6. Dallas Cowboys (traded via CLE)<\/p>\n
Sonny Styles, LB, Ohio State<\/p>\n
Defensive coordinator Christian Parker covets athleticism and intelligence at linebacker for his scheme, and Styles checks both boxes. A former safety, Styles measured in at 6-foot-5 and 244 pounds (the biggest LB in the class) and still ran the fastest 40 (4.46 seconds, tied with Reese) and the fastest 10-yard split (1.56 seconds, tied with Namdi Obiazor) among LBs while also posting the top broad jump (11 feet, 2 inches) and setting a record for players 6-foot-4 or taller with a 43.5-inch vertical since 2003.<\/p>\n
Beyond the off-the-charts testing, Styles is widely regarded as one of the smartest players in the draft. One executive told me that he\u2019ll run a company when his football days are over. He should step in and improve the football IQ of this defense and help clean up the play at the second and third levels.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s any question about the value in trading up for an off-ball linebacker, just look at what the Eagles did last year: Vic Fangio and Parker moved up for Jihaad Campbell, and his impact showed up immediately.<\/p>\n
20. Dallas Cowboys (via GB)<\/p>\n
Jermod McCoy, CB, Tennessee<\/p>\n
Dallas addressed its linebacker need earlier in this exercise, so now the focus shifts to the secondary. The Cowboys gave up 35 passing touchdowns last season\u2014second most in the NFL behind only the Jets (36)\u2014so getting help on the back end is a priority.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s been plenty of buzz linking the Cowboys to safeties such as Caleb Downs and Dillon Thieneman, so it wouldn\u2019t be surprising if they picked Thieneman if he\u2019s available.<\/p>\n
That said, you could make a strong argument that cornerback is the bigger need, and McCoy offers outstanding value here. He\u2019s a top-10 talent who slides to no. 20 largely due to concerns about his knee after he tore his ACL, PCL, and MCL in January 2025. He looked excellent at Tennessee\u2019s pro day\u2014running in the 4.3s and moving well in position drills\u2014but medical evaluations remain mixed.<\/p>\n
When healthy, McCoy is a sudden, fast ball hawk with real toughness. He may not be quite at the level that prospects like Patrick Surtain II and Derek Stingley Jr. were, but he\u2019s not far off\u2014comfortably in that next tier.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"6. Dallas Cowboys (traded via CLE) Sonny Styles, LB, Ohio State Defensive coordinator Christian Parker covets athleticism and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254529,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[102,50116,7011,104,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-254528","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-dallas","9":"tag-dallas-cowboy-mock-drafts","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys-draft","11":"tag-dallas-headlines","12":"tag-dallas-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254528","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254528"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254528\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}