A report Cards, Cowboys are in draft trade talks for Bailey needs more

April 3, 2026, 1:36 p.m. CT

Is this another case of much ado about nothing? A few weeks ago, Cowboys Nation was put into a tizzy when phenomenal beat writer Nick Harris of the Ft. Worth Star Telegram said that he had heard the Dallas Cowboys were having internal discussions about trading for Dolphins linebacker Jordyn Brooks and Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shahir. That quickly morphed, thanks to social media’s version of telephone tag, into reports that Dallas was in talks with those teams; which wasn’t the case.

Today, a tweet circulated by a Twitter account of an Arizona Cardinals podcast puts the Cowboys in a light that the original source didn’t actually shine. The tweet claims that Todd McShay, formerly of ESPN, said the Cardinals have “had draft day trade talks with the Dallas Cowboys centered around David Bailey.” But when you do the work, that’s not what McShay said at all.

Here’s the segment in question from McShay’s podcast, The McShay Show.

I’ve gotten two different very interesting nuggets… I’m gonna tell you what I’ve heard from two different people who normally have very good information… No. 3 Cardinals… one source is saying ‘I know [Adam] Schefter says the clock starts on Jeremiyah Love at No. 5… there’s someone in that building that’s pushing really, really hard for Jeremiyah Love’… then I’ve got another person like ‘trading out of 3 remains one of the priorities’… There’s a lot of buzz about Dallas… noise about Dallas trading up from 12 to 3 to get Bailey…

What I say to you, Arizona could be trading out of that spot, a team could be trying to trade up for an edge, sepcifically David Bailey.

Read that again. McShay is saying that he has a source that someone in the Cardinals org is interested in trading out, and then he adds speculation that the Cowboys could be the team looking to trade up. He in no way says that he has a source that places the Cowboys and Cardinals in conversation about the swap.

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That’s not to say there aren’t talks, or won’t be talks, just that McShay is in now way going on record that it’s happened or is happening. The report is that Arizona is considering trading the No. 3 pick away.

As for what it would take to make the move, the Jimmy Johnson trade chart is pretty clear. No. 3 is worth 2200 points. Dallas’ first three picks, No. 12 (1200 points), No. 20 (850 points), and No. 92 (132 points). are almost identical.