B
Dallas Cowboys
The Cowboys worked the phones like thieves and earned a B.
by D.HAWK ·
2026 NFL Draft
· 10 picks
· 5 steals
· 3 reaches
The real work happened on the phones. The Cowboys fleeced their trade partners, turning their picks into a noticeably bigger pile than they started with.
The Young pick reads as want over need, and the roster will feel it at quarterback, running back and other spots. They will need Rodriguez to outplay his draft slot in a hurry to justify it.
Trost falling to them is the kind of break a good board is built to catch. For all the activity, quarterback went untouched, which is hard to explain.
All told, a draft that does its job without fuss, and there is real value in that.
Pick-by-Pick
In the Round 1 slot they get a disruptor off the edge, though they paid up to get him. Need was not the driver here.
The eyebrow-raiser of the weekend. They went edge rusher with Zion Young while clear needs at quarterback, running back and other spots sat open.
Jacob Rodriguez at pick No. 49 is the kind of overdraft that needs everything to break right. Better still, it is exactly the hole they had to fill.
Emmanuel McNeil-Warren is a better player than No. 59 suggests; smart patience, rewarded. A minor need, but a need all the same.
A straight-up fair deal on Treydan Stukes at the 95th pick, value and slot in agreement. That was the need underlined and circled, and now it is checked off.
Nice patience on Nate Boerkircher, who had no business lasting to slot 171. It plugs a real leak on the depth chart.
The board had Cyrus Allen higher than Round 5, Pick 37, and the wide receiver fell to them anyway. They walked in needing this and walked out with it.
Kaleb Elarms-Orr at pick 180 is a sensible buy, a touch better than market for the linebacker. A glaring weakness, addressed head on.
Quietly one of the better values of the day, Keagen Trost at the Round 6 slot. The one spot they could not leave alone, and did not.
Good things come to war rooms that wait, and Harrison Wallace III at slot 218 is the proof. The biggest hole on the depth chart just got a whole lot smaller.