Jan. 26, 2026, 4:07 p.m. CT

One of the tenets of having a new coach or coaching staff is finding players from those coaches’ previous stops around the league. For Dallas Cowboys fans, that conversation has primarily centered around new defensive coordinator Christian Parker, who signed on last week and is now in the process of forming his staff of assistants.

Cowboys Wire took a look at current free agents who played for Parker with the Phiadelphia Eagles or Denver Broncos. But that’s a single side of the coin. Mike McCarthy being hired as the new head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers this weekend flips the coin to the other side.

Now, players who suited up for part of McCarthy’s tenure between 2020 and 2024 now have a potential landing spot. And that means the Cowboys might have some competition for their free agents, and there could potentially be a trading partner. After all, the two sides came together last May for the trade that brought the Cowboys George Pickens.

Here’s a list of guys who were on the Cowboys’ 2025 roster but also make a ton of sense for McCarthy to try and add.

DT Kenny Clark (Trade)

One would think this exercise is about offensive players, and it mostly is, but one can’t ignore the connection here. The Dallas Cowboys acquired Clark in the trade for Micah Parsons last August. If the Cowboys choose to move on from one of their three, $20 million per year defensive tackles, Clark could be the one to go. And if that’s the case, perhaps McCarthy is looking to reunite with the head coach who drafted him in Green Bay.

Expert NFL picks: Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.DT Osa Odighizwua (Trade)

In the same light as Clark, Quinnen Williams is probably the only pure lock among the three top DTs. Odighizuwa was also drafted during a McCarthy run, this time as a 2021 third rounder. He’s always been a high pressure player, but some may have concerns over his sack production and fit if Dallas decides to deploy an Eagles‘ style 30-man front.

WR Jalen Tolbert (Free Agency)

Tolbert was a 2022 third-round pick who led the Cowboys in TD receptions in 2024, McCarthy’s final season. He was basically frozen out of the offense in 2025 under Brian Schottenheimer and Klayton Adams. The former South Alabama star makes way too much sense for a team that is lacking in wideout options and he probably won’t cost much, but could end up in the Cowboys’ comp pick ledger.

TE Luke Schoonmaker (Trade)

Schoonmaker has done next-to-nothing since being drafted in the second round of 2023, and going into the fourth year of his rookie deal, time has pretty much run out on the experiment. But wait, what if the guy who drafted him wants to do a swap? Also drafted in the 2023 draft? Behemoth TE Darnell Washington. He’s only been slightly more productive, but he was a player who the Cowboys passed on in favor of Schoonmaker during that draft.

If not for Washington, then maybe a sixth or seventh-round pick comes back over.

OG TJ Bass (Restricted Free Agency)

It’s debatable what level the Cowboys were planning on tendering TJ Bass. The former UDFA is an RFA, which means the Cowboys could tender him at one of three different compensation levels. The game is that the more protection Dallas puts on Bass (and another player we’ll discuss in a few), the more it costs them.

RFAs can be tendered at a level where an opposing team has to send back a first-round pick, a second-round pick, or whatever the original round the player was drafted. As such, UDFAs tendered at the original level are basically a right of first refusal.

If the Cowboys were planning on trying to tender Bass at the Original level, which pays $3.4 million, the threat of McCarthy might make them tender him at the second-round level which pays $5.6 million.

And if that happens, perhaps the Cowboys would be willing to trade Bass to the Steelers for a Day 3 pick. That idea was floated from the good friends at Locked on Cowboys this morning.

RB Malik Davis (trade)

Another idea we’re adding here that was floated from Marcus Mosher and Landon McCool, was that McCarthy was pretty high on the talents of Davis as a running back and could come sniffing to see about adding him to their RB stable. Receiving back Kenneth Gainwell is an unrestricted free agent.

OG Brock Hoffman (Restricted Free Agency)

Similar to the Bass situation, Hoffman was a UDFA but he wasn’t even originally signed by Dallas. The same tender situation arises with Hoffman, with the Cowboys possibly needing to bump his tender up to a second-round pick. That may or may not have been the case regardless of the McCarthy hire in Pittsburgh.

RB Hunter Luepke (Trade)

The Cowboys used Luepke sparingly in 2025, but that was the case in 2024 as well. Not sure if McCarthy — who loves fullbacks — would try to come get his guy via trade, but it’s worth mentioning.