Who Will Cowboys Play in 2022?

In addition to the NFC East, Dallas will host Tom Brady and Joe Burrow

Now that the Cowboys' 2021 season is abruptly over, Dallas is forced to start looking at 2022.

That process starts with a schedule.

Good news: In the second season of the NFL's 17-game format, the Cowboys will have nine home games after having only eight in 2021. (Maybe this isn't such great news, considering they went 5-4 at AT&T Stadium including the playoff loss and 7-2 away.)

USA Today

How does the scheduling format work? 

Six games are made up from their NFC East opponents (home and away with the usual NFC East suspects). Four are against teams from another division within the conference (these games are on a rotating three-year cycle), with four being played against teams from the AFC (on a rotating four-year cycle). Two games are played within NFC, based on the standings of the prior year. And finally one game will be played against an AFC team, also based on the prior year.

Having won the NFC East, in other words, next season they Cowboys will face the dreaded "first place" schedule.

Their 2022 opponents:

Home: Chicago, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Tampa Bay, Cincinnati, Washington, Philadelphia and New York Giants.

Away: Green Bay, Minnesota, Jacksonville, Tennessee, Los Angeles Rams, Washington, Philadelphia and New York Giants.

In addition to hosting the likes of Tom Brady and Joe Burrow and visiting Aaron Rodgers at Lambeau Field, Dallas will head to Jacksonville for the first time since 2006. It is the first time America's Team has played the Jaguars in the regular season since the game played in London in 2014.

The NFL is expecting to release official dates and times for the schedule in May.