Christian Parker got an encouraging opening look at his Cowboys secondary on Sunday, as the unit held the Seahawks to a zero-missed-tackle performance and an 88.8 defensive passer rating in the preseason opener. It is only one game, and most of the players involved will not make the 53-man roster, but it was still a sharp early sign for a group that had too many problems last season.
That matters because the Cowboys finished 2025 with a 109.6 defensive passer rating, the worst mark in the league. Their cornerbacks averaged 114.8, the safeties 134.6, and the linebackers 118.5, so even a limited preseason step in the right direction will be noted inside a unit still trying to prove it can be trusted in the regular season.
A cleaner start for the secondary
The most obvious positive from the Seahawks game was the tackling. Zero missed tackles is a simple number, but it is also a useful one, especially for a defensive backfield that needed to look more connected and more reliable.
The 88.8 defensive passer rating allowed also stood out. Compared with last year’s 109.6 team mark, it showed that the Cowboys could at least be tighter in coverage and more organised when the ball was in the air.
There are limits to what can be drawn from a preseason opener, and the article itself makes that clear. Most of the players on the field will not survive final roster cuts, which means the performance is best viewed as an early indication rather than proof of a turnaround.
Why the numbers still matter
Even so, the Cowboys needed to see something different. Last season’s split numbers across the back end were too uneven to ignore, with the safeties and cornerbacks both sitting far too high in passer rating terms.
Christian Parker’s group has not solved anything yet, but it did give the Cowboys a cleaner data point than they had much of last year. In a division that will demand steadiness, that is enough to register.
The next test comes this week against the Cardinals, who posted a 130.6 passer rating in their first preseason game. That will offer another brief snapshot, but the bigger question remains the same: can the Cowboys carry any of this improvement into the regular season, when the results will count for real?
