The 2026 NFL Draft is less than a month away, and while making transactions close to the week of the draft is something the Dallas Cowboys have not been shy about in recent years, it is still this draft where Dallas holds a pair of first-round picks that are looming large as the best opportunity for the Cowboys to improve their defense.<\/p>\n
A defense that was abysmal in 2025 under Matt Eberflus has been forced to yet again take a few steps backwards in order to move forwards with a new defensive coordinator, with Christian Parker now in charge. One position that Eberflus had his fingerprints all over that will especially need retooling is linebacker. Kenneth Murray was one of the faces of the porous Cowboys defense last season, and now moving on without him, the worst part of the one-year Murray experience may be the way he took valuable snaps away from Marist Liufau.<\/p>\n
Liufau\u2019s chance to make up for this in Parker\u2019s defense will come with a bit of a position change as well, as the Cowboys will be using him as an outside linebacker in pass rush duties. This isn\u2019t to say that 100% of Liufau\u2019s snaps will be in pass rush and not have some dedicated to coverage, but even the thought of not having Liufau as a more traditional style linebacker on any majority of snaps makes the depth chart at LB even more unsettling. Moving past Liufau, the Cowboys would then be counting on DeMarvion Overshown, second-year draft pick Shemar James, and Justin Barron.<\/p>\n
Where to expect Parker\u2019s defense to improve the most<\/p>\n
The Cowboys not exactly making good on \u201cbusting their budget\u201d and \u201cborrowing from the future\u201d to field a new defense has created a tough task for Parker right off the bat. One area that will be a strong indicator of how well the Cowboys defense is playing this scheme will be the Cowboys\u2019 improvement in yards per passing attempt against. In Parker\u2019s first season with the Philadelphia Eagles in 2024, that defense went from being top ten in this metric the year before to the absolute best in the league, with more than a full yard of improvement. The Eagles actually improved yet again in this area last season, though they weren\u2019t the top team in the league, yet still lightyears better than the Cowboys who were in the basement for this category.<\/p>\n
If the aim of the Cowboys defense in 2026 is to force more shorter passes and limit explosive plays, the logic that they need the most help at cornerback at safety right now isn\u2019t wrong, but may fall short of considering the players who might actually be most involved defending these short passes. For what it\u2019s worth, the Eagles\u2019 first-round pick under Vic Fangio\/Parker before going on to improve on a previous year\u2019s league-best yards per attempt against was linebacker Jihad Campbell. The Alabama linebacker made his impact felt right away in his NFL debut against the Cowboys, forcing that critical Miles Sanders fumble on opening night last season in an Eagles win.<\/p>\n
Before coaching within the Cowboys division, Parker was with the Broncos for three years, but the team only made one first-round selection during this time. It was cornerback Patrick Surtain, and the other first-round pick made while Parker was with the Eagles was another cornerback Quinyon Mitchell.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys coming out of day one of the draft with a new cornerback and linebacker, in any combination, feels like something of a best case, high upside scenario.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys need at linebacker runs even deeper<\/p>\n
Secondary to how badly the Cowboys actually need more competent bodies at linebacker to be able to drop into coverage, match up with backs and tight ends, and defend the run, this defense as a whole needs communicators and players that can be relied on to help build the foundation of the new playbook. So many of the explosive plays the Cowboys allowed last season were due to communication breakdowns more than anything else. Again, improving personnel in the secondary will also help, but if the play call in the huddle is going to be coming from a linebacker, along with the pre-snap adjustments, do the Cowboys even have a player they trust in either role at LB right now?<\/p>\n
The Cowboys have official pre-draft 30 visits with linebackers Sonny Styles and Josiah Trotter so far. They did meet formally with some top names like CJ Allen, Jacob Rodriguez, Arvell Reese, as well as Scooby Williams, Kendal Daniels, Xavian Sorey, Harold Perkins Jr., and Kaleb Elarms-Orr at the combine. Dallas was also linked to linebackers Bryce Boettcher, Lander Barton, Owen Heinecke, Jack Kelly, and Deontae Lawson via informal visits in Indianapolis as well.<\/p>\n
The overall density of these names points to the Cowboys realizing their need at linebacker, but one names helps cut through the noise when it comes to the full picture they\u2019re potentially looking for, and it\u2019s a name that has drawn many mixed reactions as a prospect to consider for Cowboys fans.<\/p>\n
Georgia\u2019s CJ Allen was reportedly the ultimate \u201cgreen dot\u201d player at Georgia, calling plays by himself, making adjustments, and leading the team in tackles in 2025. Last season was Allen\u2019s second as a full-time starter in a base 3-4 defense, one that led Georgia to a dominant 28-7 win in the SEC Championship game against Alabama.<\/p>\n
Allen did not test at the combine or do a full gauntlet of drills at Georgia\u2019s Pro Day, opening up the door for speculation that his physical attributes won\u2019t come back as glowing as his cerebral ones. In a linebacker class where Ohio State\u2019s Sonny Styles stands out above not only the pack of fellow linebackers but the entire draft class from an athletic standpoint, Allen is still holding his own on big boards as the second or third best option behind Styles, and likewise the second or third off the board in mock drafts.<\/p>\n
The Cowboys hold the 12th and 20th overall picks, the latter of which feels like the more ideal spot to land Allen if possible. Whether it\u2019s Allen or not, the overall idea of the Cowboys using the draft assets they\u2019ve held close to the vest as their most important offseason chips to take a middle linebacker type player, and seeing the most immediate improvements on defense in 2026 by going this route, is an idea to get comfortable with.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 2026 NFL Draft is less than a month away, and while making transactions close to the week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":841167,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,437,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-841166","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-cowboys","8":"tag-cowboys","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys-draft","12":"tag-dallascowboys","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116313364089476843","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841166","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=841166"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/841166\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/841167"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=841166"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=841166"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=841166"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}