There are now just less than two months until the NFL regular season kicks off. The opening Friday night game sees the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Philadelphia Eagles, take on the Atlanta Falcons. Of course, when the 2018 season begins, every team and their fans will be dreaming of making a playoff run. But for some, it's going to be a lot harder than for others. 

THE DALLAS COWBOYS

One team that's always so desperate to make the playoffs is the Dallas Cowboys. 

In 2016, America's Team finished the regular season with an impressive 13-3 record. But a year later, they failed to reach those heights, going 9-7.

Although that's a positive finish, even that was seen as a "down" year in Dallas - and they failed to make the post-season, finishing second in the NFC East. 

2018 HOPES

Coming off the back of a disappointing year, the Cowboys will be hoping to improve in 2018 and make the playoffs, as they did two years ago. 

This time though, they'll also want to go a few steps further than 2016, when they lost in the divisional round to the Green Bay Packers. 

But if the opening betting odds are anything to go by, it might be another rocky season in Dallas.

OPENING ODDS

OddsShark, a sports betting website, have dropped their 2018 playoff odds - and they don't make good reading for the Cowboys. 

Jason Garrett's team open at a +145 line, meaning they have only the 16th best odds in the NFL to make the playoffs.  

For a team so desperate to make another post-season run, this doesn't look good. But there's a reason that Dallas is so far down the list.

A POOR OFFSEASON

So far, the Cowboys have had a pretty poor offseason. Earlier this summer, they lost two key offensive players in Jason Witten and Dez Bryant - but haven't done much to replace them.

Even with those two men on their roster, last season they failed to perform anyway. And while they appear to have a weakened roster, their divisional rivals have been improving. 

Currently, eight teams in the Cowboys' NFC conference have better odds of reaching the playoffs. 

Those are the Philadelphia Eagles, Minnesota Vikings, Los Angeles Rams, Green Bay Packers, New Orleans Saints, Atlanta Falcons, San Francisco 49ers and Carolina Panthers.

Arguably, on paper, all those teams - perhaps bar the 49ers, have a stronger roster than Dallas.

But of course, only time will tell whether the Cowboys can make it to the post-season.