Cowboys 2026 Draft Prediction Contest: Who do you think the Cowboys will draft?

DETROIT, MICHIGAN - APRIL 27: Eduardo Flores of Mexico City, International Fan of the Year of the Dallas Cowboys, reacts after being nominated as International Fan of the Year during round six of the 2024 NFL draft at Campus Martius Park and Hart Plaza on April 27, 2024 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Nic Antaya/Getty Images) | Getty Images

We've got a special challenge for you today: Submit a list of up to 30 players, irrespective of round, that you think the Cowboys could draft or sign as undrafted free agents.

How you arrive at your selection is entirely up to you. You can carpet-bomb the first three rounds; you can focus on specific positions; you can look at the list of players the Cowboys invited for official Top 30 visits or local Dallas day" workouts; you can even add players the Cowboys interviewed at the combine; anything goes - but you've got to stick to max 30 players.

One of the interesting aspects of working with a 30-name list is that it forces you to make some hard choices: do you pick a cornerback in every round to cover all your bases; are you going to go out on a limb for that athletic standout with mediocre college production; what's your position on linebackers; just how many pass rushers do you think the Cowboys can carry on their roster; will adding wide receivers increase or decrease your chances of getting more picks right? Lots of questions that you'll need to address as you whittle down the names on your board.

You may think this is an exercise in futility, as there's no way to pick a few names out of a pool of 400 or so draft eligible players from which the Cowboys are likely to chose. But that's not necessarily the case.

• In 2013, BTB-member starmesh23hit on six players that ended up with the Cowboys after the draft.
• In 2014, BTB-members YumaCactus and dallasdanhit on five Cowboys draft picks or UDFA signings.
• In 2015, BTB-member Chad Lovelandgot seven players right, including the first four in sequence and two free agents.
• In 2016, Joey Ickes got six payers right, even if only two of them were draft picks. Despite the Cowboys making nine draft picks, only two participants, BigBadJoe and Markythearky, got four draft picks right.
• In 2017, BTB-member boys.camncrew got four players right, and 21 other participants placed second with three correct picks each.
• In 2022, after a 5-year pause, we brought our little contest back, and the title of Cowboys Draft Whisperer went to BTB members cowtownNcowboysfan and RockChalkCaliBoys Fan who both got six picks right.
• In 2023, nine BTB-members hit on four players, and if you had Jonathan Mingo on your list, you might feel some late vindication.

Are you up to the challenge this year?

To get things started, Danny Phantom, Brian Martin, and I will submit our Top 30.

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Danny Phantom's Top 30
	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	6th/7th/ Priority FA
CB	Mansoor Delane	Colton Hood	Treydan Stukes
Jermod McCoy	Brandon Cisse	Malik Muhammad
Aveion Terrell	Chris Johnson
	Keionte Scott
Edge	David Bailey	Cashius Howell	Romello Height
Rueben Bain	Zion Young
Keldric Faulk
Akeem Mesidor
S	Caleb Downs	Josiah Trotter	Kamari Ramsey			Cole Wiesniewski
Emmanuel McNeil-Warren		Bud Clark
		Jalon Kilgore
LB	Sonny Styles	Jacob Rodriguez		Kaleb Elarms-Orr
	Anthony Hill		Harold Perkins
RB					Seth McGowan
DL						Rene Konga
Legend	30 Visit	Dallas Day	Other

Danny went heavy in the first three rounds, and with 18 picks from the 30 Visit list, he's betting that the Cowboys continue to draft from that list. He's also really heavy in round two with 10 total picks; is he expecting some kind of trade action?

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OCC's Top 30
	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	6th/7th/ Priority FA
CB	Aveion Terrell	Brandon Cisse	Keionte Scott	Malik Muhammad	Charles Demmings
Colton Hood	Chris Johnson	Treydan Stukes
Edge	Rueben Bain		Romello Height			Nyjalik Kelly
Cashius Howell		Dani Dennis-Sutton
LB	Sonny Styles	Jacob Rodriguez		Kaleb Elarms-Orr		Jack Kelley
	Anthony Hill				Jalen Dugger
S	Caleb Downs		Kamari Ramsey	VJ Payne	Louis Moore	Cole Wiesniewski
DL						Rene Konga
					Tommy Dunn Jr.
WR						Brady Boyd
					Ben Patterson
RB					Seth McGowan	EJ Smith
Legend	30 Visit	Dallas Day	Other

I'm all about gaming the system, so I hope I've increased my chances by going heavy on late-round or UDFA prospects the Cowboys have had significant interactions with during the draft process - which is why I have eight Dallas Day participants on my list along with a few traits guys the Cowboys may find hard to resist.

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Brian Martin's Top 30
	First	Second	Third	Fourth	Fifth	6th/7th/ Priority FA
CB	Colton Hood	Chris Johnson	Treydan Stukes	Malik Muhammad		Andre Fuller
Edge	Rueben Bain	Malachi Lawrence	Romello Height
Akeem Mesidor		Keyron Crawford
LB	Sonny Styles	Jacob Rodriguez		Kaleb Elarms-Orr
	Anthony Hill		Harold Perkins
	Josiah Trotter
S	Caleb Downs		Jalon Kilgore	VJ Payne
Dillon Thieneman		Bud Clark
DL			Gracen Halton	Zxavian Harris	Nick Barrett
WR						Reggie Virgil
					Caleb Douglas
RB						EJ Smith
TE		Eli Stowers			Michael Trigg	Michael Hibner
Legend	30 Visit	Dallas Day	Other

Brian has 18 prospects the Cowboys did not invite for a 30 visit or Dallas Day; will that risk pay off? He may know something Danny and I don't.

OVER TO YOU!

Put together your 30 picks. Keep the format simple. We'll award one point for each correct name you've predicted, be it a draft pick or a subsequent UDFA signing,regardless of round. There's no specific time limit to submit your picks, but the start of the draft on Thursday will be an obvious cut-off point.

For easy legibility, and because it will help me to more efficiently tabulate everybody's picks, please include each player's first and last name.

You can submit less than 30 names if you so choose, but if you submit more than 30 names, your submission will not be taken into consideration.

Your reward?

Some fun in compiling your list of 30 names and bragging rights for whoever gets the most picks right.

We'll publish the results a week or two after the draft.