The Cowboys\u2019 2025 season is about to come to a merciful end. This weekend\u2019s games will be the last for Dallas and 17 others, and with them comes the decided draft order for all non-playoff teams. Where do the Cowboys\u2019 2026 draft picks stand heading into the regular-season finales, and how much could their position change over the next two days?<\/p>\n
Currently, the 7-8-1 Cowboys would be 14th in the draft order. Their other first-round pick from Green Bay won\u2019t be decided until we see how the Packers fare in the playoffs, but we know it won\u2019t be any better than 19th. This weekend really doesn\u2019t matter on that front, but it could have a tremendous impact on Dallas\u2019 original pick.<\/p>\n
Here is the order going into Week 18:<\/p>\n
1. Raiders 2-13 The Cowboys\u2019 tie makes this all pretty simple. They won\u2019t get into any big tiebreaker mess with the teams above or below them, assuming none of them have a tied result this week. If they lose this week, Dallas\u2019 pick will be behind all of the 6-11 teams and ahead of the 7-10 crowd. If they beat the Giants, they\u2019ll be behind the 7-10 teams.<\/p>\n The good news is that there is little conflict among the teams that Dallas needs to win or lose; almost none of them are playing each other this week. That means we can have fairly unambiguous rooting interests in the handful of games that are relevant to our draft positioning.<\/p>\n One situation that\u2019s a little murky is the NFC South. There\u2019s a chance that Atlanta, Carolina (the current leader), and Tampa Bay could all finish 8-9 if the Falcons and Bucs win this week. Oddly, if that happens, the Panthers still win the division in the tiebreaking formula. This would also be ideal for Dallas, which could then potentially get ahead of all three teams in the draft order with a loss.<\/p>\n No matter who wins the NFC South between Carolina and Tampa, this outcome could help the Cowboys get ahead of Atlanta\u2019s spot in the draft. The pick actually belongs to the L.A. Rams after last year\u2019s trade.<\/p>\n New England is still vying for the #1 seed in the AFC, so they\u2019re not going to take this one lightly. That\u2019s unfortunate for Dallas\u2019 chances of securing a better draft pick than Miami. But you never know in the NFL, and especially in division rivalry games.<\/p>\n If the Cowboys do beat the Giants and finish 8-8-1, then your hope is that there are as many 9-8 non-playoff teams as possible to keep us from dropping too far down the order. Detroit is already eliminated from the playoff, but Chicago also has little to play for as they\u2019ve clinched the NFC North and have no shot at the number-one seed. Your hope is that Dan Campbell keeps his guys fired up to stick it to Ben Johnson and their rivals.<\/p>\n On the other side of the motivation spectrum, the winner of this one takes the AFC North and the loser doesn\u2019t even make the playoffs. A Baltimore win guarantees that both teams finish above .500 and have a lower draft pick than Dallas, and we never root for Pittsburgh unless we absolutely have to.<\/p>\n Much like the other NFC North game, Minnesota is already eliminated and Green Bay is locked into the seventh seed. It\u2019s hard to say who will want this one more, but at least the Vikings are at home and Jordan Love isn\u2019t expected to play.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t likely; Houston is one of the hottest teams in the league and still has a shot at winning the AFC South. Meanwhile, the Colts have lost six straight and are sending Phillip Rivers back to the pickleball courts. But it only matters if Dallas wins and gets to .500 themselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Cowboys\u2019 2025 season is about to come to a merciful end. This weekend\u2019s games will be the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":489785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,173715,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-489784","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-cowboys-draft","11":"tag-texas","12":"tag-tx","13":"tag-united-states","14":"tag-united-states-of-america","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","17":"tag-us","18":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115832075323918673","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
2. Giants 3-13
3. Jets 3-13
4. Titans 3-13
5. Cardinals 3-13
6. Commanders 4-12
7. Browns 4-12
8. Saints 6-10
9. Bengals 6-10
10. Chiefs 6-10
11. Dolphins 7-9
12. Rams (from Falcons) 7-9
13. Buccaneers 7-9
14. Cowboys 7-8-1<\/strong>
15. Lions 8-8
16. Ravens 8-8
17. Vikings 8-8
18. Jets (from Colts) 8-8<\/p>\n