The 2025 Dallas Cowboys allowed 511 points. That number needs context: 511 is historically catastrophic. It translates to just over 30 points per game across a full season, a defensive performance that left the Cowboys ranked 32nd in the NFL in passing yards allowed at 251.5 per game. They also had the dubious distinction of allowing 59 touchdowns on the season.
The defense that produced those numbers was the same roster that gave up Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers in the deal that now gives Dallas the 20th overall pick in the draft. That is the core irony the Cowboys will be navigating in Pittsburgh: using trade capital generated by gutting their defense to rebuild the defense they gutted.
Dallas Cowboys 2026 NFL Draft Picks
Jerry Jones opened the pre-draft window with unusual candor about what his capital means. “Nothing, no amount of skill, no amount of knowledge, can beat having a lot of draft capital, having a lot of picks,” Jones told reporters. “That’ll win most of the time.”
The Cowboys hold picks 12 and 20. They also hold a third-rounder (No. 92) acquired from the 49ers in the Osa Odighizuwa trade, but no second-round pick, having shipped theirs to the Jets last November in the Quinnen Williams deal. In total, Dallas has eight picks: 12, 20, 92, 112, 152, 177, 180, and 218.
They do not have, heading into this draft, a legitimate answer at cornerback or a pass rusher capable of replacing what Parsons represented. Christian Parker, the new defensive coordinator inheriting this roster, has a defense that gave up 35 passing touchdowns last year, second-most in the NFL, and a secondary that was benching starters mid-season.
There is one encouraging historical pattern here. Jones has consistently invested first-round capital at the trench level: Tyler Smith (T, 2022), Mazi Smith (DT, 2023), Tyler Guyton (T, 2024), Tyler Booker (G, 2025). Four straight first-round picks have been offensive or defensive linemen. That tendency toward investing in the fundamentals of the game is the right framework for tonight, applied to the right side of the ball.
Both picks should go to defense, but the question is where they should be used.
The Case for Mansoor Delane
The consensus projection for Dallas at 12 is Mansoor Delane, the LSU cornerback who transferred from Virginia Tech and turned himself into the top corner in this class, earning unanimous All-American honors in 2025 and finishing as a Jim Thorpe Award finalist. He finished the season with a 97 CFB Cornerback Impact Score (A+).
The Cowboys need cornerback play badly. Their secondary ranked at the bottom of the NFL in nearly every meaningful category in 2025. Delane projects as a day-one starter on the outside, a physical corner with sound technique and the athletic ability to match up against the top receivers in the NFC. Multiple mock drafts have him going to Dallas at 12, and the Cowboys’ need at the position is obvious enough that the fit requires minimal explanation.
The alternative at 12 is Keldric Faulk, the Auburn edge rusher who would address a different acute need. Faulk is 6-foot-6 and measured 276 pounds at the combine (listed at 285 during his Auburn career), with a combination of size and get-off that projects as a starting edge on any NFL roster.
In three seasons at Auburn, he led all FBS edge defenders in run stops over that span with 62, an indicator of the kind of physical presence that wins consistently in the trenches. His 2025 pass-rush production numbers dropped from his 2024 breakout, but evaluators who watched the tape attribute much of that to the schemes Auburn ran around him rather than regression in his ability.
The Pickens question, whether Dallas trades one of these picks for their own franchise receiver, seems to have been answered already. Cowboys COO Stephen Jones said flatly that the team had “no one call with interest in George Pickens.” They are keeping him at $27.29 million on the franchise tag and picking on defense.
The Two Names Worth Knowing at Pick 20
If Delane goes at 12, the 20th pick is where the Cowboys can get creative.
The most interesting scenario has Jacob Rodriguez, the Texas Tech linebacker and Butkus Award winner, sliding to Dallas at 20. Rodriguez had 128 tackles, 11 tackles for loss, 4 interceptions, and a nation-leading 7 forced fumbles in 2025, leading the Red Raiders to the College Football Playoff and their first Big 12 title. He finished the season with a 90.1 CFB LB Impact Score (A-).
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He is from Wichita Falls, Texas, which gives him the kind of Texas-native story the Dallas fanbase tends to embrace. The Cowboys were among the league’s least disruptive defenses in 2025 in terms of forcing turnovers, and Rodriguez is one of the few players in this class who generates chaos at a consistent rate.
When the Cowboys’ pro-day caravan swung through Lubbock, Rodriguez was part of the group dinner Brian Schottenheimer held with Red Raiders prospects the night before their workouts. That kind of pre-draft relationship building tends to mean something.
The alternative is looping Faulk back into the conversation. If Dallas takes Delane at 12 and Faulk falls to 20, they would land a potential shutdown corner and a potential franchise edge rusher on the same night. Multiple mock drafts have ran this exact scenario.
The Delane-Faulk combination is the two-pick outcome that addresses both of Dallas’s most pressing defensive voids in a single evening.
