For the Cowboys, the work has only just begun on hitting on two first-round picks
When the Dallas Cowboys traded away Micah Parsons just days before the 2025 season began, the idea of two first-round picks being sent to Dallas was enough to draw the excitement and eagerness of Jerry Jones and the front office immediately.
Five months later, they have since sent one of those picks out in a trade for defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and now hold just one opportunity to select twice in the first round, in this upcoming draft. With picks No. 12 and No. 20, the opportunity to inject life — and a lot of it — into positions of need could give Dallas the chance to immediately contend once again if they hit.
That task is not lost on vice president of player personnel Will McClay and his scouting department as they put the heavy touches into evaluating the upcoming draft class.
“Having the opportunity to improve the team with two first-round picks is going to be huge,” McClay said. “Looking at the talent out here, and depending on where it goes, having the opportunity and the flexibility with that is good as we try to rebuild the team and add stuff to it.”
Where could those positions of need be? Well, let’s just look at one side of the ball to start.
“Obviously, we’ve got work to do on the defensive side of the ball,” executive vice president Stephen Jones said. “So, between free agency and the draft, there’s a lot of resources there that we can use to make our defense better.”
“I think there is some [defensive] strength in this draft,” McClay said. “Is it top level, mid-level? We’re still deciding that.”
Free agency is the biggest wild card in how the picks will be used when April 23 rolls around. Can the Cowboys free up enough cap space to be active enough to address glaring needs at defensive end, linebacker, cornerback and safety? And if so, can that somehow give the team the luxury of taking the best player available at each pick, or simply the best player available at a position of need?
“What we’ve always talked about is filling the holes in free agency when you can and drafting the best players,” McClay said. “We’ll go through the free agency period. There are some good players out there. We’ll have to figure it out from a cap standpoint and all that stuff, but there are some good players out there. And we want to address it, but we want to address it the right way with the right kind of guys.
“Once we get the full staff together, and we’ll get a lot of experience from different places that will give us input on players that they’ve coached before, coached against, so it just adds to it. We’ll find the right guys if we’re able to do some things in free agency.”
A lot of work lies ahead for the front office and scouting department to get the offseason right. They feel confident in their first task of hiring Christian Parker as defensive coordinator. Now, it will be about giving him the right pieces to succeed in 2026 and beyond.
“We go through the full process like we do every year,” McClay said. “Now, we have the opportunity to potentially get two [players] in the first round. Everybody’s going to be digging, doing the work, knowing the importance that those two picks will have on us not only next year, but in the years to come.”
This story was originally published January 28, 2026 at 4:52 PM.
