Cowboys CB DaRon Bland undergoes successful foot surgery – Tommy Yarrish, DallasCowboys.com
The Dallas Cowboys need DaRon Bland to be the best version of himself in 2026.
On Tuesday morning, Cowboys CB DaRon Bland underwent successful surgery on his left foot in Indianapolis in a procedure done by Dr. David Porter.
Bland played 12 games for the Cowboys in 2025 before being placed on injured reserve for the final three games of the year. He also missed Weeks 2 and 3 of the season with a right foot injury that he suffered in practice.
The newest surgery marks the second straight year that Bland
has had a procedure done on his left foot. In training camp leading into the 2024 season, Bland suffered a fracture in his left foot, which led to the first surgery. He would go on to return and play seven games that season for Dallas.
Evidently, back-to-back seasons ending in surgery on the same foot is not what Cowboys owner/GM Jerry Jones or anyone wanted for Bland.
“I’m not a doctor… but I don’t like that at all,” Jones said. “I don’t like the sound of that. You have to watch feet, relative to the future.”
In August, the Cowboys signed Bland to a four-year, $92 million extension, two years removed from an All-Pro season where Bland set the NFL record for most pick-sixes in a season with five in 2023.
Despite two straight years of disappointing injury circumstances cutting Bland’s seasons short, Jones and the Cowboys do not regret signing Bland to his extension that keeps him in Dallas long term.
What went wrong for the 2025 Dallas Cowboys? Defense, defense, defense – Jon Machota, The Athletic
Finding a replacement for Matt Eberflus won’t solve all the defensive problems from last season.
Within the first 10 minutes of the Dallas Cowboys’ season-ending news conference on Jan. 7, Jerry Jones addressed the two biggest reasons they had a second consecutive losing season for the first time in 23 years. As owner and general manager, no one is more responsible.
The first one, Jones brought up on his own: Trading Micah Parsons a week before the season started.
The second, Jones was asked about: Hiring Matt Eberflus as their defensive coordinator.
The two go hand-in-hand in what ended up being a group that allowed an NFL-high and franchise-record 511 points — almost exactly 30 points per game. They also gave up 377 yards per game, third-worst in the league.
To illustrate just how bad it was, look at what MVP candidate and New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye did during the regular season: 4,394 passing yards, 31 touchdown passes, 8 interceptions, a 113.5 passer rating while completing 72 percent of his passes.
Opposing quarterbacks against the Cowboys this season:
4,276 passing yards
35 touchdowns passes
6 interceptions
68.5 completion percentage
109.6 passer rating
“It wasn’t the year that we wanted,” defensive tackle Kenny Clark said. “That sucks. And we all got a hand in that. We all got to look at each other critically throughout the offseason and figure some stuff out.”
The last time the Cowboys had two top 20 picks, they drafted a Hall of Fame edge rusher – Dan Rogers, Blogging the Boys
If the Cowboys nail their two first-round picks this year, the defense could be turned around in a heartbeat.
The Dallas Cowboys’ season is over, and they have earned the 12th overall pick in the 2026 NFL Draft. The Green Bay Packers’ season is also over. They have earned the 20th overall pick in the draft, but that pick goes to the Cowboys thanks to the Micah Parsons trade. That gives Dallas the 12th and 20th picks in the draft. That’s a lot of first-round firepower.
The last time the Cowboys had two picks in the top 20 was in 2005. Some might remember that as the “defensive draft” as Bill Parcells and company loaded up on defenders. Six of the eight players they drafted that year played defense, with the two offensive guys being RB Marion Barber III (fourth round) and OT Rob Petitti (sixth round). The defensive players the Cowboys selected that year were:
DE DeMarcus Ware (Round 1)
DE Marcus Spears (Round 1)
LB Kevin Burnett (Round 2)
DE Chris Canty (Round 4)
DB Justin Beriault (Round 6)
DT Jay Ratliff (Round 7)
Some of those names should look familiar to you, as most of them hung around the league for a while. Five of those six players played at least nine seasons in the NFL. Three of them played at least eight seasons with the Cowboys. Two of them were All-Pro players with at least four Pro Bowls on their resume. And finally, one of them was a Hall of Fame edge rusher.
The Cowboys would love to come away with a similar haul. Oddly enough, the team’s draft picks line up similarly to where they were picking back in 2005. They have a top 12 pick, the 20th pick, no second rounder this year because of the Quinnen Williams trade, but then five picks on Day 3 outside the top 100.
What is also similar about this is that the three top edge rushers in the draft are currently projected to go in the top 12 picks: Miami’s Rueben Bain, Texas Tech’s David Bailey, and Auburn’s Keldric Faulk. The Cowboys are in a great position to snag one of the best pass rushers coming out of the draft with their 12th overall pick. Expecting him to be a Hall of Famer is quite optimistic, but the chances of landing a top-talent edge rusher the year after losing Parsons are pretty decent. How nice would it be to have a top college edge opposite second-year edge Donovan Ezeiruaku while having guys like Williams, Kenny Clark, and Osa Odighizuwa filling the interior?
Intriguing Cowboys defensive staff addition rises after Mike Tomlin-Steelers news – Josh Sanchez, Dallas Cowboys on SI
The ever-rotating door of head coaching vacancies could leave candidates out in the open, Dallas never thought would become available.
On Tuesday, Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin informed the team that he was stepping down as head coach. With the news, there will likely be a staff shake-up in Pittsburgh.
That opens up an option for the Cowboys, with a person familiar with the current staff.
Steelers defensive backs coach Gerald Alexander is someone to keep in mind, as pointed out by Nick Harris of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
“With Mike Tomlin stepping down and the Steelers out of the playoffs, I’d be curious if Steelers [defensive backs] coach Gerald Alexander gets a look in Dallas for a potential spot on staff,” Harris wrote on X.
“Played at Boise State when Klayton Adams was a [graduate assistant] and played with the Jets in 2011 under Brian Schottenheimer. Was Brian Flores’ [defensive backs] coach in Miami, too.”
Alexander was a second-round pick of the Detroit Lions in the 2007 NFL Draft, also having stints with the Jacksonville Jaguars, Carolina Panthers, Miami Dolphins, and New York Jets before beginning his coaching career as a student assistant at Arkansas State. He continued coaching in the college ranks, before joining Flores’ Dolphins staff. He also served as a safeties coach for the Las Vegas Raiders, before returning to Pittsburgh for a second stint.
It is certainly a name to watch, especially with Flores being linked to the Cowboys’ defensive coordinator vacancy over the past few weeks. And, as we all know, the Cowboys need desperate help in the secondary, and Schottenheimer is a man who would love to bring in some familiarity.
