The Super Bowl LVII dust has settled, and when the 2022 season is over, the NFC East will still have the same number of trophies. The Philadelphia Eagles couldn’t win their second Super Bowl in six years because the Kansas City Chiefs kept the ball in Pat Mahomes’ hands late and won a back-and-forth shootout in Arizona, 38-35.

With Mahomes and the Chiefs putting together five scoring drives in just over 24 minutes of time on the field, it’s easy to think that this Super Bowl will be remembered for an all-time great quarterback who is already making a name for himself that few of his competitors can match. For the second time in four years, the Chiefs are the best team in the NFL because they have a quarterback whose skills can’t be matched.

Jerry Jones, the owner of the Cowboys, already tried to spin the Eagles’ Super Bowl appearance as the kind of “all-in” sellout job that he doesn’t want to do. Now that the Chiefs have won, the pressure on Dak Prescott to carry the team in ways that other franchise QBs aren’t asked to do will be even higher. Dallas is in the same situation as last year: they are starting their offseason before Championship Weekend even starts. Wide receiver and offensive line are both areas where they need to improve.

The Eagles and Chiefs may also show how to surround a quarterback with talented receivers, but the most important thing the Cowboys should learn as they try to get to this game in 2023 is that both teams have strong backfields. This year, the Cowboys need at receiver is made worse by the fact that they don’t know who will be their running back. Dallas has a way out of Ezekiel Elliott’s contract this offseason, and Tony Pollard is about to become a free agent after a great year.

Since Elliott isn’t the same workhorse back they got with the fourth overall pick in 2016, the Cowboys did the right thing by making Pollard more of a featured back this season. Now that Mike McCarthy is taking over as play-caller, Elliott’s role could get even smaller. Pollard’s price went up this season, so the Cowboys could see him as their starting running back and still lose out to a team willing to pay more for a player who averaged 5.2 yards per carry and 9.5 yards per catch.

The Cowboys need to start over in the backfield, and looking at the Super Bowl players shouldn’t make them feel bad. The Chiefs started veteran Jerick McKinnon and rookie Isiah Pacheco. Jalen Hurts led the way for the Eagles on the ground, but Kenneth Gainwell, Miles Sanders, and Boston Scott all helped.

Sanders, who was taken by the Eagles in the second round of the 2019 draft, was the best pick of this group. Sanders broke 250 carries for the first time this season, but he has been a consistent starter for the Eagles with a breakout 1,269 yards and 11 touchdowns. His style of running works well with the Philadelphia offense. With Hurts in the backfield, he keeps defenses on their toes as a speed threat, and he’s tough enough to run between the tackles.

Sanders was the main focus of veteran defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo in the Super Bowl. He only got 16 yards on seven carries, while Gainwell got 21 yards on the same number of carries. The Eagles’ longest run that didn’t involve Hurts was nine yards, but they still got 35 points and half of their first downs by running the ball. Nick Sirianni was made fun of when he said he would bring efficiency to Philadelphia, but now that he is the head coach of one of the best teams in the NFL, he is set up for long-term success.

The Chiefs, who won Super Bowl LVII, came into this season with the same story about Prescott’s receivers that was told about the Cowboys. In his first season without Tyreek Hill, Mahomes was asked to make the players around him better, which he did in a historic MVP season. With McKinnon setting a career-high in receptions and Pacheco being a threat out of the backfield, the Chiefs more consistently made up for their loss at receiver with checkdown options they could count on, which the Cowboys couldn’t do with Elliott, Pollard, or any of their tight ends.

Isaiah Pacheco, a rookie picked in the seventh round, led Kansas City in the Super Bowl with 15 carries for 76 yards. He scored the first touchdown of the second half to cut into Philadelphia’s ten-point lead. McKinnon, a veteran running back, made the best play of the night when he slid short of the goal line to get a first down. This gave the Chiefs time to get ready for the game-winning field goal.

The Cowboys should know they have their work cut out for them with Prescott after watching the Super Bowl. There, two franchise quarterbacks led teams with a lot of talent around them. Some of their early moves in the offseason have been good, like putting McCarthy in charge of the offense and saying that Elliott would have to stay on the team “for the right price.” On Thursday, it was said that the Cowboys would be willing to let Elliott go if this price isn’t met and the veteran’s contract can’t be restructured.

Whether it’s keeping Tony Pollard, finding a later-round pick, or using KaVontae Turpin more out of the backfield, if the Cowboys were much more efficient here, they’d have the cap space and resources they need to help CeeDee Lamb on the outside, keep Dak Prescott upright with better line depth, and of course, give Dan Quinn more talent to work with on defense.

Cowboys Nation isn’t the only group of fans who don’t think their team is close to winning the Lombardi, especially after seeing Mahomes’s great game ruin Hurts’s great game. McCarthy’s team has more pressure and expectations than most, though, and he needs to have the most impact on the offense at running back if he wants to keep his job as head coach in Dallas for the foreseeable future.