{"id":869721,"date":"2026-04-19T07:34:03","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869721\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T07:34:03","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T07:34:03","slug":"dallas-cowboys-trade-up-rumors-swirl-for-2026-nfl-draft-caleb-downs-noted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/869721\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys trade up rumors swirl for 2026 NFL Draft, Caleb Downs noted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Pick your favorite NFL insider. Odds are they have said it. The NFL world seems convinced that the Dallas Cowboys are going to trade up in the first round of the NFL draft. As you know the Cowboys hold picks 12 and 20 in the first round so they certainly are equipped to move if they feel compelled to do so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Why would they move up, though? Where is all of this even coming from? One insider tried to explain it.<\/p>\n<p>Rumors continue to fly the Cowboys will trade up<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">On Friday. the folks at ESPN published <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/nfl\/draft2026\/story\/_\/id\/48495253\/2026-nfl-draft-latest-buzz-steals-news-downs-tyson-sadiq-eagles-giants-steelers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">a notebook of draft buzz things<\/a> they are hearing and at one point addressed how many draft-day trades they anticipate in the first round.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Matt Miller went with eight which would be incredible theater. In his explanation he offered that the Cowboys (and New York Jets) are among those to watch closely.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">Miller: Eight. The flat nature of this draft class might make people think there will be fewer trades, but teams I\u2019ve spoken to expect activity due to the fact that there are so few blue-chip-caliber prospects. Like Jordan, I heard from a GM that there could be two trades in the top 10 picks alone. The Cowboys (No. 12) and Jets (No. 16) are two teams to watch in terms of moving up, as teams picking in the teens would like to snag the highly rated players before they\u2019re off the board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Miller\u2019s point, not to speak for him, is that there is a finite amount of worth-it candidates and the Cowboys feel that they are unlikely to land one at 12. That makes sense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Later in the notebook the subject of ceilings and floors was discussed and Field Yates noted that if luck does fall upon the Cowboys that they are the floor for Caleb Downs specifically.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">Yates: The Giants loom at No. 5 as the first logical landing spot for Downs, which would make him the first safety to go in the top 10 since Jamal Adams in 2017. It\u2019s hard to envision him getting past the Cowboys at No. 12, as one of the ways Downs would still be available there is if an early run on defenders removes prospects such as David Bailey, Arvell Reese, Sonny Styles and Mansoor Delane from the board.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Debating which exact prospect is worth the trade up, obviously without knowing the price to move, generally comes back to the Ohio State Buckeyes (Arvelle Reese, Sonny Styles, and Downs) and David Bailey. Maybe you would toss Mansoor Delane in there as well.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">If the Cowboys move up it is surely going to be for one of those players, but it is fair to say that the odds of any of them making it to 12 are slim. That seems to be the conclusion that all are coming to.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Which of the blue-chips is worth it to you? Which are not?<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Let us know in the comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pick your favorite NFL insider. Odds are they have said it. The NFL world seems convinced that the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[437,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-869721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nfl","8":"tag-dallas-cowboys-draft","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116430219581853244","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869721","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=869721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}