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Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer.
While the smart thing for the Dallas Cowboys would be to either use their 2 1st round picks in the 2026 NFL draft on the 2 best defensive players available — a.k.a plug-and-play starters — or swap one of those picks for a defensive starter from another team, never forget that this is the Cowboys.
They almost never do the smart thing. To the point where the people who know the most about the NFL draft don’t hesitate to predict as much.
NFL.com’s Chad Reuter’s post-Super Bowl mock draft sees the Cowboys trade the 2nd of their 2 1st round picks at No. 20 overall to the Buffalo Bills in exchange for the Bills’ 2026 third and fourth round picks.
Reuter predicts the Bills will do this in order to draft University of Washington wide receiver Denzel Boston in the first round.
“With former receiver Stefon Diggs being the last Bills player to top 1,000 receiving yards in a season (2023), they are still searching for a No. 1 option for Josh Allen,” Reuter wrote. “So they trade their third- and fourth-round selections to Dallas in exchange for this pick and a sixth-rounder in order to draft the talented Boston, who has great size (6-4, 210 pounds) and sticky hands.”
Cowboys Don’t Need Day 2 Picks, They Need Starters
The worst part about Reuter’s prediction for Cowboys fans is they all understand that, despite all reason, it’s a definite possibility.
The Cowboys made the bold move of trading away edge rusher Micah Parsons, arguably the game’s best pound-for-pound defensive player, to the Green Bay Packers before the 2025 season.
In another weird twist, the Cowboys got Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark and 2 first round picks back in the trade for Parsons. They spun 1 of those first round picks into a trade for New York Jets NFL All-Pro defensive tackle Quinnen Williams.
Which doesn’t really make sense, does it? The 2 players at the same position?
The end result was the Cowboys finished 30th in the NFL in team defense, went 7-9-1 overall and missed the playoffs for the 2nd consecutive season despite having one of the NFL’s best offenses.
Growing Consensus for No. 12 Overall Pick
While what the Cowboys do with the No. 20 overall pick seems like anybody’s guess at this point, there’s a growing consensus as to what Dallas might do with the No. 12 overall pick.
Reuter believes the Cowboys will take 6-foot-5, 243-pound Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles. ESPN NFL draft expert Mel Kiper Jr.’s first mock draft had the Cowboys selecting Styles there as well.
“Picking at the same slot where they drafted Micah Parsons five years ago, the Cowboys fill the void left by Parsons’ trade to Green Bay with Styles,” Reuter wrote. “Like Parsons when he was coming out of Penn State, Styles profiles as a very good second-level defender who is quite capable of chasing quarterbacks when given the chance.”
Styles, the son of Super Bowl champion defensive back Lorenzo Styles, is the rare player who could come in and probably tap into a Pro Bowl or All-Pro level of play from the moment he steps on the field — a true playmaker the Cowboys have been missing at inside linebacker.
Tony Adame covers the NFL for Heavy.com, with a focus on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Washington Commanders, Dallas Cowboys, Baltimore Ravens, Philadelphia Eagles and Denver Broncos. A veteran sports writer and editor since 2004, his work has been featured at Stadium Talk, Yardbarker, NW Florida Daily News and Pensacola News Journal. More about Tony Adame
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