In the week prior to the 2026 NFL Draft, we asked our members to submit a list of up to 30 players, irrespective of round, that they thought the Cowboys would draft or sign as undrafted free agents. Each correct name predicted, be it a draft pick or a subsequent UDFA signing, was awarded one point.
If you had simply submitted the names of the predraft visitors known before the draft, you’d have gotten the first two picks right: Caleb Downs and Malachi Lawrence were both on the list, and we found out
after he was drafted that Jaishawn Barham was also on the list. Additionally, UDFA Tommy Dunn was on the Dallas Day visitor list.
Of course, none of our participants settled for the visit tracker. But did anybody out-predict the visit tracker?
We kicked things off with predictions from three of our front page writers, Brian Martin, Danny Phantom, and OCC. None of us beat the visit tracker, but Brian Martin came closest with three correct picks.
Brian Martin: 3 (Caleb Downs, Malachi Lawrence, UDFA TE Michael Trigg)
OCC: 2 (Caleb Downs, UDFA DT Tommy Dunn)
Danny Phantom: 1 (Caleb Downs)
Joseph Hoyt of the Dallas Morning News published his list of 30 prospects that make sense for the Cowboys so we included him as an honorable participant, but he also didn’t beat the visitor list, getting two picks right in Caleb Downs and UDFA WR Jordan Hudson.
10 BTB members participated in our challenge and all of them got at least one pick right, but before we go into the individual scores, here are the hit rates for each rookie:
| Round | Player | POS | Pick2 | in% |
| 1 | Caleb Downs | S | 14 | 100% |
| 2 | Malachi Lawrence | OLB | 7 | 50% |
| 3 | Jaishawn Barham | LB | – – | – – |
| 4 | Devin Moore | CB | 1 | 7% |
| 4 | Drew Shelton | OT | – – | – – |
| 4 | LT Overton | DT | – – | – – |
| 7 | Anthony Smith | WR | – – | – – |
| UDFA | Michael Trigg | TE | 4 | 29% |
| UDFA | Jordan Hudson | WR | 3 | 21% |
| UDFA | Tommy Dunn Jr. | DT | 1 | 7% |
That’s a middling result overall for the Cowboys Cognoscenti, as we’ve achieved better collective results in the past. But at least we have have a 100% hit rate on Caleb Downs, a first in the history of our little contest. Here’s an overview of some of the top hits so far:
- 2023: DeMarvion Overshown (64%), Luke Schoonmaker (48%)
- 2022: Sam Williams (86%), Markquese Bell (50%)
- 2017: Xavier Woods (81%), Chidobe Awuzie (56%)
- 2016: Ezekiel Elliott (80%), Dak Prescott (76%)
- 2015: Byron Jones (80%), Chaz Green (67%)
- 2014: Zack Martin (64%), DeMarcus Lawrence (60%)
- 2013: Travis Frederick (51%)
Anyway, the draft is over, and to the winners the spoils. This year’s title as Cowboys Draft Whisperer goes to BTB-Member edstokes2002, who got four picks right in his submissions. Here are the results for all participants:
body .sbnu-legacy-content-table td, body .sbnu-legacy-content-table th, body .sbnu-legacy-content-table { border: 1px solid #000 !important; border-collapse: collapse !important; }| Participant | Caleb Downs | Malachi Lawrence | Devin Moore | UDFSA Michael Trigg | UDFA Jordan Hudson | UDFA Tommy Dunn Jr. | Correct Picks |
| edstokes2002 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | ||
| Brian Martin | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
| resonator | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
| Trent03 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | |||
| cjbrit | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Joseph Hoyt, DMN | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| KS94734828 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| OCC | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Purgatory | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| randyd | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| sandyf | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Cody Snead | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Danny Phantom | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Del1sle | 1 | 1 | |||||
| Total | 14 | 7 | 1 | 4 | 3 | 1 |
Figuring out the Cowboys’ draft plans and draft strategy in hindsight is not hard, and there are legions of Captain Obvious’s trolling the airwaves and interwebs doing just that right now. But if you went through this exercise, you’ll understand that predicting the draft is much tougher than you would expect.
Post-draft jibber-jabber is easy, but putting your predictions down on paper is really tough, and then being held accountable is even tougher.
So hats off to all those brave enough to put virtual ink to virtual paper and submit their list of names for the record.
And better luck to all of us next year!
