{"id":867798,"date":"2026-04-16T16:09:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:09:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/867798\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T16:09:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T16:09:29","slug":"failed-ex-gms-hate-for-ideal-cowboys-2026-nfl-draft-scenario-is-misguided","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/867798\/","title":{"rendered":"Failed Ex-GM&#8217;s Hate For Ideal Cowboys 2026 NFL Draft Scenario is Misguided"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">Leave it to a former New York Jets general manager to hate a logical idea for the Dallas Cowboys in the 2026 NFL Draft.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">Mike Tannenbaum, who was once an executive for the Jets and then Miami Dolphins and is now an ESPN talking head, is <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ESPNNFL\/status\/2044498632590664138\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">not a fan of Mel Kiper&#8217;s<\/a> most recent mock draft, where he has Dallas <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/onsi\/draft\/ideal-dallas-cowboys-nfl-draft-trade-scenario-maximizes-value-green-dot-linebacker\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">pulling off a blockbuster trade<\/a> with the Cleveland Browns.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">That trade sees the Cowboys make <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/onsi\/news\/dane-brugler-dallas-cowboys-mock-draft-best-worst-picks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">what has become a popular move<\/a>, which is trading pick Nos. 12 and 20 for Cleveland&#8217;s No. 6 selection and early second-round pick (No. 39). And, with that sixth pick, the Cowboys land linebacker Sonny Styles.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">\u201cI love [Sonny] Styles. I hate the trade,&#8221; Tannenbaum said. &#8220;The Dallas Cowboys are not one player away&#8230; This was a team that was bad at all three levels, and even though they&#8217;re going to add Rashan Gary and Quinnen Williams this past offseason, there&#8217;s a lot more work to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6s\">Tannenbaum goes on to suggest LSU&#8217;s Mansoor Delane at No. 12 for Dallas, and then an edge rusher like Ahkeem Mesidor or Zion Young at No. 20. The bad part about Tannenbaum&#8217;s suggestion is Delane isn&#8217;t widely expected to be on the board at No. 12.<\/p>\n<p>Why Tannenbaum is wrong<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kpamqx1n6d0hrf9c69.jpg\" alt=\"Miami Dolphins executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum before the game against the Buffalo Bills.\" title=\"Miami Dolphins executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum before the game against the Buffalo Bills.\" width=\"2604\" height=\"2604\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"75\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Former Miami Dolphins executive vice president of football operations Mike Tannenbaum. | Kevin Hoffman-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"79\">We would definitely concede to Tannenbaum that the Cowboys are not one player away because, well, they aren&#8217;t. Dallas needs help at all three levels and Styles only checks one box.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">That said, in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nfl.com\/news\/patriots-eliot-wolf-2026-nfl-draft-class-not-historically-great-but-strong-at-o-line-d-line-wr\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">draft that isn&#8217;t loaded with talent<\/a>, the Cowboys need to make an aggressive move to get one of its best players. Styles most definitely qualifies as such, and he checks an important box, which is a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/onsi\/news\/could-dallas-cowboys-take-non-traditional-approach-crucial-defensive-role\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">starting linebacker who can wear the green dot<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">In addition to that thought process, there isn&#8217;t likely to be a major difference between the players the Cowboys can get at No. 20 and those that will be available at the top of the second round. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">That means Dallas could still get as talented a player at No. 39 as they would be getting in their second first-round spot.<\/p>\n<p>Latest Cowboys trade rumors<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kpamvpvfyh5bvx4qys.jpg\" alt=\"Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer looks on before the game against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. \" title=\"Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer looks on before the game against the New York Giants at MetLife Stadium. \" width=\"2805\" height=\"2805\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"7v\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Dallas Cowboys head coach Brian Schottenheimer. | Robert Deutsch-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7z\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/onsi\/news\/stephen-jones-comments-add-fuel-dallas-cowboys-nfl-draft-trade-rumors\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">common NFL Draft rumor about the Cowboys<\/a> has pointed to a trade up, and there have been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/onsi\/news\/dallas-cowboys-should-have-browns-sights-latest-nfl-draft-trade-rumor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">multiple rumors out there pointing to the Browns<\/a> as a team that wants to trade up.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"82\">One of the few times we&#8217;ve seen someone <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Z4dRSgStmgQ\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">push back on a possible trade up<\/a> came from Yahoo Sports&#8217; Charles Robinson, who spoke to someone in Dallas that said they Cowboys content with sticking and picking and landing two first-round players because they feel those players can both be starters, which Dallas obviously needs.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"85\">&#8220;I talked to someone in Dallas. Those two first-round picks, they feel like they can get contributing players for 2026,&#8221; Robinson reported. &#8220;They feel good about getting two players.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"88\">When it&#8217;s this late in the process, it&#8217;s hard to know what to believe anymore. We would say, however, that the Cowboys will be in fine position no matter what they decide to do, whether that&#8217;s a huge trade up from No. 12, sticking and picking at 12 and 20, or even trading back from 20 to acquire more draft capital.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-17\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8b\">\u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\/newsletter\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for the Cowboys Daily Digest newsletter <\/a>for more free coverage from<a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nfl\/cowboys\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Dallas Cowboys on SI<\/a> \u2014<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Leave it to a former New York Jets general manager to hate a logical idea for the Dallas&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":867799,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-867798","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\/116415258793009235","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867798","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=867798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/867798\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/867799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=867798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=867798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=867798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}