D+
Dallas Cowboys
The phones sank the Cowboys this weekend: D+.
by Boke ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 14 picks
· 5 steals
· 4 reaches
The Cowboys treated their own grade as gospel and everyone else's as noise, spending pick 92 on Caden Curry a full 40 spots early.
Overpaying at the table undid a lot of the good work elsewhere. They covered a lot of ground and still skipped quarterback, which is a strange place to end up.
The Curry pick is fine in a vacuum, less so with quarterback still on the board. That Stowers pick is the receipt they will wave around later.
They are betting the present roster is worth a lighter draft next spring.
The verdict is not kind, and fairly so; this class has a hill to climb.
Pick-by-Pick
In pick No. 6 they get the heartbeat of the defense. Exactly the need they had to hit.
Emmanuel McNeil-Warren at the 39th pick is neither steal nor reach, just the going rate. A minor itch, scratched.
They robbed the room for Lee Hunter here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. Another box on the needs board, quietly ticked.
Eli Stowers in Round 3, Pick 23 is the kind of fall that makes a whole class. A sensible fit for a spot that needed help.
Jake Golday in the 90th overall pick should not have been possible, and that is the whole point. Not urgent, but hardly pointless.
Hard to square with the roster. With positions of obvious need still on the board, Caden Curry adds an edge rusher and leaves quarterback untouched.
They paid sticker price for Tacario Davis in pick No. 107, and that is fine. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Of all the spots to shop, they chose edge rusher. Mason Reiger in slot 112 leaves quarterback for later.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Travis Burke in No. 152, miles early. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
The board had Kevin Coleman Jr. higher than pick 177, and the wide receiver fell to them anyway. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Le'Veon Moss at the 180th overall pick is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. It patches a soft spot without any drama.
No drama and no debate, Jeff Caldwell went about where he belonged in the Round 6 slot. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
VJ Payne in Round 6, Pick 18 is fair value, right on his grade. They doubled down on a strength rather than a need.
Somehow Eric McAlister was still sitting there in the 221st pick, and they pounced on premier wide receiver value. A must-fix position, and they treated it like one.