D+
Dallas Cowboys
A costly weekend of dealing drags the Cowboys to a D+.
by Boke ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 13 picks
· 3 steals
· 5 reaches
Some picks age like wine; Kaleb Elarms-Orr at slot 136 will need to, sitting 47 spots clear of his grade.
The trade table is where this weekend went wrong. With quarterback and tight end unsolved, spending premium capital on safety is the choice that costs them. They will regret leaving quarterback for another day if the season turns on it.
They banked enough surplus on Slaughter to cover a lot of smaller sins.
Bottom line, they will need several of these picks to beat their grades just to break even, and quarterback is still a hole.
Pick-by-Pick
In the 12th overall pick they get a green-dot type in the middle at fair value. It fills the loudest need on the roster.
Emmanuel McNeil-Warren at slot 47 is a sound buy, the sort that quietly helps a class. A minor need, but a need all the same.
They robbed the room for Jake Slaughter here, a fall nobody at the table saw coming. Top of the wish list, and they did not leave without it.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Treydan Stukes at the 87th pick. It answers the question that was keeping the coaches up at night.
This one needs a full-page explanation: Caden Curry in pick 90, miles early. Useful depth more than a marquee fix.
A reach for Darrell Jackson Jr. in the Round 3 slot; a little patience would have been rewarded. A real hole, addressed with a reasonable pick.
They paid sticker price for Nicholas Singleton in pick 112, and that is fine. A need, and now a little less of one.
A want over a need in pick No. 113: Bud Clark adds a safety while quarterback and tight end keeps waiting.
They took Harold Perkins Jr. at par in the 132nd pick, which is nothing to complain about. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Kaleb Elarms-Orr at the Round 4 slot is an overdraft of the loud, memorable kind. It also answers one of the loudest questions on the roster.
They reached into another round for Reggie Virgil, and the board is nowhere close to agreeing. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Cyrus Allen at No. 177 nudges the ledger their way without any fuss. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
A reach on Ephesians Prysock in the 180th overall pick; the board had better options right there. This was priority one on the needs board, and now it is handled.