Cowboys to face both Super Bowl teams on 2021 schedule

K.D. Drummond
·2 min read
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The Dallas Cowboys are going to have to work hard in order to return to the playoffs next season. While the 2020 regular season’s easy schedule might have earned them top spot in the rotation of draft picks with other clubs that finished 6-10, there will likely be no such luck when it comes to their 2021 opponents.

The order of the matchups is unclear, but the actual list of opponents has been known since the end of the regular season. Part of that rotation? The Cowboys are going to have to face off against both of the two conference champions who punched their ticket to Super Bowl LV on Sunday evening. Dallas will have to take on both the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Kansas City Chiefs next season. Not only that, they’ll have to take on both on the road.

So it won’t matter who wins the Lombardi trophy in two weeks as far as the Cowboys are concerned. They’ll be hanging out in the visiting locker room of the defending champs whether Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs defend their title or whether Tom Brady wins his seventh for the Buccaneers.

Each team in the NFC East will square off against each team in the NFC South as well as the AFC West in 2021 as part of the rotating opponents each division goes through. Divisions face off against the each other division in their conference every three years and against each of the opposing conferences teams every four years.

They also square off against the same-place finisher in each of their conference’s divisions, plus in 2021 there is a 17th game being added. For this first iteration, the NFC East faces off against the similar-place finisher in the AFC East. For Dallas that’s New England and Bill Belichick.

Coincidentally, Dan Quinn will have a revenge game on the schedule, as part of the NFC East rotation against the NFC South. At least that one will be a home game.

For a look at the complete list of Dallas’ 14 opponents, click below.

Cowboys list of 2021 opponents, 17th-game opponent finalized

List

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