{"id":871106,"date":"2026-04-21T10:49:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871106\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T10:49:58","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T10:49:58","slug":"managing-the-cowboys-2026-nfl-draft-what-i-would-do-if-i-am-gm-for-the-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/871106\/","title":{"rendered":"Managing the Cowboys\u2019 2026 NFL Draft: What I would do if I am GM for the week"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many experts and fans believe they can do a better job of running a team than those with that actual responsibility. While that\u2019s highly unlikely, it\u2019s a common thought with a franchise like the Dallas Cowboys that hasn\u2019t been to a conference championship game in 30 years.<\/p>\n

Critics often second-guess Cowboys owner and general manager Jerry Jones. He talked in January about the front office doing some \u201cdrastic things\u201d to improve the roster after missing the playoffs for a second consecutive season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to get out here and do better than we did this year,\u201d he said. \u201c(There\u2019s) the incentive to, dare I say it, bust the budget to try to get something done now? Yes. Yes. \u2026 This calls for some pretty controversial decisions. We\u2019re gonna keep this thing as good as we can possibly be. Finances are no object. We\u2019re gonna make it as entertaining as we can and keep it as lively as we can for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dallas then had a pretty vanilla free-agency period with the highlight moves being trading for edge rusher Rashan Gary, signing safety Jalen Thompson, re-signing running back Javonte Williams and trading away defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been aggressive,\u201d Jones said a few weeks ago. \u201cWe have, relatively speaking, stepped up the financial requirements for what we have done. We may have exceeded, busted (the budget), whatever you want to call it, but we got some more (to do). We\u2019re not through.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the NFL Draft a couple of days away, I decided to share what I\u2019d do if I stepped in as Cowboys GM for the week.<\/p>\n

Reopen talks with the Raiders about Maxx Crosby<\/p>\n

Now, this is only an option if my team doctors believe there aren\u2019t long-term concerns with his knee. Late last month, Jones said he didn\u2019t anticipate revisiting the trade talks for Crosby, but he added, \u201cIs it possible? Yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cowboys team physician Dr. Dan Cooper was reportedly one of the doctors who looked at the scans of Crosby\u2019s knee before the Baltimore Ravens backed out of their trade<\/a> for the five-time Pro Bowl edge rusher last month. If Cooper has serious concerns, obviously it wouldn\u2019t make sense for Dallas to reopen trade talks. If he doesn\u2019t have serious concerns, I\u2019d be interested in potentially parting with the 20th overall pick in a package for Crosby. Baltimore originally traded two first-round picks to the Las Vegas Raiders, but the asking price has likely come down.<\/p>\n

\"Las<\/p>\n

\n The Cowboys were interested in Maxx Crosby earlier in the offseason. Would the Raiders still consider dealing their star pass rusher? (Kiyoshi Mio \/ Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

\u201cReally, it\u2019s pretty simple for me,\u201d Jones said when asked last month about the Crosby trade falling through. \u201cThere\u2019s no hidden item there. You have to pass a physical. We\u2019ve never completed an agreement until the player passes the physical. That implies (that) your doctors, your trainers, everybody involved, get to take a look at it. That goes with the territory. We would\u2019ve basically looked at the same conditions with a physical. And as you know, we were in on making an offer for him. So he would\u2019ve come to Dallas, and we\u2019ll all just guess what would\u2019ve happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones said that last sentence with a smile.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s no Crosby deal, use every pick on defense<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no argument that the best practice is to draft the best player available regardless of position. But when the defense is as bad as the Cowboys\u2019 was last season, some adjusting of philosophy needs to happen. The offense is already loaded. Could the offensive line use an upgrade? Sure. But the defense needs major help. There\u2019s not a position group that couldn\u2019t use some young talent.<\/p>\n

Of course, a trade for Crosby could immediately improve a lot of areas. But without that, it makes sense to take as many swings as possible at finding help at all three levels of the defense. In my final mock draft,<\/a> I did just that, spending all seven picks on that side of the ball.<\/p>\n

The Cowboys had a similar approach in 2021 when they spent all six of their top 115 picks on defense. In 2017, they spent seven of their nine picks on defense. In 2005, they spent six of their eight picks on defense.<\/p>\n

They have a new and young defensive coaching staff that knows these prospects well from coaching them, coaching against them or recruiting them. It makes sense to take advantage of that knowledge.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s no Crosby deal, trade up<\/p>\n

If there was a trade for Crosby, there wouldn\u2019t be the ammunition left to move up in the draft. But without that trade, I\u2019d be very interested in moving up to get one of the top defenders in this class. Most draft experts believe there are six players in that category: Ohio State edge rusher Arvell Reese, Texas Tech edge rusher David Bailey, Ohio State linebacker Sonny Styles, Ohio State safety Caleb Downs, Miami edge rusher Rueben Bain Jr. and LSU cornerback Mansoor Delane. In most mock drafts, all six are gone by Pick 12.<\/p>\n

The ideal scenario would be a trade with the Cleveland Browns, who have the sixth overall pick. The Cowboys could potentially trade 12 and 20 to get 6 and 39 in return. That scenario would allow Dallas to get one of those top defenders and possibly still get a player it would consider at 20 when it goes on the clock at Pick 39 early in the second round. I\u2019d obviously lean heavily on my intel around the league. If I thought there was a real chance of any of those players falling to 12, I wouldn\u2019t be as interested in trading up. The ideal scenario in moving up would be to address a premium position like edge rusher.<\/p>\n

If the Cowboys got to No. 6, the player I would want most, in order of preference: Reese, Bailey, Downs, Styles, Bain and Delane.<\/p>\n

If not all defense, these positions must be addressed<\/p>\n

If my personnel department and coaches talked me into an offensive player or two, I\u2019m at the very least trying to come out of this draft with one edge rusher, two inside linebackers, one cornerback, one safety and one defensive tackle. Inside linebacker is the biggest roster need, but I wouldn\u2019t feel pressured to have to fill that in the first round. In the trade scenario with Cleveland, Pick 39 seems like the perfect spot to grab a Day 1 starter at inside linebacker. Without that trade, Pick 20 seems a little too rich for me with the second-tier at that position group. And the Cowboys don\u2019t have another pick until 92. It\u2019s unlikely that any of those second-tier linebackers fall that far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Many experts and fans believe they can do a better job of running a team than those with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2066],"tags":[230,229,257,2461,7,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-871106","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":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871106","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=871106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}