The Dallas Cowboys‘ purported plan for the 2026 NFL Draft is making its way into the news cycle with 10 days to go until the first round begins.
On Tuesday, NFL insider Jordan Schultz reported that “multiple sources” believe the Cowboys are prime candidates to trade up in the first round, and “several teams” believe the Cowboys are “targeting a player the Giants also covet.”
Schultz didn’t name the mystery player, but NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport added to the intrigue while visiting “The Rich Eisen Show” later on Tuesday.
“Does someone — the Cowboys, to me, would be the most obvious team — come up and say, ‘I’m going to risk it all for a generational edge rusher with position flexibility’?” Rapoport said. “Look, if it’s [former Ohio State edge rusher] Arvell Reese, the comparison is Micah Parsons. That’s what people say. He’s Micah Parsons. Which would be, of course, all sorts of funny Cowboys-wise.”
Rapoport added that the Cowboys’ packaging their Nos. 12 and 20 overall picks could be enough to get into “the top three, or four, or five.”
Cowboys fans need not be reminded of Dallas’ bewildering decision to trade All-Pro pass rusher Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers last August.
Part of the trade package was Green Bay’s 2026 and 2027 first-round picks going to the Cowboys, which turned into the No. 20 overall pick. Dallas also owns the No. 12 overall pick after finishing 7-9-1 last season.
It would be a true twist of irony if the Parsons trade landed the Cowboys a Parsons replica, but replacing Parsons in Dallas will prove difficult for Reese or any other pass rusher to don the star. Last season with the Packers, Parsons became the first pass rusher in NFL history to record at least 10 sacks in each of his first five seasons.
The Cowboys don’t need a generational pass rusher, although that would be ideal. They just need a difference-maker on defense. In Parsons’ absence, Dallas sank toward the bottom of the league in overall defensive production and ranked dead last in scoring defense in 2025.
Renowned draft analyst Daniel Jeremiah evaluated Reese as the fifth-best overall prospect in this class and a surefire impact day-one starter.
“Ohio State used him as a chess piece on defense,” Jeremiah wrote. “He aligned off the ball at linebacker, on the edge as a rusher, and occasionally was deployed as a QB spy. He projects best as an edge rusher at the next level.”
Dallas pulled off a blockbuster trade to acquire All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams at the Nov. 4 deadline, which certainly helped, and linebacker Demarvion Overshown has flashed extremely high upside when healthy.
But the Williams trade put even more pressure on Dallas to nail the first round of this year’s draft and maximize what’s left of the Dak Prescott window. The Cowboys’ 2026 second-round pick and 2027 first-round pick belong to New York.
The first round of the 2026 NFL Draft is set for April 23 in Pittsburgh.
