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Linebacker Arvell Reese #8 of the Ohio State Buckeyes is a possible Dallas Cowboys NFL draft target.<\/p>\n
The Dallas Cowboys<\/a> have two first-round picks in the upcoming NFL draft, which is a fine way to spark speculation about what, exactly, the team might do with those picks. The draft this year is not considered especially top-heavy, but is fairly deep at some positions, including edge rusher and safety, and the Cowboys could use depth at both of those spots. Projecting the Cowboys to simply sit on picks No. 12 and 20 is simple enough, and there will be plenty of opportunity to land useful players in both cases.<\/p>\n But the days before the draft are the NFL\u2019s anything-goes silly season, and the Cowboys can be expected to be central to several hushed rumblings of intrigue and wild bouts of speculation. Over the weekend, the buzz was that the Cowboys could potentially move up to No. 3 in a trade with the Cardinals<\/a>, with their eyes on a star pass-rusher, in this case David Bailey of Texas Tech. His Top 30 visit<\/a> with the Cowboys helped fuel speculation.<\/p>\n But the Cowboys also have a Top 30 visit with Arvell Reese of Ohio State, the presumed top pass-rusher in this draft and likely the No. 2 pick to the Jets<\/a>. Unless, that is, the Cowboys pull off another blockbuster with New York.<\/p>\n Cowboys Get No. 2 Pick in NFL Draft Trade<\/p>\n Dallas and the Jets already made one of the biggest trades of the last six months back at the NFL<\/a> trading deadline, when the Cowboys shipped off a first- and second-round pick for defensive lineman Quinnen Williams.<\/p>\n Now, ESPN\u2019s NFL guru Bill Barnwell<\/a> is proposing another deal: the Cowboys move up to No. 2, with Reese possibly in mind.<\/p>\n In his column, \u201c2026 NFL mock draft with all trades: Deals for Round 1 picks,\u201d Barnwell sees a path for the Cowboys to land No. 2. Here\u2019s the crux of the deal:<\/p>\n \u201cCowboys get:\u00a01-2, 2027 fifth-round pick Arvell Reese and NFL Draft Target?<\/p>\n There is some appeal here, as Jerry Jones and the Cowboys know they need to get better in 2026, that they need to take advantage of the offense they\u2019ve built around Dak Prescott<\/a> by quickly improving the defense. This deal costs them a 2027 first-rounder (they traded one for Williams) but keeps the No. 20 pick in place here in 2026.<\/p>\n Writes Barnwell: \u201cDoes Jones want Reese? Bailey? (Rueben) Bain? (sonny) Styles? Doesn\u2019t matter. He can get whoever he wants to make an immediate impact for the Cowboys at No. 2. With this trade, the Cowboys also hold onto the 20th pick, which would allow them to address the secondary, either by selecting a player or moving down for extra draft capital. Suddenly, Jones can feel like his team is actually \u2026 stacked on defense?\u201d<\/p>\n GettyOwner Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Improved Defense, But Still Holes<\/p>\n That might be going a bit far, considering that the Cowboys were arguably the worst defensive team in the NFL in 2025. There\u2019s also the small issue of linebacker\u2013they don\u2019t have one. Dallas will need to draft a linebacker with No. 20 and still, likely, either sign or trade for a veteran, too.<\/p>\n But if the Cowboys can add Reese opposite the newly acquired Rashan Gary, with a rebuilt secondary and new coordinator Christian Parker in place, the arrow would be pointed up for the Dallas D.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tSean Deveney<\/a> is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\tMore Heavy on Cowboys\n\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\tLoading more stories\n\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Getty Linebacker Arvell Reese #8 of the Ohio State Buckeyes is a possible Dallas Cowboys NFL draft target.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":856929,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-856928","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-dallascowboys","12":"tag-football","13":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116358137229630955","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856928","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=856928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/856928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/856929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=856928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=856928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=856928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cJets get: 1-12, 4-112, 2027 first-round pick, 2027 third-round pick\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Owner](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2240175417-e1775053295214.jpg\")
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