{"id":267429,"date":"2026-02-27T15:37:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:37:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/?p=267429"},"modified":"2026-02-27T15:37:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T20:37:24","slug":"dallas-cowboys-2026-mock-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/2026\/02\/27\/dallas-cowboys-2026-mock-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys 2026 Mock Draft"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Cowboys have been nothing short of aggressive on offense. They just tagged George Pickens<\/a>. Javonte Williams earned an extension<\/a> in 2025. But the team has to begin fixing its defense, and this Cowboys mock draft can help fix some of the holes on that side of the ball. Let’s take a look.<\/p>\n

Dallas Cowboys 2026 Mock Draft<\/h2>\n

Pick 1.12 – Caleb Banks, IDL, Florida<\/h3>\n

This class is short on can’t-miss EDGE prospects. Instead, the Cowboys can turn their attention inside on this mock draft. Banks is a mountain of a man (confirmed 6’6″, 327 pounds), and he has athleticism<\/a> to pair with it. He still needs to improve as a pass rusher, but for a defense that ranked in the bottom ten in rushing yards allowed<\/a>, Banks is a perfect fit.<\/p>\n

Pick 1.20 – Emmanuel McNeil-Warren, S, Toledo<\/h3>\n

McNeil-Warren is a little further down on our 2026 NFL draft big board<\/a>, but most of the players higher are either on offense or were already gone. Now the team has an anchor on the inside against the run, and a rangy, playmaking safety that can fly all over the field. With defensive linemen mostly off the board early, securing the back end of this defense with the second first-round pick would be a solid option.<\/p>\n

Pick 4.120 – Nadame Tucker, EDGE, Western Michigan<\/h3>\n

Tucker is a moldable ball of potential. In a class without a lot of depth on the defensive line, Tucker is one of the few who could be a real difference maker down the road. He’s explosive. He’s a pass-rushing specialist. But he will need to add some play strength to become an every-down player.<\/p>\n

Pick 5.150 – Mike Washington, RB, Arkansas<\/a><\/h3>\n

Javonte Williams can’t be the only running back option. Jaydon Blue didn’t show anything to make folks think he’s a long-term RB2. Washington can provide the explosiveness that Williams doesn’t have at this stage of his career, and with the unique kick return format in the NFL, he can be an option on special teams alongside Kavontae Turpin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pick 5.177 – Red Murdock, ILB, Buffalo<\/h3>\n

Murdock didn’t face the highest level of competition at Buffalo. But he made the most of who he was playing against. He has almost 300 tackles over the past two years<\/a>, 13 forced fumbles, and even a pick-six. His movement skills aren’t great laterally, but he’s a missile once he’s decided his read and attacks with reckless abandon. Worst-case scenario, the Cowboys can throw him on kickoff, and that’s a win on day three in this mock draft.<\/p>\n

Pick 6.215 – T.J. Guy, EDGE, Michigan<\/h3>\n

Now here’s a Guy. Guy is another pass rush specialist who can get after the quarterback with a quick first step and violence through the finish. As the team looks at what an effective defense looks like after the Micah Parsons deal, maybe they can Moneyball it a little bit. There won’t be a Micah Parsons in this draft, but they can build him in the aggregate.<\/p>\n

Pick 7.221 – Eric Gentry, ILB, University of Southern California<\/h3>\n

Gentry is one of the most unique prospects in this draft. He should probably be playing small forward for the Mavericks, but instead he’s an undersized linebacker in weight, but supersized in height and length. In the seventh round, taking stabs at players who have unique traits can help set the Cowboys up for future success.<\/p>\n

Pick 7.225 – DeVonta Smith, CB, Notre Dame<\/h3>\n

Smith is likely a depth\/rotational piece at best. But in a perfect world Cowboys fans would get to see Devonta Smith lock down Devonta Smith on their way to win the division.<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Bob Kupbens-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No Cowboys mock draft would be complete without multiple picks on defense, but there could be sneaky day three value for the offense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4345,"featured_media":263526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[19,33761,1647,6431],"tags":[34130,34062,7590,33966,1776],"class_list":["post-267429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cowboys","category-mock-drafts","category-nfl-draft","category-nfl-teams","tag-2026-nfl-mock-draft","tag-caleb-banks","tag-dallas-cowboys-draft","tag-emmanuel-mcneil-warren","tag-nfl-mock-draft"],"modified_by":"Mike Kashuba","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4345"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":267445,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267429\/revisions\/267445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}