{"id":497666,"date":"2026-01-07T00:18:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/497666\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T00:18:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:18:10","slug":"dallas-cowboys-2026-mock-draft-espn-calls-for-defense-with-both-first-round-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/497666\/","title":{"rendered":"Dallas Cowboys 2026 mock draft: ESPN calls for defense with both first-round picks"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Sonny Styles, LB, Ohio State<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">The Cowboys desperately need defensive help, and Styles would give them a building block at the spine of their defense, which allowed a league-high 30.1 points per game in 2025. He would be a massive upgrade to Kenneth Murray Jr., who struggled in every way imaginable this season after being acquired from the Titans. Styles plays an attacking style that uses his excellent instincts, range and awareness. He\u2019s a wrap-up-and-finish run defender and an able blitzer (six sacks in 2024) who can create negative plays in the backfield.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\"><strong>Jermod McCoy, CB, Tennessee*<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup _1teeyfa8 ls9zuh1\">McCoy did not play at all this season after suffering an ACL tear last January. That makes him a tough evaluation, as scouts have varying opinions on when he should come off the board, but one could argue that he had top-10 potential entering the season. While he won\u2019t likely be that, the Cowboys need reinforcements at cornerback, especially after releasing former Pro Bowler Trevon Diggs. McCoy would be a worthy pick at this spot even with the knee injury questions, and the Cowboys have taken players in similar situations in the past (such as cornerback Shavon Revel Jr. last year).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sonny Styles, LB, Ohio State The Cowboys desperately need defensive help, and Styles would give them a building&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":497667,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,1596,223682,173715,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-497666","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-cowboy-mock-drafts","11":"tag-dallas-cowboys-draft","12":"tag-texas","13":"tag-tx","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115850949617794601","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497666","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=497666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/497666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=497666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=497666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=497666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}