Strength – Rushing:11 difficult vs. rush. 4 soft vs. rush.
Opponent Strength – Passing:7 difficult vs. pass. 6 soft vs. pass.
It was slightly surprising to see the Cowboys rank so highly in projections, particularly on the defensive side of the ball. But even with a potentially strong defense, the Cowboys should remain a viable offense to stack in daily fantasy contests on a weekly basis. Especially if the 11 difficult rushing matchups hold true, potentially leading to pass-heavy game plans for Dak Prescott, CeeDee Lamb, Dalton Schultz, and company.
Dallas Cowboys Top Fantasy Football Plays & Picks
Noteworthy Depth Chart
QB: Dak Prescott – Underdog Rank: 76 (ADP 87 / 14.47% ADP Gap)
RB: Ezekiel Elliott – Underdog Rank: 38 (ADP 39 / 2.63% ADP Gap)
RB: Tony Pollard – Underdog Rank: 64 (ADP 83 / 29.69% ADP Gap)
WR: CeeDee Lamb – Underdog Rank: 10 (ADP 13 / 30% ADP Gap)
WR: Jalen Tolbert – Underdog Rank: 150 (ADP 124 / -17.33% ADP Gap)
WR: Michael Gallup – Underdog Rank: 158 (ADP 133 – -15.82% ADP Gap)
TE: Dalton Schultz – Underdog Rank: 85 (ADP 70 / -17.65% ADP Gap)
*Note: Premium Subscribers can find updated rankings for Underdog Fantasy in the content schedule here.
New Additions of Note: James Washington
Departures of Note: Amari Cooper, Cedrick Wilson, Blake Jarwin
CeeDee Lamb took the necessary second year leap you want to see from young wide receivers on their trajectory to be becoming alpha, number one options, as he finished 20th among NFL wide receivers in receptions (79) and 14th in yards (1,102) last season. Lamb managed this production all while competing for targets with Amari Cooper and Cedrick Wilson, who are no longer on the team, and Michael Gallup, who is a PUP candidate that is likely to miss at least the first few weeks of the regular season. Because of this, Lamb is a high-floor, high upside WR1 that has the potential to outperform his late-first, early second round ADP in fantasy drafts this season.
Dalton Schultz was the surprise breakout tight end of the 2021 season as he finished behind only Mark Andrews, Travis Kelce, and George Kittle in standard PPR scoring. Schultz logged an 81% snap share and accumulated 104 targets, both of which he could exceed with the Cowboys choosing not to address the tight end position in a meaningful way with Blake Jarwin following Cooper and Wilson out of town during the offseason. This lack of tight end depth and previously mentioned target deficit should give Schultz the upside to finish as a top-five tight end once again in 2022.
Tony Pollard has the most significant ADP gap to UnderDog ranking among the Cowboys’ skill position players, and he’ll look to build on a stellar 2021 season where he averaged 7.3 yards per target and was extremely efficient in 130 carries out of the backfield. It would be shocking to see Pollard overtake Ezekiel Elliott from the outset of the regular season, but it’s firmly in his range of outcomes to become the Cowboys lead running back and be a league-winning fantasy pick in drafts this summer.
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