Brian Schottenheimer is dug in on the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n
AUSTIN \u2014\u00a0Brian Schottenheimer<\/a>\u00a0has said he\u2019s good when it comes to the football side of being a head coach.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019m great with people,\u201d\u00a0the Cowboys<\/a>\u2018 head coach once said.<\/p>\n So it should come as no surprise that Schottenheimer was working the room on a hot March day in Austin. Or, more specifically, the bubble where the\u00a0Texas Longhorns<\/a>\u00a0practice indoors.\u00a0Schottenheimer not only chatted with people during the Longhorns\u2019 pro day, he also had extensive conversations with them. First, Longhorns head coach\u00a0Steve\u00a0Sarkisian<\/a>. Later, Athletes First super agent David Mulugheta, a Texas alum who also represents the Cowboys\u2019 two most recent polarizing negotiations the last two seasons:\u00a0Micah Parsons<\/a>\u00a0and now wide receiver\u00a0George Pickens<\/a>.<\/p>\n Finally, with pro day coming to an end, Schottenheimer spoke with Texas quarterback\u00a0Arch Manning<\/a>\u00a0and, to a lesser extent, star receiver Cam Coleman. They\u2019re both draft prospects who could be selected early \u2014 in the 2027 NFL draft.<\/p>\n \u201cHe grabbed me,\u201d Schottenheimer said jokingly. \u201cI\u2019m not allowed to talk to those guys.<\/p>\n \u201cI couldn\u2019t be rude.\u201d<\/p>\n Joking aside, at the very least, the scene captures a change in\u00a0Schottenheimer from his first offseason as a head coach.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s like a budding spring flower. He\u2019s just \u2014 you can just feel him,\u201d Cowboys owner Jerry Jones said this week from the annual owners meetings in Phoenix. \u201cYou can feel him growing.\u201d<\/p>\n Here are the dates for the Cowboys\u2019 offseason activities.<\/p>\n May<\/p>\n May 1-4\/May 8-11: Rookie minicamps (clubs must pick one of the two weekends)<\/p>\n May 13-17: NFLPA Rookie Premiere (Los Angeles)<\/p>\n Mid-May (TBD): 2026 NFL Schedule Release<\/p>\n May 20-21: Spring League Meeting (Orlando)<\/p>\n June<\/p>\n June 1-2, June 8-9, June 11: Mandatory OTAs<\/p>\n June 16-18:\u00a0Mandatory minicamp<\/p>\n July<\/p>\n July 15: Deadline for franchise tagged players to sign multi-year extension<\/p>\n Late-July (TBD): Training Camp Begins<\/p>\n Could Tennessee cornerback Jermod McCoy be in play for the Cowboys after his Pro Day workout?<\/p>\n Their top first-round pick, No. 12 overall, is one they need to get right to turn around one of the worst defenses in franchise history. Using it on a player who last played in January of 2025 (and skipped the combine) seemed like a risk to big to take.<\/p>\n But after\u00a0McCoy ran a 4.38 40-yard dash in the Tennessee Pro Day<\/a>, could Dallas take a swing? The latest draft intel suggests so.<\/p>\n Did Jermod McCoy\u2019s Pro Day boost his draft stock?<\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to know how much stock to put on McCoy\u2019s Pro Day. His testing numbers were impressive, but is it enough to answer questions about the \u201cring rust\u201d after so long without playing football?<\/p>\n It seems like the NFL thinks so. In a\u00a0recent\u00a0ESPN\u00a0article<\/a>, insider Matt Miller revealed McCoy\u2019s stock is on the rise.<\/p>\n \u201cThe feedback I received from teams was that McCoy is back in the running for CB1,\u201d Miller wrote. \u201cThere were some questions even from the morning of the workout about what drills he would participate in. But he did everything, including positional drills.\u201d<\/p>\n Interested buzz surrounding the Cowboys in the first round.<\/p>\n 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\u00a0Dallas Cowboys<\/a>\u00a0were having internal discussions about trading for Dolphins linebacker Jordyn Brooks and Texans linebacker Azeez Al-Shahir. That quickly morphed, thanks to social media\u2019s version of telephone tag, into reports that Dallas was in talks with those teams; which wasn\u2019t the case.<\/p>\n Today, a tweet circulated by a Twitter account of an\u00a0Arizona Cardinals<\/a>\u00a0podcast puts the Cowboys in a light that the original source didn\u2019t actually shine. The tweet claims that Todd McShay, formerly of ESPN, said the\u00a0Cardinals have \u201chad draft day trade talks with the Dallas Cowboys centered around David Bailey.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0But when you do the work, that\u2019s not what McShay said at all.<\/p>\n