- Defensive rebuild takes center stage: Dallas added Rashan Gary, Caleb Downs and Malachi Lawrence after moving on from Micah Parsons.
- Dak Prescott leads an explosive offense: Prescott is coming off an 85.4 PFF passing grade while CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens form one of the NFL's top receiving duos.
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Four losses in their final five games left the Dallas Cowboys out of the playoffs for a second straight season. They reshaped the defense over the past year, trading Micah Parsons to the Green Bay Packers before the 2025 season, acquiring Quinnen Williams during the year and continuing to invest heavily on that side of the ball this offseason.
Here is our 2026 preview of the Dallas Cowboys.
Key Free Agency/Trade Additions
| Position | Player | 2025 PFF Grade |
|---|---|---|
| WR | Marquez Valdez-Scantling | 55.7 |
| DI | Jonathan Bullard | 58.9 |
| EDGE | Rashan Gary | 69.0 |
| LB | Dee Winters | 60.1 |
| S | Jalen Thompson | 69.1 |
| S | P.J. Locke | 61.0 |
| CB | Cobie Durant | 65.2 |
| DI | Otito Ogbonnia | 54.2 |
The trade for Rashan Gary gives the Cowboys another proven edge defender. The former first-round pick is coming off a 2025 season in which he generated 60 pressures on 446 pass-rushing snaps, though his 61.8 PFF pass-rush grade continued a four-year downward trend. His dominant 2021 campaign, when he earned a 90.1 PFF pass-rush grade and generated 87 pressures, feels like a distant memory. Still, Gary is only 28 years old, giving Dallas reason to believe he can bounce back in 2026.
Jalen Thompson has been one of the NFL's steadiest safeties throughout his seven seasons with the Arizona Cardinals. While he has never earned a PFF grade above 75.0, he has also never fallen below 64.0. He has been equally reliable as a tackler, missing just 7.0% of his tackle attempts over the course of his career.
2026 NFL Draft Class
| Position | Player | 2025 PFF Grade |
|---|---|---|
| S | Caleb Downs | 87.5 |
| EDGE | Malachi Lawrence | 80.1 |
| LB | Jaishawn Barham | 79.3 |
| OT | Drew Shelton | 70.6 |
| CB | Devin Moore | 83.0 |
| EDGE | LT Overton | 64.2 |
| WR | Anthony Smith | 72.4 |
Caleb Downs was viewed by many as the best overall player in the 2026 NFL Draft. He earned PFF grades above 85.0 in all three of his college seasons at Alabama and Ohio State. An outstanding coverage defender with plenty to offer against the run, Downs' career-low PFF run-defense grade was a 78.8 mark in 2023. He is expected to spend plenty of time in the slot in Dallas, and the Cowboys will hope he can make the same kind of immediate impact in that role that Kyle Hamilton and Nick Emmanwori did early in their careers.
The Cowboys used their second first-round pick on edge defender Malachi Lawrence, who is coming off the best season of his college career at UCF. He generated 40 pressures on 228 pass-rushing snaps, earning an 89.5 PFF pass-rush grade in the process. Because his run defense remains a work in progress, it would not be surprising to see him deployed primarily as a pass-rush specialist early in his NFL career.
Reasons for optimism
Dak Prescott is coming off another strong season and has shown little sign of slowing down in his 30s. He ranked fourth among quarterbacks with an 85.4 PFF passing grade in 2025 and has now earned a PFF passing grade above 85.0 in two of the past three seasons.
With CeeDee Lamb and George Pickens, the Cowboys boast one of the NFL's best wide receiver duos. Pickens is coming off the best season of his career, posting career highs with an 87.2 PFF receiving grade and 2.35 yards per route run. Lamb missed time because of injury but still recorded 1,077 receiving yards while averaging 2.37 yards per route run.
Reason for pessimism
Trading Micah Parsons before the 2025 season left a massive void in the Cowboys' pass rush, and the free-agent departures of Jadeveon Clowney and Dante Fowler only compounded the issue. Dallas is now counting on Rashan Gary to rediscover his best form, Donovan Ezeiruaku to take another step forward and rookie Malachi Lawrence to make an immediate impact.
Breakout Candidate
Expectations are high for Donovan Ezeiruaku entering his second NFL season. He generated 36 pressures on 343 pass-rushing snaps as a rookie, showing flashes while earning a 66.8 PFF pass-rush grade. If he can develop into a consistent threat off the edge, it would go a long way toward easing concerns about the Cowboys' ability to pressure opposing quarterbacks.
Key roster battles
With DaRon Bland locked into one starting cornerback spot, one of the Cowboys' biggest defensive questions is who will start opposite him. They signed Cobie Durant to a one-year deal in free agency after he earned a 64.6 PFF coverage grade with the Los Angeles Rams last season.
Shavon Revel started five games as a rookie but endured a difficult debut season, earning a 34.6 PFF coverage grade while allowing 295 yards on throws into his coverage across just 210 coverage snaps. The Cowboys remain optimistic because of what he showed in college, where he earned an 83.5 PFF coverage grade in his final full season in 2023. Ideally, Revel takes a step forward and claims the job, but Durant gives Dallas a reliable fallback option if he isn't ready.
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