The 2026 NFL Draft is in the books, and the Dallas Cowboys clearly understood the assignment of completely overhauling a historically bad defense from a year ago as the main objective of this draft. The Cowboys actually made only one pick that originally belonged to them, and it went to a familiar place with Penn State offensive lineman Drew Shelton in the fourth round. Every other pick except their lone seventh-rounder after was used to fill up the depth chart in the image of new defensive coordinator
Christian Parker, who got pretty much all he could ask for. The Cowboys found defensive value all the way through the draft despite not picking in the second, fifth, or sixth round.
Caleb Downs is their most prized possession of the five new rookie defenders, and the way he fills multiple needs with his flexibility makes it nothing short of a grand slam home run pick. We’ve already covered how teams with more pressing needs on offense told the first round story of how the Cowboys let the board come to them and stay locked in on drafting for defense, but this theme continued all the way through day three, most notably at one position in a record-breaking way.
Record number of tight ends taken
Since the start of the seven-round draft in 1994, the record for most tight ends drafted in one year was 19 in 2015. The 2026 class had 21 tight ends drafted.
In round three, tight ends Sam Roush, Oscar Delp, and Will Kacmarek were all drafted before the Cowboys landed another defender that helps the depth chart at more than one position with Jaishawn Barham. There were also eight wide receivers drafted between picks 65 and Barham at 92, another position we know the Cowboys are making a big bet on what they already have in place, mainly George Pickens and CeeDee Lamb.
North Dakota State wide receiver Bryce Lance went to the Saints at pick 136, one pick ahead of where the Cowboys landed LT Overton, the hand-in-the-ground defensive end they needed, as well as depth behind Kenny Clark and Quinnen Williams at defensive tackle in their new base 3-4 front. The value the Cowboys got in their defensive picks by not having to press for needs on offense was off the charts.
Heavy usage of multiple tight end sets was a strong trend through last season, one that carried over into the playoffs with three NFC West teams making the field, a division known for this type of offensive approach. The Bears being in this NFC field with Ben Johnson in his first season calling that offense helped as well, and in the AFC the conference champion Patriots of course relied a lot on Hunter Henry as a receiving option to help out an otherwise weaker group of pass catchers out wide.
Modern NFL offenses going to more 12 and 13 personnel is a direct response to modern defenses living in two high safety looks to deter big plays over the top from receivers. The 2026 draft made a statement that getting teams out of two high shell is a must-have ability for some of the best play callers, and having capable tight ends is a good way to do this, judging by the way they were flying off the board.
The Jaguars, who had their own record-breaking season under first year offensive-minded head coach Liam Cohn in 2025, drafted two tight ends with Nate Boerkircher and Tanner Koziol. So too did a team always known for hanging their hat on physical play, the Denver Broncos, drafting Justin Joly and Dallen Bentley at the position. The Browns under new head coach Todd Monken got a pair of tight ends in Joe Royer and Carsen Ryan, as did their division rival the Baltimore Ravens in Josh Cuevas and Matthew Hibner. Amazingly, a fifth team also took multiple tight ends, the rebuilding Miami Dolphins, looking to help long-time backup quarterback and now starter Malik Willis with Will Kacmarek and Seydou Traore. The highest drafted tight end went to the Jets with a new play-caller in Frank Reich, tasked with the unenviable job of trying to get better play out of Geno Smith. They gave Smith a reliable target at TE in Kenyon Sadiq in the first round to help this cause.
In his first year as head coach and play-caller for the Cowboys, Brian Schottenheimer’s offense showed all the glimpses of being built in the same mold as the ones mentioned above, mainly in their ability to be multiple and dictate matchups. Tight ends with versatility go a very long way in helping an offense achieve this too. Jake Ferguson’s targets skyrocketed from 86 in 14 games in 2024 to 102 in a full season in 2025. His yards per game stayed exactly the same though at 35.3, and he ended the season with four straight games of three or fewer catches. After catching six touchdowns in the first seven weeks of the year, Ferguson had just two in the remaining ten games of the season.
Whether or not Ferguson could be a reliable, consistent big-play threat in Schotty’s offense was a topic of much discussion all last offseason. The eye test from a regular season showed over the course of the season that Ferguson was still missing that consistency and big-play pop. By not finding a way to get in on the tight end draft party this year, it is going to be yet another spring and summer season where all of the exact same questions will be asked about Ferguson from now until kickoff in September.
The Cowboys have maintained their depth behind Ferguson to have viable 12 and 13 personnel looks well, with Luke Schoonmaker still on the roster as well as Brevyn Spann-Ford. Spann-Ford was banged up through much of the season, but is a fan-favorite type player in his niche role, and exactly the type of player the Cowboys will need to help add new wrinkles to the offense. Princeton Fant is a player in somewhat of a similar mold, although he will go into year four having played just 14 career snaps on offense, all of which came before Schottenheimer was the play caller in 2024.
Not allowing defenses to take away the vertical ability of Lamb and Pickens is absolutely something the Cowboys should be looking to do a lot of in 2026, but also taking advantage of the attention both receivers draw in order to be schemed against is something they can do in a variety of ways. Whether this is running the ball against two high looks, getting Jaydon Blue involved in the passing game out of the backfield more, or freeing up Ryan Flournoy and KaVontae Turpin in the middle of the field, the Cowboys did about as well as they possibly could to go into this draft with enough trust in their offense to do what had to be done on defense.
Not missing the party entirely
Following the conclusion of the draft, the Cowboys wasted no time as always starting to build their undrafted free agent class. Very quickly, their desire to get in on remaining tight end talent was apparent. The team signed DJ Rogers from TCU early in the process, and the fact his signing details were made public quickly as well is a strong indicator this is a priority UDFA for the Cowboys.
Dallas also added another local prospect at tight end in short order, Baylor’s Michael Trigg. Trigg was a “pet cat” of fans clamoring for the Cowboys to use a day three pick on him, which did not work out, but the fact no other team drafted him either and Dallas could get him in free agency is a surprise. One of our mock drafts published just over a week before the start of the draft had Trigg as the Cowboys pick at 112, noting that Cowboys TE coach Lunda Wells was at his Pro Day.
With the most tight ends drafted this year, there’s no telling how many are going to work out and how many may fade into obscurity. This makes the chance the Cowboys are taking at the moment on Rogers and Trigg just as good as some of the other late-round dart throws other teams decided to take.
Whether or not either player will make the final roster is a very long way from being decided, but if we truly do see an explosion of tight end usage around the NFL even more than last season ahead of us in 2026, it’s going to be very interesting seeing how or if the Cowboys can keep up, or whether or not it will even matter if their wide receiver room makes the impact it’s being expected to.
