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The segment aired on SportsCenter. Ryan Clark was asked whether Super Bowl expectations for the Dallas Cowboys were realistic heading into the 2026 season. He broke down why he believed they were. That was one of his last moments as an ESPN employee.
Later on the same broadcast, NFL Live, Clark was informed by the network that he was being let go. He left the set before the program ended. ESPN had planned to tell him Tuesday morning. A leak forced their hand, and Clark found out on air. The Cowboys segment had already been clipped and posted to ESPN’s social media channels before any of that happened. Social media noticed almost immediately.
Dallas last made the NFC Championship Game in 1996
The Cowboys’ take was substantive. Clark pointed to linebacker DeMarvion Overshown as a specific X-factor in a defense built around new coordinator Christian Parker.
“You’re expecting someone like Demarion Overshown to be exactly what we saw him ascending to be before the injury,” Clark said. “We watched him play a little bit last year, and I expect him to be an X-factor in what they want to be.”
He positioned Dallas as a team whose offensive capability was already established and whose defensive direction had changed significantly enough to make them dangerous.
Clark is not alone in the assessment. Speaking at his Faith Fight Finish foundation gala on Friday, Dak Prescott said that Super Bowl expectations are “absolutely” realistic heading into training camp. “Absolutely, obviously just each year you think that but when you have last year as we did, the offense that we did and you make the changes and you’ve got a great defensive coordinator and you got young guys, old guys, the great mix of vets with talent, yeah,” Prescott said.
The Cowboys went 7-9-1 in 2025 and missed the playoffs for the second consecutive season. Their 2025 team posted one of the best offenses in the NFL while simultaneously surrendering 30.1 points per game on defense, the worst mark in the league.
Parker replaced Matt Eberflus as defensive coordinator and has rebuilt the unit around Micah Parsons, Rashan Gary (acquired via trade from Green Bay), and a restructured secondary. Their 2026 win total is set at 9.5 by oddsmakers.
The Cowboys have not appeared in an NFC Championship Game since January 1996. Prescott has made the playoffs five times without advancing past the Divisional Round.
Whether this is the year the window closes or the year it finally opens is the question that follows Dallas into every training camp and, on Monday afternoon, appeared in one of Ryan Clark’s last segments on ESPN before the network decided he would not be there to answer it in January.
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The post Ryan Clark made his Cowboys Super Bowl case minutes before ESPN fired him appeared first on Gridiron Heroics.
