All of the rage surrounding the Dallas Cowboys' offseason has centered on their prime opportunity to rebuild the defense during the 2026 NFL Draft. Jerry Jones has two first-round picks at his disposal, which is crucial, but the rest of their 2026 draft capital is otherwise wildly lackluster.
Those two first-round picks are great to have in a good defensive draft, but because of the blockbuster trades for Quinnen Williams and George Pickens, the Cowboys don't pick until the fourth round after making their selection at No. 20, meaning that the scouting department is going to have to dig deep to recoup extra value out of this class.
Luckily, there is one Day 3 name that Cowboys fans would love to have: TCU safety Bud Clark, and they aren't alone in seeing a great fit. Bleacher Report's Gary Davenport named Clark as Dallas' dream NFL Draft target, assuming they are able to select him in the fourth round like he expects them to be.
TCU's Bud Clark is an ideal Day 3 target for the Dallas Cowboys in the NFL Draft
After ranking 30th in the NFL in yards allowed and being the only team to allow over 30 points per game in 2025, the Cowboys have a new DC in Christian Parker coming to town. Given his background coaching DBs, drafting someone like Clark will make retooling this secondary that much easier.
The Cowboys are also likely to lose Donovan Wilson in free agency, so if they can land an instant impact player like Clark on Day 3, Cowboys fans will be doing somersaults all the way to AT&T Stadium. This would be the best-case scenario, especially since it would keep a local guy in the area.
Beyond geographical reasons, drafting Clark in Round 4 would be a great show of faith in Parker. The former Horned Frog is one of the best ball-hawking safeties in college football, as he logged 15 interceptions across his last four seasons and was able to record over 200 tackles.
Clark also played 61 games at TCU, so he has experience that should translate to the next level. With that experience, he isn't much of a project. Parker would likely call upon him to immediately assume a key role on the back-end, which makes sense given he will be 23 at the time he makes his NFL debut.
If that ball-hawking ability can translate to the pros, Clark could help make Parker's job way easier, since he could develop into a cornerstone of this defense and help the 34-year-old land a head coaching job that could be in his future in due time if everything goes well across the next few years.